AOSA CENTENARY HISTORY 1841 - 1941
page twenty-three
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix
Books, too, were given. The three brothers presented to the library ‘753 volumes of books recently purchased by them of our late superintendent George Dixon and valued by Harrison Penny of Darlington at ,£98 4s. 2d. Joseph gave each of the children a copy of Dymond’s Essays on Christian Morality which, together with Edward’s gift to each leaver of a copy of The Rules of Discipline and Advices were intended not so much for their tender years as for possible later comprehension. But the children enjoyed the annual trip to Quarterly Meetings at Darlington where they were taken ‘out and home, free of charge’ by Joseph Pease who also provided them with a substantial meal, and found it more to their liking than Christian Morality.
Joseph Pease also gave to the school a microscope made by Edmund Wheeler which was ‘placed for inspection in the committee room’ where it was received with gratitude as a ‘valuable addition to the philosophical apparatus of the school.’ The same description fitted his gifts of a telescope ‘of superior construction’ also made by Edmund Wheeler, and of two fifteen-inch globes. The children preferred another production of Wheeler’s, ‘suitable apparatus for gymnastic exercises for the Boys & Girls,’ also presented by Joseph Pease. The Peases, indeed, after the death of Thomas Richardson in 1853 followed his devotion to the School and watched over it with helpful, sustained and searching care. The total amount of their joint gifts, £8,454 gave some measure of the deep and personal interest they took in the fortunes of the school.
The third routine matter regularly considered by the Committee concerned the running of the School. Three times a year they inspected the house and the progress of the girls and boys, in April, at General Meeting in July, and in October. The men’s committee in 1853 minuted that a ‘very satisfactory report had been handed in by Women Friends which was truly acceptable to this committee,’ the adverbs conveying to the experienced mind a whole anthem of praise. Women Friends indeed had had ‘the satisfaction of reporting that in the examination of the house and its various arrangements they find everything in excellent order,’ and they did not usually run to superlatives. But not always was excellence noted. At the General Meeting inspection of 1857 ‘they noticed a little want of order principally in those parts under the immediate care of the girls. They think a little more oversight on the part of the teachers and assistants in the arrangement of the girls’ wardrobes and in their washhouses would be attended with beneficial results. The boys’ wardrobes were very orderly.’
The Committee watched over the health of the scholars no less vigilantly than over their minds. Reports to General Meeting contained a sentence about health. They declared that' through Divine favour this interesting Institution has passed another year with steady attention to the objects for which it was established in almost uninterrupted health and much general comfort,’ and again they recorded their ‘humble gratitude for the large measure of health and blessing, which the family has been favoured to enjoy.’
They supplemented Divine favour with the doctor’s skilled assistance, and in 1853, as T. L. Crummey’s ‘engagement with this Institution as medical attendant’ had ceased, they agreed that ‘William Loy be engaged as his successor at £10 per annum together with such sum as may be agreed upon not exceeding £4 per annum for Medicine.’
Finally at their regular meetings the Committee considered matters less immediately affecting the school. One of these, however, brought the School into direct contact with the world of business, finance and transport. In 1854 two separate lines of railway were trying to push south from Middlesbrough. The Cleveland Mineral line wished to tap the stores of iron ore, known but hidden in the Cleveland hills, to feed the growing furnaces of Middlesbrough. The other line was designed for passengers as well as goods. The railway already joined Middlesbrough and Guisborough and the directors proposed to extend it from a junction southwards to Battersby and the Whitby and Stockton line.
As the proposed route for each railway cut through school property, Parliamentary notices preparatory to bills came before the committee. The importance of the matter demanded the presence of the superintendent and the members of the farm committee and after long discussion the Committee resolved that as ‘the Cleveland Mineral Line is likely to cut thro’ the Estate much more disadvantageously than the extended Middlesbrough and Guisborough line’ they would fill up the required forms ‘as respects the Cleveland Mineral Line “Dissentient”, and as respects the extended Middlesbrough and Guisborough line “Neuter”.’
Four years later in 1858, Wm. Flounders, Wm. Cudworth, James I’anson and Edward Pease, Junr, were appointed ‘to inspect the land about to be taken by the North York and Cleveland Railway Co. (Cross Line) consider the terms etc.’ and report. On the next day, that of General Meeting, the sub-committee having given ‘a clear verbal opinion in reference to the land required by the company, its value and proposed communications’ were directed to continue ‘the subject under their care, to act therein as circumstances may appear to require.’
The record of the finished transaction did not appear until the next volume. The promoters of the railway applied for half an acre across the High Dykes field, and a special General Meeting in 1861 empowered the school trustees ‘to sell absolutely to the North Eastern Railway Company a Stripe of land containing by admeasurement. Two Roods as now staked out being part of a Close of Land commonly called High Dykes.’ The North Eastern Railway had absorbed the smaller line and three months later in February 1862 paid £100 for the needed half acre, and prepared for its advance south.
The last page in this volume of minutes contained
the word ‘holiday.’ The index under the word referred only
to this page and this rarity of reference was paralleled by the rarity
of occurrence. So the fact that the superintendent had requested ‘a
holiday for the boys and girls on the occasion of the marriage of our
Friend Henry Pease ‘which was expected to take place on the 19th
of 11th month, sufficed to mark November 1859 with a white stone. Even
the mind of the secretary, Isaac Sharp, was jerked from its usual order,
for the occasion was indexed under the various headings of ‘holiday,’ ‘Hy
Pease,’ ‘Marriage of H. Pease,’ a triple bill.
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