Elmfield College

Elmfield College, York (1864-1932), originally called "Jubilee College" in honour of the Primitive Methodist Silver Jubilee in ??1859, was a Primitive Methodist college on the outskirts of Heworth, York, near Monk Stray.

Bulmer's History and Directory of North Yorkshire (1890) described the college as " a large handsome building in this township (Heworth), pleasantly situated on the Malton road, just outside the city boundary. It is the property of the trustees of the Primitive New Connexion, and was erected in 1864, at a cost of £10,000. There is accommodation for 106 boys. The school-room, classrooms, dormitories, &c., are lofty and well lighted. The curriculum of studies includes all the subjects embraced in a high-class education."

In 1865 the college had 92 boarders, 8 day pupils, and a staff of 6, with 3 part-time assistants. The average boarders' fee was £31. The school was enlarged in that year and 15 students for the ministry were admitted. There were 61 boys enrolled in 1905. In the following year the school was closed by the trustees for the Connexion, because of financial difficulties, but was reopened in 1907 owned by a company formed by the old boys. A laboratory, workshop, and classroom costing £1,500 were added in 1909. There were said to be over 100 boys, half of whom were boarders, enrolled in 1932, when the school was closed and merged with Ashville College. The buildings were subsequently demolished.

All that is left of the college now is numbers 1 (the former "Elmfield Villa"), and 9 Straylands Grove, next to Monk Stray, and a long row of masters' houses along Elmfield Terrace (as far as the first bend), together with domestic staff housing in Willow Grove. No 1 Willow Grove was the Tuck Shop.

Elmfield Terrace and Willow Grove remained privately maintained streets until the 1950s when they were adopted by York City Council. Until this time, Elmfield Terrace was almost completely separated from Straylands Grove by a 6 foot wall (parallel to Straylands) with signs of the gate that must have existed to maintain its private status.

The area now covered by numbers 3-7 Straylands Grove, along with a lot of the surrounding land was once built upon by the college, which was an educational pioneer in many ways. No. 9 was built in the 1920s as the headmaster's house. (The owners have recently renamed the house to reflect this fact). Number 1 used to have, in its garden, a very basic swimming pool of peculiar (triangular?) shape. Whether the head master allowed access to it by the pupils is unrecorded. The house was originally built c.1832. People who lived in the house prior to the foundation of the College included the musician Frederick Hill. Since closure of the College, the house has been an art gallery and a family home.

Primitive Methodism in York

The college was a national venture, but tied in well with local developments.

With regard to Elmfield College, Dr Kenneth Lysons, in his book A Little Primitive (Church in the Market Place Publications, Buxton, 2001), quoting the Primitive Methodist World for 17 May 1883 says: "The College was the outcome of the strong conviction that if the [Primitive Methodist] Connexion did not provide thorough and liberal education for the sons of our ministers and prosperous laymen, we should not retain them in communion with us. The blessing of God upon the industry and economy of our people has raised many of them into comfortable circumstamces, and enabled them to provide somewhat liberally for the education of their sons."

William Clowes, the Primitive Methodist evangelist, first preached in York in May 1819. On this occasion, when he held his meeting in Pavement, 'the people drew up in considerable numbers'. Clowes announced that he would preach again in a fortnight's time but in fact his second visit was not made until some six weeks later when he preached in either St. Sampson's Square or Pavement. As a result of these visits and with the encouragement of the 'friends' at Elvington, which was 'the base for the mission to York', a society of seven members was formed in 1819. This small society rented accommodation in Peasholme Green and was visited by itinerant preachers and by local preachers from Hull and Ripon.

The society remained in these premises for less than a year and in 1820 moved to GRAPE LANE CHAPEL which had been unoccupied for some time. This was rented for £20 a year and opened for worship on 2 July of that year. The society was at this time part of the Hull Circuit and regular services were held by ministers from that city and by lay preachers from the neighbourhood of York. The York branch expanded and in 1822 was formed into a separate circuit which included 32 preaching places in the surrounding villages. There was a resident minister and the circuit membership is said to have been 400. It has been suggested, however, that the York society was not then ready for independent status and that it at first met some difficulties. In addition the society suffered from local and apparently purposeless hooliganism. Complaint was made to the magistrates and the chapel was visited by the lord mayor and two cases were brought to the York sessions but the disturbances continued for almost two years.

The chapel was bought outright by the trustees in 1829 for £450, and a cottage converted for a caretaker. About 1821 a Sunday school was opened and accommodated in a room under the gallery which was separated from the chapel by sliding doors. The chapel is described in 1834 as accommodating 684 persons. Between 1836 and 1850 membership increased from 90 to 159 persons. Grape Lane Chapel was vacated in 1851 and later became a warehouse and furniture store; in 1956 it was derelict.

People associated with Elmfield College

• Michael Clark (physician)
• Thomas Johnson (1863-1954), botanist - studied at Elmfield College
• Edward Thaddeus Barleycorn Barber (1865-1948) was a student from Santa Isabel/Malabo in Equatorial Guinea who went to Elmfield College c.1886/87 before attending Edinburgh University. He was one of the first black people in York and is presumably linked with William N Barleycorn, the first native Primitive Methodist Minister in Fernando Po. Other leading Creole families in Fernando Po (now Bioko) around this time included the Barber family, as well as Davis, Barleycorn, Vivour, Kinson, Dougan, Balboa, Knox,Coker and Collins,[1] although a link has been suggested with Frank Barber, Samuel Johnson's man-servant.
• Lewis Henry Leadley (pseud. "An Old Boy") who wrote "The Story of Elmfield College 1864-1914".
• Dyson Mallinson (Elmfield's "father Bountiful" - see Booth (1990:39)
• James Calvert Spence (1892 - 1954), the originator of Social Paediatrics
• John Petty
• Ben Spoor
• Sir John Tweedy (1849-1924) [2]
• R.G.Heys, who later went to Leeds University, and became a member of the York School Board. In January 1892 he returned to Elmfield to become headmaster. (See A.J.Peacock (c.1960, p.95), York 1900-1914 ISBN 0 9519229 0 4.)
• Sir Robert Newbald Kay - around 1929 he became a Governor of Elmfield College and was instrumental in closing the college down during the depression. He then bought the college estate. The college was then demolished, and the estate was sold off as building plots.
• Samuel Heath [3]
• the chemist William Thomas Newton Spivey: see T.B.W. (1902) Obituary notice: William Thomas Newton Spivey. J. Chem. Soc., Trans. 81:625-636. Born on the last day of 1868, from 1887-1889 he was a sub-sizar at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1896 he went to Epsom College as Science Master "where he at once showed himself to be a successful teacher". However, before the year's end he returned to Cambridge at the invitation of Professor Dewar to become Jacksonian Demonstrator. He carried out research on terpene and Indian hemp. On October 9th 1901 one of his experiments exploded and he was severely burned and two weeks later he died, "one of the most promising an popular members of the chemical school, adding one more name to the roll of those who have lost their lives in the pursuit of science".
• the Africanist Edwin W. Smith

• The conservative politician Malcolm Stoddart-Scott (1901-1973) who was also an Elmfield master. He was MP for Pudsey and Otley from 1945 to 1950, and after that constituency was abolished in boundary changes in 1950, he was MP for Ripon until his death in 1973.

Headmasters and Governors

Initially the Headmaster was responsible for the teaching in the school, while the Governor was responsible for everything else, including the boys' moral welfare.

• John Petty
• 1892- R.G.Heys (see above)

References

• Booth, William (1990) A History of Ashville and The Ashvillian Society. Harrogate: The Ashvillian Society, to mark their centenary (1890-1990).
• Leadley, Lewis Henry (pseud. "An Old Boy") (1914) The Story of Elmfield College 1864-1914.