Taken by Hartlepool Mail, the image is poor but very interesting as it shows how poor the road to the school was. On the left is a pile of rubble indicating that the 1874 building had fairly recently been demolished. 

Taken around 1959, the picture shows the playground of St Aidan's Infant School Longhill. On the right wearing glasses is the headmistress Miss Molly Pattison who later went on to Oxford Street School.The other two adults are Reta Campbell and Jean Bluckert. Behind the wall on the right was Windermere Road and behind the school were the Steelworks cooling towers. Just out of sight is Seaton High Light which has now been moved to the Marina.

The infants' school moved to St Aidan's Loyalty Road in 1960-1.

35 children dressed in their best in 1949. These woud be the oldest children which we would now call Year 2.

The infants' part of Longhill School in Windermere Road taken in 1932.

My mother taught at St Aidan's Infants School Longhill and was called Mrs Johnson. As a young child I visited the school many times and it sticks in my memory more vividly than Lister Street Infants' which I attended myself. The reasons must be because even to my 7or 8 year old brain, I must have realised that I was stepping back in history and that this school was nothing like the one I attended.

Firstly, the journey to get there. Before we had a car, we walked what seemed like miles until the streets became orange with what I now realise was iron dust and mud. The school was a small building shadowed by a huge steel works cooling tower and there were clanking noises all around. On a small piece of scrubland next to the school were a scattering of gypsy caravans and horses.

Until the school closed in 1960,there were huge open fires for heat and the lighting was still by gas. I do remember being frightened of the toilets at the bottom of the yard which were holes in planks of wood and if I remember rightly they had no flush but periodically were ' flushed ' by a mystery flow of water. I do remember that the school quite often had a break in and helping to tidy up piles of chalk, books and drinking straws!  The schoolroom at Beamish reminds me of what I remember of Longhill 'little school' .

Very poor but rare image of the 1874 Longhill School in Windermere Road with the infant department of 1902 to the right. Junior and senior pupils were moved to the new Memorial School in 1926. However, by 1927 there were 216 children attending the small infants' department and two rooms in the old building had to be used.

By 1938, St Aidan's Parish magazine mentioned that the state of the old school building was causing concern. When exactly it was demolished is unclear but on the 1949 Hartlepool Mail photo of infant children outside the school, the large pile of rubble seems to be the remains of the 1874 building.

In 1998, the 'All our Yesterdays' Writers' Group  published a book Reflections Beneath the Wagga Moon and the following are from that book which is in Hartlepool Library.

Thomas Richardson, a Liberal rival of Ralph Ward Jackson, wanted votes at the 1874 elections and this is one of the reasons he purchased the blast furnaces and rolling mills to the south of Stranton. He then built homes for his workers in the area of Seaton parish known as Longhill. Because the area was undrained, unpaved, unlit and was also a site for travelling families, it became known as Wagga. The more affluent workers settled in the South Parade and Studley Road areas of nearby Belle Vue.

The three main streets built at the time by Richardson were Florence Street, Hill Street and Portland Street. Slightly to the north west of these streets and separated by bogs and random allotments were Sarah Street, Alice Street and King Street.

A school,known as 'Wagga College' by the residents of the area, was built, but it was some years later in the early 1900s ,that it was linked by a cinder track to Windermere Road and on to Brenda Road.

The school was built in 1874 when Richardson gave some land to the Archdeacon of Durham and the Vicars of Seaton and Greatham on which to build a school and he himself donated £200 of the £900 it cost to build.

In 1913, WR Owen in his book about education in Hartlepool observed 'The district was known as Wagga Wagga on account of its wild aspect. The approaches were bogs and altogether it was not  the most desirable of residence.' In 1875, there were four headteachers in a year which has been attributed to the unpleasant surroundings of the school.

In 1890, because of the formation of St Aidan's Parish, the school was no longer in Seaton Carew parish and was renamed  St Aidan's Church of England School Longhill. R.E. Knowlden who was priest from 1897, showed concern for the school. The area around it was little better than when it was built although some pathways had been laid. In 1899 an Infants' School was begun and in 1902, opened. Prior to this, children of all ages had been in the 1874 building.

Inspectors in 1909 said 'The school is overcrowded, one room contains 84 children. There are only 3 closets for 200 boys. The walls are very dirty. Guards should be provided for the open fireplaces.

Rev Knowlden continued to show concern for the state of the school, and when some 102 past pupils did not return from WW1, he decided that a fitting memorial to them would be a new school. He spent much of the next 10 years fundraising and on the 21st May 1926 the school was ready for pupils.

In May 1926, 336 scholars were marched from Longhill to the new Memorial School in Loyalty Road leaving just the youngest children at Longhill. Rev Knowlden and staff and children continued to fund raise although he himself passed away in November 1929. 

Susan Moore was for many years a teacher, having been employed initially by Rev Knowlden. She then became  headteacher at Longhill Infants and later at Loyalty Road when the children finally moved there in 1960 and these are some of her words:

'I became headteacher of St Aidan's Infants' School in 1947 and I look back with great pleasure at those years spent in the old building which lacked all the modern facilities of schools today. It came as a shock to me to discover that the old fashiioned lavatories where one tank flushed the channel of a whole row of toilets, were still in use.

The staff spared no effort in making the school attractive and teaching effective. and when showing of films became fashionable, Miss Molly Pattison made a projector which had to be run from a car battery as we had no electricity, only  gas in school.

Despite the proximity of the heavy industrial works, the health and consequently attendance of the children was very good.. We were always the last to suffer from epidemics of measles, chicken pox and mumps.

During my retirement, I meet many old pupils and they all look back, as indeed staff do, with pleasure and gratitude to the days when they lived and learned in a controlled but happy atmosphere.'  (Miss Moore lived to be over 100 having been born in 1906)

By 1940, the original streets of Wagga, Florence, Hill and Portland were empty and were used by the Auxiliary Fire Service for war time survival practice. Infant age children attending the school came from the Belle Vue area. After World War 2, quite a significant number of 'prefab' bungalows and houses were built close to the school in Coniston Road, Langdale Grove, Shap Grove and Bowness Grove. These houses too are long gone and, like Longhill School, would have been to the east of Belle Vue Way in an area of recycling plants and scrap yards today.

In 1960, the school closed and children were tranferred to the Memorial School in Loyalty Road on December 10th of that year.

In 1964, the old Longhill School was sold to scrap merchant J Shaw for £1,119 15s 9d for use a store room. Now, Longhill has gone completely and there is no evidence at all of where either houses in 'Wagga' or the school stood.

Longhill School staff I believe just prior to move to St Aidan's.

Taken in the infants' school yard are headteacher Susie Moore, Joan Baxter, ?, and Joyce Parkin.

The teacher is Mrs Reta Campbell who, when the infants moved to Loyalty Road, became deputy headteacher.

On this photo are 2nd left Joyce Parkin then headteacher Susie Moore, unknown and on the right Molly Pattison who later was headteacher of Longhill and then Oxford Street.

On this 1952 photo, the lady sitting in the middle is headteacher Susan Moore.The lady standing on the right is Joyce Parkin (known by children as Miss Joyce)The Lady standing on the left of the headteacher Susan Moore is Doreen Rouse (Doreen Harlow).

St Aidan's Boys School, Standard 1, 1949.

Jimmy Buglass is seated on the front row, third from the right. Do you recognise anyone elso in the photograph?

St Aidan's Infants, Longhill 1952.

Known faces are : 7th from left back row Alfie Walsh.

Middle: ?, ?,Harold Hatley, Veronica Bennett, Paula Nash, Linda Braham, Ivor THomas, ?, Carole O Connor, ?, ? , Tommy Rudd, ?

Front row: 4th from left Marlene Hall,?,Margaret Pike, Irene Chilton, ? ,?,  Miss Dobson, ?, Carole Thompson, Pauline Ainsley, ? , Valerie STott , Jaqueline Playfor

The teacher is Miss Doreen Rouse, who later married Seaton Golf Professional Roy Harlow.

This school opened in August 1874 for the children of Longhill or Wagga estate built by Thomas Richardson.

In 1887, there were 340 children on role and in by 1906 there were 548.  In 1899, a new extension was built for infant children. This was opened in 1902 and the mayor and mayoress were unable to reach the school because of the poor road to it.

Eventually the school was an infants' school only as part of St Aidan's School and the young children finally were relocated to the 'big school' in Loyalty Road in 1960. The school building which was surrounded by steel works buildings was for many years afterwards used a garage for a haulage company. The school was affectionately known as 'Wagga College' or 'The Little School'.