Victorian Schools
The Schools
In Victorian times, there were three day schools in the main village of Burley. There was also one at Burley Woodhead, but that is not covered here.
Greenholme Mills School, opened in 1856
Burley schoolgirls and boys with a teacher outside their building which is now the Annex to the Queens Hall. The pupils were half-timers working half-days at the Mills and half-days at school. The school closed in 1897 as the demand for half-timers had virtually ceased and the cost of the school was becoming a burden on the finances of the Mills.
Burley school boys and teachers possibly about 1880. The headmaster, Thomas Clark, is standing at the end on the left. Other male assistant teachers can also be seen. The boys were all half-timers at this period. Thomas Clark had been appointed as the head teacher in 1856 when the school opened, and he was to remain head until the school closed in 1897.
He became in his thirty-nine years in the village a much respected man.
For further information about the Schools in Burley and Woodhead see the publication of Burley Local History Group: