Dunston Church School, Dunston Road, (Closed)
Built at the bottom of Dunston Road, Dunston Church School was opened on November 4th 1818 by the Hon. E. Grey, rector of Whickham, the first master of this school was Mr. Joseph Ferguson, formerly in this school were sand desks at which the children were taught to write with a pointed stick in the sand the school was under the management of the Rev. John Jones. The inscribed tablet on the south gable end reads.. " Erected by subscription Anno Domini 1818, the Hon and Rev, Edward Grey, Rector
Coursed squared sandstone with large quoins and ashlar dressings; low-pitched Welsh slate roof with flat stone gable copings. One storey, 8 bays. Recessed 4-panelled door under stone lintel in bay 8. Round-section mullioned and transomed windows in all bays, those in bays 2, 4 and 6 under gabled dormers breaking eaves; all with flat stone sills, irregular-block jambs and wood lintels. Historical note: subscribers included the Bishop of Durham and the trustees of Lord Crewe.
The school was built for 160 with children aged from 5 to 14 years being taught here. Records suggest that in 1851 there were 80 pupils, rising to 143 in 1884, and 222 in 1909. The school was often so overcrowded that some classes had to be taken over the road in the Mission House that once stood there. New rooms for the infants were added to the school in 1879 and 1899 which helped, but these extensions left ‘practically no playground’.
Due to local poverty and high unemployment many families could not always afford the weekly subscription fee 3d (1p) required for children to attend or shoes for them to wear, so attendance varied week to week. School inspections describe‘ earthen floors’ and log facilities as ‘inadequate, cramped and gloomy’, ‘...dark and there is no adequate protection from the cold winds’. Records indicate that in 1850 there were two teachers, Mistress Mary Ann and Master Joseph Atkinson. In 1886, Miss Mary Paisley was Mistress. By 1906, Edward Saunders is noted as being the Master and Miss Lily Donkins, the Infants’ Mistress. Also listed was a Miss Sarah E. Hindson.
In addition to week day lessons, a license for worship was held and a Sunday School also ran.
The school is still standing today and was last used just before the Second World War during the war the RAF used the building, the barage balloon
brick building is also still standing.
View more pictures of the school HERE
Riverside Primary Academy School...
Colliery Road.
Riverside Primary Academy School started off as a Board School under Whickham School Board built on parts of Whickham Glebe Land and once an old orchard on Collingwood Terrace to the right of Christ Church. The Board School known locally as Dunston Board School was opened by Ralph Carr-Ellison on December 14th 1874 as Dunston Temporary Board School, an all-age mixed and infants school. The mixed school split off from the infants in March 1895 when the school was rebuilt. Under the Education Act of 1902 School Boards ceased, the school was enlarged and it became a Council School "Dunston Council Mixed School" in 1904. In 1909 the senior boys were were removed to the Parish Hall in October 1909 because the school was over crowded and was subsequently organised as a separate Department, The name, “Board School” still lived on and even in 1974 it was still known as the Board School.
It has been known as Durham Council School and Durham County School. In April 1974 it came under Gateshead MBC with the reorganisation of county boundaries and renamed Dunston Junior and Infant Schools, the school was demolished in 1981. The new school was built on the other side of the church on the location of old terraced houses, Armstrong Street and Stephenson Street, the school is now ran as an Riverside Primary Academy School.
Dunston Hill Primary School, Dunston Bank 1910-2008(Closed)
Dunston Hill Community Primary Schools started off as Dunston Hill Council School and was opened on the 7th December 1910 by R. Winship Esq.
the school was built on corner of Ellison Road and Carrs Bank, in 1919 the school became the boys department of Dunston Hill Council Intermediate School It was again reorganised in 1928, when the junior boys were transferred to Dunston Council Mixed School and it became a senior mixed school, in 1959 the seniors moved to a purpose built Secondary Modern School on Market Lane now called Kingsmeadow Community Comprehensive School.
These council schools followed on from educational provision begun with the Parish school and continued with the board schools (towards the river). Both were planned in 1909, but the junior department was built straightaway (opening in 1910) whilst the Infant department was delayed until 1914.
They are of exceptional quality and architectural vitality – equally, imaginatively unusual but completely different in detailing. The scale and materials are nonetheless very similar – again utilising the low profile and animated roofscape familiar from many other historic schools, which were proportioned to suit their occupants. The architecture of the junior school is finely detailed. Rusticated stone banding and plinth enhance the stretcher bond brickwork, with carved stone detailing to the gable apexes, (mostly) flat arched brick window heads and decorative eaves details.
The predominantly blue Welsh slate roofscape is remarkable in its use of green Westmorland slate banding and stepped kneelers halfway down, as well as to the base of the water tabling. It is further embellished by terracotta ridge tiles and ball finials to the hips. Carved, Incised plaques elaborately denote the boys and girls’ entrances and the cookery area (which originally had an Aga, although this has now been removed). All the exterior detailing remains, including an attractively detailed rainwater hopper and downpipe brackets, and all the original timber windows (part sash, part casement) remain save 2 to the rear. The interior is also remarkably intact. Of particular interest is the vast central hall space, which is very light and airy and runs longitudinally with the building. Designed in 2 parts with lantern lights to each, there are classrooms flanking the main space, divided from it by extensively glazed partitions panelled with timber below.
The space is distinctive and very successful, and contributes greatly to the overall character of the building. The roof structure can be seen in the cookery area, where delicate curved braces spring from moulded corbels to support the tie beam. The Infant school building boasts simpler and more robust geometric detailing. Flemish bond brickwork gives it a distinctive patterned appearance, with the structure consisting of a gabled, clerestoried central portion, with low flanking wings. The slate roof features unusual geometric water tabling to gables which descends to square kneelers, and on one side the tilting fillets to the eaves push through, with their extending rafters, the round headed half-dormers ascending from below. In this building the large, airy hall is transverse, with an open roof structure incorporating square columnar queen posts and straight braces on chunky corbels. Again the interior remains largely intact, with the same parquet floors visible in the older building, and the geometric detail continues with diamond glazing bars to the half-glazed timber doors. Unfortunately, however, al the original timber windows have been replaced with plastic and there is a small but poor quality flat-roofed extension to the side.
The school closed end of 2008 term.
MATERIALS Red brick, sandstone, Welsh & Westmorland slate, timber.
ARCHITECT Joseph Potts & Son (57 John St, Sunderland).
DATES 1910 (Junior) and 1914 (Infant).
During World War II the entrances were reinforced with blast walls and sand bags, and an air raid shelter was built in the grounds.
View Pictures of Old Dunston Hill Junior School HERE
Dunston Hill Community Primary Schools.
Market Lane
Dunston Hill Community Primary Schools started off as Dunston Hill Council School (see above).
The present primary school on Market Lane opened September 2008 and was officially opened on Friday 20th March 2009 by the Duke of Kent
following the amalgamation of the former Dunston Hill infant and juniors, the new school consists of a preparatory school centre and two main buildings and is built next door to Kingsmeadow Community Comprehensive School.
View Pictures of Dunston Hill Community Primary School HERE
Kingsmeadow Community Comprehensive School..
Kingsmeadow Community Comprehensive School started life as Dunston Hill Secondary Modern School on Market Lane and was opened on 25th April 1960 taking pupils in from Dunston Hill Juniors and Dunston Board School. The Headmaster was a Mr Henry Nattress who was succeeded by his Deputy Alan Johnson, the school changed to Dunston Comprehensive School in 1973 this coincided with the raising of the school leaving to sixteen. An extensive building programme was started comprising of a large dining hall and kitchen, until then the meals had been cooked at a central kitchen and brought to the school.
In 1990 with the re-organisation of Secondary schools in Gateshead a new school was built on the same land and the school was renamed Kingsmeadow Community Comprehensive School taking it name from the Kings Meadow Island that sat in the River Tyne off Dunston, the school now took pupils in from Dunston Comprehensive, Saltwell Senior High School and Hillhead Junior High School.
View More Pictures of Kingsmeadow Community Comprehensive School HERE
St. Philip Neri School..
Ellison Road
Before 1882 Roman Catholics in Dunston had to travel to St. Joseph’s in Gateshead to hear mass, a distance of two miles or more. The Priest at St Joseph’s, Father Matthews, tried to hold services nearer to Dunston by hiring first a room in Tynedale Terrace and then a hay loft in Bolam Street which served the dual purpose of school and church.
In 1882 plans were drawn up for a School which would open the same year. Lack of funds meant that the planned presbytery could not be built and the Priest continued to live in Tynedale Terrace until a house was taken in Brompton Place in 1884. In 1884 the present Presbytery was built for £764.00 making a total debt of £2410.00 for School and Presbytery, which was a very large sum for a relatively small congregation. Owing to the siting of St Philip Neri many locals fail to notice the Presbytery, which is a spacious house with a pleasant ‘hidden’ garden between itself and the church.
The dual-purpose building served until 1905 when the temporary Church was built. This was followed in 1909 by an extension to the school building and the opening of the infant school as a separate department. In 1934 after nearly thirty years, the present St Philip Neri replaced the ‘Temporary’ church building.
Due to the high demand for places at St Philip’s, the school is presently undergoing expansion building work and we hope to eventually become a single form entry school. We are excited about our new plans and are proud to continue remembering our past whilst moving into the future.
St Philip Neri School.