Avenue Road Wesleyan School (later Avenue Road School) appears to have been one of some repute as the following are listed in WR Owen's 1913 'Remeniscences of Education in West Hartlepool' and this is not the case in other schools.
'Many Scholars of this school have done exceedingly well in after life. The following are a few examples;
Rev. Salton (American Methodist Church)
Joseph Mace (Wesleyan Minister Edinburgh)
Charles Johnson (Wesleyan Missionary West Africa)
Prof Alexander Mellanby Dsc. (Secretary of engineering Glasgow University)
Prof. John Mellanby MD Bsc etc.(Medical Research Singapore)
Prof. Edward Mellanby MD BSc (Medical Research Cancer ,London) Long after the 1913 book was written, he was the man who discovered Vitamin D during his research into rickets in 1919 and he was knighted in 1937
Frank Lund, H. Pearson. J. Pearson, CH Ford all shipowners
F W Lewis (director and London manager of Furness, Withy and Co)
R Coleman (NER Estate agent and councillor)
J Groves (Chief Government official in China)
J Gordon (Judge in Calcutta)
Arnold Branson (Gas and Water engineer and manager)
Robert and TA Jobson (shipbuilders)
G Wheelwright (Contractor Australia)
J Coombes (leather manufacturer Lincoln)
Frankland (millionaire meat packer)
Thos Liddle JP (Board of Trade)
James Boanson (master painter)
Fenwick (leading tenor St Paul;s Cathedral)
F Gordon (professor and tenor London)
Mr Dunbavand the head teacher was headmaster in 1871 and at the time of the 1913 book and obviously enjoyed a lot of success. The school was fee paying and possibly favoured by the more affluent members of the town.
The school was fee paying and was on the corner of Avenue Road and Thornton Street in an area demolished in the 1960s to make way for Middleton Grange Shopping Centre. It opened in 1904 in a building formerly used as a Wesleyan School and appears to have closed in 1940.
See notes taken from school log book
More detail »The Wesleyan School first opened in 1871 in Sunday School premises in Robinson Street (off Tower Street).
A new school opened in 1885 in Avenue Road and in 1904 was sold for £2,750 to West Hartlepool Education
Committee becoming Avenue Road School.
The first headteacher Mr Dunbavand (who was at both Robinson Street and Avenue Road) seems to have had some considerable respect and an impressive list of 'old boys' and their achievements is listed in WR Owen's 1913 book. See note.
The school was on the corner of Avenue Road and Thornton Street where the car park now stands behind the Yorkshire Bank in York Road.
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