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Bracondale School

Bracondale School was a private boys' school in the Bracondale area of Norwich, Norfolk. It existed from 1821 to 1993.

The former Bracondale School

History

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The school was opened on Bracondale Hill in July 1821 as an academy for boys between the ages of 8 and 16 years. It was established by Daniel Banfield Hickie[1] who had recently relocated from Dublin, following dismissal of his allegations of fraudulent conduct within the Record Tower there,[2] and who advertised that he conducted a system of instruction enabling completion of his pupils’ education “in little more than half the time usually spent in public schools and on a much more solid basis”.[3]

Hickie was a classicist who contributed extensively to A. J. Valpy’s publications, reputedly being responsible for more than one third of the 143 volumes comprising Valpy’s Delphin Classics.[4] He left Bracondale in 1828 on his appointment as headmaster of Hawkshead Grammar School[5] in succession to Thomas Bowman, who had taught William Wordsworth, and he was made an honorary Doctor of Laws by Glasgow University in the same year.[6]

In 1831 Bracondale was reported to have been purchased by a clergyman-schoolmaster,[7] but by the 1840s the establishment was headed by William Francis Paul whose “kindly and gentle method was combined with high religious principle and unswerving integrity”.[8] Paul educated there “a great many who subsequently rose to distinction” (including Sir Gordon Sprigg, prime minister of Cape Colony), and both during his headmastership and for some years thereafter the school was popularly spoken of as “Paul’s”.[9]

Following Paul’s retirement in 1862, John Paul Cadge (who had previously conducted Bridge House School at Bungay[10]) took control of Bracondale, then described as a “classical and commercial academy”, and he continued as its headmaster until ill health obliged him to share the position with A. W. Shakespeare.[11] Shakespeare took sole charge in the early 1890s[12] and was briefly succeeded by Frederick Pierpoint prior to Dr Francis Darkins Wheeler acquiring the school in 1896.[13]

Wheeler had, since 1882, conducted Paragon House School in St Giles’s Road, Norwich, as a day and boarding school preparing boys for University and Civil Service examinations.[14] He merged Paragon House with Bracondale, moving his existing scholars to Bracondale’s premises and adopting its name.[15]

At one time, under J. P. Cadge, the school had been called Hillhouse School, Bracondale.[16] In the 1930s it was sometimes known as Bracondale School for Boys.[17]

F. D. Wheeler was a Cambridge graduate of varied interests. He wrote textbooks on entomology (he was President of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society in 1892), had been a partner in a timber business,[18] and while running Paragon House obtained the post-graduate degree of Master of Laws from his old university (by which he was advanced to a doctorate in 1891).[19] Wheeler Road on the Mile Cross Estate is named after him.

He continued as headmaster of Bracondale until 1911 when he was succeeded by F. B. Williams who had been his assistant for twenty years.[20] A later headmaster was Frederick E Scott.[21] The headmaster until 1985 was Dr. Donald Cole.[22] The final headmaster was Denzil Gaudoin (1985-1993).[23]

The school's aims and objectives were "To produce happy and decent young gentlemen who do their best, and have consideration for the welfare and feelings of others".[24] Pupils were known as Bracondolians, and Peppermint Boys, from the colour of their caps.[25] The school had its own scout group (33rd Norwich).[26][27]

Closure

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The school ran out of money, and closed suddenly in 1993.[28]

The school building was Grade II listed in 1972.[29] The list entry makes it clear that the school building was originally a house.

The school is now housing, part of a Norwich Housing Society estate built in 1999.[30] The school's war memorial remains in the main school building.[31]

Old Boys

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Notable old boys include:

There is a Bracondale School Association;[38] when the school was still operational there was a Bracondale School Old Boys' Union.[39]

Further reading

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  • Bulpett, Ed (2014). The Peppermint Boys in the Great War: Discovering the Boys of Bracondale School Norwich who gave their lives in WWI. Bracondale Residents Association. ISBN 978-0-9927-4211-9.

References

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  1. ^ Norfolk Chronicle, 30 June 1821, p. 3.
  2. ^ National Archives of Ireland, Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers, 25 February 1820: CSO/RP/1820/622.
  3. ^ Norfolk Chronicle, 30 June 1821, p. 3.
  4. ^ Norwich Mercury, 19 March 1831, p. 3.
  5. ^ St James’s Chronicle, 27 September 1828, p. 4.
  6. ^ W. Innes Addison (comp.), A Roll of Graduates of the University of Glasgow, James Macklehose and Sons, 1898, p. 265.
  7. ^ Norfolk Chronicle, 9 July 1831, p. 1.
  8. ^ Eastern Daily Press, 17 November 1890, p. 5.
  9. ^ Norfolk News, Eastern Counties Journal and Norwich, Yarmouth and Lynn Commercial Gazette, 15 January 1848, p. 2; Norwich Mercury, 19 November 1890, p. 2.
  10. ^ Norwich Mercury, 31 May 1893, p. 2.
  11. ^ Norfolk Chronicle, 3 June 1893, p. 4; Norfolk News, 18 January 1890, p. 3, and 16 September 1893, p. 16.
  12. ^ Norfolk News, 27 January 1894, p. 9.
  13. ^ Eastern Daily Press, 29 July 1896, p. 6; Norfolk News, 12 June 1897, p. 9.
  14. ^ Eastern Daily Press, 10 March 1882, p. 2.
  15. ^ "Norwich Evening News: "Old boys remember a great centre of learning", 29 May 2012". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  16. ^ Norfolk Chronicle, 3 June 1893, p. 4.
  17. ^ Kelly’s Directory for Norfolk, 1937, p. 888.
  18. ^ Norfolk News, 11 February 1882, p. 10; Norwich Mercury, 2 April 1892, p. 5.
  19. ^ J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 1954, Part II, Vol. VI, p. 423.
  20. ^ Downham Market Gazette, 23 December 1911, p. 4.
  21. ^ "1939 Register: 13 Bracondale, Senior School, via FindMyPast". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  22. ^ "School & College Listings: Bracondale School Association". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  23. ^ "School & College Listings: Bracondale School Association". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  24. ^ "Norwich Evening News: "Old boys remember a great centre of learning", 29 May 2012". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  25. ^ "War Memorials Online: Bracondale School". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  26. ^ Kelly's Directory of Norfolk, 1956, p A42.
  27. ^ 33rd Norwich Scout Group still exists. "33rd Norwich". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  28. ^ "Norwich Evening News: "Old boys remember a great centre of learning", 29 May 2012". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  29. ^ "National Heritage List Entry No 1205677". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  30. ^ "Housing Care: Old School Court". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  31. ^ "IWM War Memorials Register: Bracondale School". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  32. ^ "Eastern Daily Press: "When the Peppermint Boys of Bracondale went off to fight in the First World War", 9 June 2014". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  33. ^ "Norwich Evening News: "Old boys remember a great centre of learning", 29 May 2012". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  34. ^ "ESPN CricInfo: Eric Edrich". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  35. ^ "ESPN CricInfo: Geoff Edrich". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  36. ^ "Norwich Evening News: "Old boys remember a great centre of learning", 29 May 2012". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  37. ^ "Birkin Haward". The Times. No. 67408. 26 March 2002. p. 35.
  38. ^ "School & College Listings: Bracondale School Association". Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  39. ^ "Norwich Evening News: "Old boys remember a great centre of learning", 29 May 2012". Retrieved 26 December 2020.

52°37′12″N 1°18′13″E / 52.620131°N 1.3036783°E / 52.620131; 1.3036783

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