WELCOME!!!
Troy Town is a small area less than 500 meters from Rochester's historic town centre. The children often walk to the Guildhall Museum in the high street and also to the cathedral. The name Troy Town does not appear on any road signs or maps. It's historical past is often over looked as it sits over shadowed by the abundance of major historical sites that surround it.
Rochester is built on the banks of the river Medway. It sits at the first narrow point of the river which meant that it has always been a popular location for a village, town or city. It also means that it is also one of the first points that an invading army headed for. The Romans were the first to realise this and built the first walled city at Rochester. Parts of this wall survive to this day and can be seen around Rochester high street. During Napoleonic times forts were built around Rochester to help protect from invasion. Some of these forts still stand and one of them has been restored and is now a tourist attraction. (http://www.fortamherst.com/) Rochester's location on the river made it very popular for cargo coming in by ship and with what is known as deep berths it meant that large ships could unload their cargo. Just around the corner in Chatham the historical navy docks was launching ships and submarines for over 400 years (http://www.chdt.org.uk/)This close connection to the river also made Rochester a wealthy place. The dockyard employed many scholars who it paid well. The constant flow of cargo in and out of the docks made owners and merchants rich as well. One of those people was a man named John Cazeneuve Troy.
John Cazeneuve Troy was a wealthy wine merchant who lived in Rochester around the late Georgian period. He owned the land that became known as Troy Town and built house on the land where wealthier people in Rochester lived. Records show us that the area was filled with houses and shops, and in 1870 the first school was built. In those days there were originally three separate schools, Troy Town, St Margaret's and St Peters Church Of England School.
The earliest record we have is from the 2nd December 1907. An entry in a school log book that was kept by Head Teachers on the every day events that went on in the school. Showing that school inspections were not a new thing, it is an entry made by the Headmistress of St. Peters showing anger and upset at receiving a really bad report from school inspectors.
"December 2nd 1907. The first entry in a new log book is a most unpleasant one, being a Report received this morning on the Inspector's visit of a fortnight ago. I have put in nearly 34 years honest, hearty, faithful service as head teacher, giving to the profession every power of mind and body, leaving nothing untried for the good of my school, working under 6 different Inspectors before our present ones, and always securing excellent reports, and this crusher is my reward. Truly it should be a warning to those thinking of entering the profession. As we were considered up to the mark last year, having no report, it is rather puzzling to know how in one year I can so far have retrograded. "Report runs as follows. November 19th 1907. "I am unable to report any improvement. My report in June last still accurately describes the state of this school. I am compelled to report this department in efficient. "November 28th 1907. "In accordance with article 29b of the Code, the Authority are hereby given formal warning that unless within 12 months from this date H.M.I is able to report that the Girls' Department of the above named school has been brought up to a satisfactory level of efficiency, it will forthwith be removed from the Annual Grant List. The authority should now inform the Board without delay what steps it is proposed to take in order to restore the department to efficiency."
One of the next entries in this log book is the headmistress saying that she has handed in her resignation.
The books also give us some idea of the quality of life during the early 1900's. Attendance numbers are also recorded in the books and on days of bad weather numbers of children attending would be really low, for the simple reason that many families could not afford proper clothing or footwear and so would keep children home rather than take the chance of then becoming ill. In 1908 there is an entry about how the school has changed due to many deaths! From another person doing research into this period we believe that it was due to a flu epidemic. The books show us how steps were taken over the years to try and improve the health issue. There is mention of used shoes being given to pupils, regular visits by a nurse to weigh and measure the children, milk and biscuits for the children during school time and at one point even free fruit for the really poor children at play time. During the 1920's we even see the first trials of school dinners which were served at a local cafe.
They also give us an idea of how the class rooms and lessons have improved since 1900. We take for granted that all our lessons today are held in school, but in the 1900's there is mention of the girls having to travel to a school over 3 miles away to take a lesson in laundry and wifery classes! The main lessons during the early 1900's were arithmetic, scripture classes and reading. The girls also had to do cookery classes, wifery classes, laundry classes and sewing were they would make items to sell to raise money for the school.
The children also took swimming lessons. While the pupils of St. Peters had to walk 2 miles to the local baths Troy Town was lucky to have an indoor pool on the ground floor. But while it had this luxury it lacked having its own playing field and it was not until the 1960's that a car park behind the school was demolished and turned into a playing field for the school. Troy town also had the problem of having its playgrounds on the opposite side of a busy road from the school, and in the 1960's we find information on what must have been one of the first traffic calming experiments to increase the safety of the children.
The records actually read like a history book. You can trace the coronations of Kings and Queens, visits to Rochester by royalty. The first immigrants coming to the UK and the problems of teaching non-English speaking pupils. The number of different bank holidays such as mayor's day, the Kings Birthday and Ascension Day which the children took off that no longer exists. Children being given days off to see family members depart for war and children not turning up for school because they are still away hop picking with their family. The log books even record 2 world wars and even the dates that enemy planes bombed and the evacuation of children during the 2nd world war. In 1913 the famous plane makers The Short Brothers moved to Rochester and set up factories along the river. By the time of WWII they were making the famous Short Sunderland flying boat which was being used to hunt for German submarines. This along with the docks meant that Rochester became a target for the Luftwaffe. This made Rochester a dangerous place and many children were evacuated.
Classrooms in the old school were not very comfortable places to be. Children would use old fashioned desks that contained an ink well in one corner that would be filled with ink. The children would then write with a pen by first dipping it in the ink and then writing on the page. The log books tell us that on a few occasions the temperature was so cold in the classroom that these ink wells froze making it impossible to write. The classrooms only form of heat was an old stove in the middle of the room. This would run on coke or wood and took time to light and even longer to heat up. The books make mention of how new stoves were installed but when they was used they filled the room with choking fumes. The classrooms were large and very tall which made it difficult to heat them and then keep them warm.
One of the biggest changes over the 100 years is the role of the teacher. In the early 1900's we see how the teacher is not only responsible for teaching, they also acted as social worker, visiting homes to see living conditions of pupils. The records also showed how they were highly regarded by the local community. Through the years we see the change in society and the role and regard of teachers in the community diminish. Just proving that not all progress is good! In the early days if you misbehaved then there was some really nasty punishments that the teacher would use. The most popular and most mentioned is the cane. A small long piece of wood that could either be whacked across your rear, across the palm of your hand or across the top of your fingers. The log books mention how one really bad child was locked in a dark cupboard all morning for not doing as he was told. We are told that when the door was opened later there were claw marks in the back of the door.
Eventually all three schools became merged into a new school. It was decided that the Troy Town site would be the location for the new school. It would take the Church of England status from St Peters and the name from St Margaret's. The name of St Peters school did live on in the form of a new school not far away. In 1994 it was decided that the old school was too old and difficult to maintain. The governors held a meeting to discuss the different options including moving the school to a new location. In the end it was decided that the best option was to demolish the old school and build a complete new school. The new school was designed to allow lighter and more open classrooms with facilities for disabled pupils. The primary and junior sections of the school both have their own playgrounds and the field was replaced with a new artificial all weather pitch. In 2004 building work started on adding a new extension to the front of the building to add more office space and a brand new library.
It is difficult to say what history this new school will see over the next 100 years of its existence. |