HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Here is a map dated around 1882, showing the original site.   The road appears to have once been called Wellington Park Road, and you can see the two main Victorian buildings that made up the school.  Clearly seen is the railway station (home to many fights around 100 years later!!)

The idea of starting a school came to Mr JP Fogg during his 4 years as a Japanese POW.  He and others taught various subjects to fellow prisoners to pass the time.  Mr Fogg bought the main building, an old Victorian house, for £5,000 and 6 double desks, and founded the school in 1953.  He advertised in the local paper and term started with just 9 pupils, whose parents paid 10 guineas a term.  Mr Fogg designed the uniform, badge and motto and did all the teaching at first.  Click HERE for a news clipping.

He and his family lived in the main building.  The other building was acquired around 1962/3.   In the early days of the school, children as young as 6 were admitted, although the school became purely a secondary (age 11>) school later on.

Close up aerial photographs from 4.5.1946 (left) and 17.5.1948 (centre) before the buildings became a school and 20.4.1955 (right) 2 years after the school was founded.

THE JUBILEE BUILDING (left)

Completed for the academic year beginning in 1977- the Queens Silver Jubilee.  At this time it housed the then new bookshop, the back room being home to the kit of the ACF & stationary supplies. It was completely bare, the floor was bare concrete and caused great clouds of dust to land on everything. The walls were initially unpainted and it was at least a year before it was done.

The building later became a computer lab and then a home economics lab.

*Thanks to Tim Roberts

The aging Mr Fogg sold the school to Mr Kirch around 1984/5.

Mr Kirch made many changes including the removal of the outside field (see below) and introducing girls for the first time.  No-one could question Mr Kirch's eye for free advertising

Close up aerial photographs from 4.7.1987 (left) and 12.6.1988 (right).  In the 1988 photograph you can clearly see that the field has gone and been replaced by the hard surface area.  Keen eyes will spot the netball courts.  The Headmaster's garden is very clear in both photographs.

A close look at either photo will show the area around the canteen, including the garden next to the boilogy lab.

Mr Kirch sold the school to a private school company called Nord Anglia on the 1st September 1987, but remained as headmaster. 

Things appeared to go downhill, with an all time low in 1991, when A level results listed Wellington as the worst (private) school in Britain, with an average of 2 points per person.  This 'achievement' earned Wellington a full page spread in a national newspaper (The Telegraph?). Mr Kirch stayed as headmaster until around 1994 before leaving to take up the position as headmaster at Avalon primary school.  Mr Capper became head for a short time, before Dr Scott took over and remained in post until the end.  

Despite protests and a failed parent buy-out, Nord Anglia eventually sold the site to Wimpey Homes.  The school closed in July 1995 and was demolished, with houses built in its place.  Sad, but true. 

An aerial photograph showing the School site as it is now.  Click on the yellow numbers on the aerial shot to see the present day photograph of that point.

The original school sports ground was on the field adjacent to the A41 and Bridle Road Eastham, next to the cemetery.  Click the thumbnail on the left to see the location. The school probably leased the land.  In the early 1960’s Bridle Road was not a thoroughfare and originally the pupils changed for rugby or cricket in the old stables adjacent to Plymyard House, and then walked along a cinder track, about 200 yards, to the playing fields.  The wooden games hut was acquired in 1962 and was collected in kit form from a scrap yard in Runcorn using some of the pupils, and a flat bed trailer borrowed from a parent.  Once the hut was erected, the pupils changed at the field and had COLD SHOWERS !!!!! Even this was an improvement to the lack of personal cleansing available at the stables.  After a couple of years a water boiler was provided for hot showers.

*Thanks to Glenn Collings

It is not known when the school purchased the playing fields in Raby, near to Clatterbridge hospital (click thumbnail), but it is clear that the hut was moved from Eastham.     These playing fields are now Tranmere Rovers FC's training ground, although the original changing room hut is still there, now at least 40 years old !!!! (imagine your garden shed lasting over 40 years?)

Which much thanks to Tranmere Rovers FC come these photos of the games hut.  You will see that very little has changed, especially outside.   L-R:- 1. main entrance on the left.  2. The main changing area (the stalls have been removed to make one large area).  3. The kitchen and hatch, unchanged.   4. The secondary changing area near the showers and toilets.  5. Same area as photo 4, but the other side of the hut.  6. The showers, home to many a towel flicking.