CAROLINE WOODHEAD, 1857-1940
(Epsom schoolmistress ca. 1890-1910)

I was researching something else among the trade advertisements in various circa 1900 local publications when my eye happened to be caught by the following in the Homeland Handbooks’ 1902 Guide to Epsom (being a cut down version of Gordon Home’s 1901 Epsom History).

1902 advertisement for “The Hollies” School for Girls, Epsom.
(From the Guide to Epsom in the writer’s bookshelf.)

Needing a break from that research, I thought I’d see what was known about the school. However, there was nothing in this site’s pages about either the school or Miss Woodhead. (My search did, however, find Martin Cole’s article about the Epsom Club that was established in “The Hollies” – see below – shortly after the closure of Miss Woodhead’s school, and continues to this day.)  As can be the way with these things, I succumbed to the urge to dig deeper, and this article is the result.

 “The Hollies” at 41-43 Church Street, home of The Epsom Club since 1914.
Photograph with thanks to Bourne Hall Museum.

Caroline Woodhead was not a local. She was born in Wilmslow, Cheshire on 16 June 1857, the eighth of Godfrey and Mary Louisa (née Cranstone) Woodhead’s 13 children. The 1861 Census records the family living at 227 York Street, Cheetham, Manchester. Godfrey’s occupation is listed as “Grocer”, but he was clearly more than a simple shopkeeper since the (large) household was supported by two domestic servants. Indeed, the 1871 Census (by when the family had moved to 1 Heyward Street, Cheetham) noted that he employed “3 Boys and 5 men”.

It may have been a consequence of her father’s death in 1880, aged 70, that the 1881 Census records the now 23 year old Caroline as “Housekeeper” in the home of her uncle and aunt Christopher and Sarah Corbett at 9 Silverwell Yard, Great Bolton, Lancashire. The 32 year old Christopher is listed as “Architect & Surveyor” and, unusually (in Victorian times) for a married woman with two young children (one of which was the 2 year old Catherine Louisa – whom we shall meet again several times) , the 30 year old Sarah is listed as “Head Schoolmistress”. Also in the household were two of Caroline’s younger sisters: 20 year old Mary (“Teacher, girls school” – whom we shall also meet again in about 1940) and 17 year old Hannah (“Scholar”).

(The 1881 Census records Caroline’s widowed mother, Maria (“Annuitant“), visiting her sister, Jane Cranstone, in Hemel Hempstead. Maria was back in Yorkshire when, on 14 January 1883, she died aged 59.)

Perhaps influenced by time with her headteacher aunt, but also following her sister Mary, Caroline moved into teaching, and the 1891 Census records the now 33 year old, together with the 31 year old Sophia Binns Wilson, as the joint Heads of the Household at “Glynsdale” in Waterloo Road, Epsom and sharing the job description of “Schoolmistress, High School Girls”. Subsequent street directories list the house (occasionally as “Glyndale”) at 7 Waterloo Road next to The White House (which has since been renumbered 16). “Glynsdale” is thus the large semi-detached property in the centre of the following photograph.

“Glynsdale” (centre) in a circa 1860 photograph.
From the writer’s collection.

The couple ran the fee-paying school on the premises. Also listed on Glynsdale’s 1891 Census return are young French, German, Music and Kindergarten mistresses, together with 6 boarding pupils (one of whom was Caroline’s now 13 year old niece, Catherine Corbett – with whose family in Bolton Caroline was recorded in the 1881 Census) all supported by two live-in domestic staff. The school doubtless also had some local day pupils.

Before going further, we need to catch up on the background of Sophia Binns Wilson. She was born in Croydon in Q3 1859, the fourth of nine children born to Robert Wilson (a tea merchant) and his wife Sarah. The 1861 Census records the family living at 6 Bridge Road, Croydon, supported by four domestic servants. By the time of the 1871 Census, the family had moved to a house on the London Road in Reigate. 11 year old Sophia is listed as a “Scholar” and, later that year, was sent for secondary education to Ackworth School (in keeping with the family’s religious persuasion, a Quaker foundation), near Pontefract in West Yorkshire. Sophia left there in 1874, and is next found in the 1881 Census as the 21 year old “Governess” at the Agricultural School in Great Ayton, Yorkshire.

It is not known when or how Caroline and Sophia met – or why they chose Epsom to set up their school. In any case, the Waterloo Road joint venture did not last all that long. While (in line with the 1891 Census) the 1893 Andrews Directory lists Caroline and Sophia as joint “Misses, High School“, the 1895 edition notes only Caroline at the School. And, by the time of the 1899 Andrews Directory, Caroline is listed as having the school in Church Street. In more detail, the 1901 Census records the now 43 year old Caroline as the “Schoolmistress” head of “Hollies (Kindergarten)” in Church Street, Epsom – the building pictured near the head of this article, and below. Also there were a 17 year old “Student Teacher”, a 16 year old “Lady Help”, four “Boarders” (being Henrietta Smyth and her 16 year old daughter – both born in India – together with Henrietta’s new Epsom-born son and a “Monthly Nurse”) – all supported by two domestic servants.

“The Hollies” in the 1960s, giving a better idea of how the early 1900s school looked.
Photograph with thanks to Bourne Hall Museum.

Sophia Wilson has yet to be found in the 1901 Census, and it is clear from the 1902 advertisement that triggered this article that the sole Principal of the Church Street school was Caroline Woodhead. It is also clear that her provision (or, at least, ambition) went beyond the “Kindergarten” designation in the 1901 Census. The advertisement was for a “School for Girls”, with Caroline’s being “assisted by a competent staff of certificated mistresses”, under whom “pupils have passed the Cambridge Higher Local, the London Matriculation, Trinity College, and other examinations”, noting that “careful and individual attentions [is] given to backward pupils”. In addition, there were “Preparatory classes, under certificated and experienced mistresses, for boys and girls between the ages of Six and Ten, and a Kindergarten for still younger children”. (It may well be that some of these merits reflect achievements at the 1890’s school in Waterloo Road.)

It seems that Sophia did later help at the Hollies: her 3 September 1908 entry in a visitor’s book elsewhere notes that she was “of Hollies School, Epsom”. In any event, The Hollies School closed not long after that. By the time of the 1911 Census, the 53 year old Caroline Woodhead (“Retired Schoolmistress”) is head of the household at 35 Wilkinson Street, Sheffield. Also there were the 71 year old Maria Beighton (another “Retired Schoolmistress”) and – presumably as a visitor, Caroline’s now 33 year old niece Catherine Corbett listed as “Doctor (medical inspector of schools)”. Other sources record that Catherine was, in 1905, only the second woman to gain a medical degree from the University of Manchester Medical School.

The 1911 Census finds the now 51 year old Sophia Wilson at 147 Cemetery Road, Sheffield visiting her older sister, Jessie who is listed as “Police Court Missionary & Protection Officer” employed by “Sheffield Women’s  Christian Temperance Association”. Sophia is listed as “Teacher in private secondary school” and, as Caroline had retired from The Hollies in Epsom, this seems likely to relate to her work at the Girls’ Collegiate School, Wakefield. That was noted as her employment in the 1921 Census when, together with her sister Emily, she was recorded as a visitor in the home of Henry Place and family at 10 Dragon Avenue, Harrogate.

Aged 66, Sophia Binns Wilson died on 27 March 1926 at “Green Gable”, Ightenhill Park Lane, Burnley. She was buried in Burnley Cemetery two days later, leaving an estate of £615.

As to Caroline Woodhead, the 1921 Census finds the reverse of the 1911 position in that the 64 year old (“Schoolmistress, retired”) is now living with her 43 year old niece, Catherine Corbett (“Doctor of Medicine, Medical Inspector of Schools for Lancashire County Council”) at 395 Padiham Road, Burnley – less than a quarter of a mile from Sophia Wilson in Ightenhill Park Lane – supported by two domestic servants. The 1921 Census does not, of course, mention that, during WW1, Catherine had joined the Scottish Women’s Hospitals and saw service in Serbia (about which her diary was later published – and in thanks for which the Serbians made her an Officer in the Royal Order of St Sava), London and France.

Mention now needs to be made of one of Caroline’s sisters, Anne (occasionally “Annie”) Burrow Woodhead who was born in 1840 and thus 17 years her senior. In line with the family’s Quaker faith, she had worked as the Housekeeper at the Society of Friends’ School at Bootham, York. The 1921 Census records the now 81 year old (”Retired Housekeeper, Bootham School”) living at 7 Station Avenue, New Earswick – the model village established on the outskirts of York by prominent Quaker Joseph Rowntree. However, by the time of the 89 year old Anne’s death in 1930, she was living at “Green Gable”, Ightenhill Park Lane, Burnley – Sophia Wilson’s address at the time of her death in 1926. Confirmation of the close relationships in all this comes from the fact that Anne was then buried in the same grave as Sophia Wilson.

It therefore seems likely that Caroline Woodhead (and her niece Catherine Corbett) had already moved to Sophia Wilson’s “Green Gable” address and invited the ageing Anne to spend her last days with them. It is certainly the case that the 1939 Register records both Catherine (now “Assistant County Medical Officer for Lancashire County Council”) and Caroline (“Schoolmistress, retired”) at 31 Ightenhill Park Lane, Burnley – doubtless the now-numbered “Green Gable” of 1926.

On 5 October 1940, the 83 year old Caroline Woodhead died at 31 Ightenhill Park Lane, Burnley – and was then buried in the same grave as Sophia Wilson and her sister Anne. In addition to her dates, the headstone (see below) noted rather enigmatically that “She loved truth”. Caroline left an estate of £493, administration of which was granted to her housemate (and niece), Catherine Corbett.

We last met Caroline’s younger sister, Mary Firth Woodhead, in the 1881 Census when both were recorded in the home of their uncle and aunt Christopher and Sarah Corbett in Great Bolton, Lancashire. Mary was then recorded as “Teacher, girls school”. The 1939 Register records this now 78 year old (“Private means”) living with 41 year old Sybil Hatter (“Domestic”) at 5 West Park, Bristol. It may well be that she then moved to Burnley to be with the ailing Caroline. In any event, Mary was “of” 31 Ightenhill Park Lane, Burnley when, aged 80, she died on 1 February 1941 and then joined her sisters as the fourth burial in the Burnley Cemetery grave.

Headstone over the grave of Caroline and others in Burnley Cemetery
Photograph with thanks to Bob the Greenacre Cat via findagrave.com

To round things off, I should note that Caroline’s niece and long-time housemate, Catherine Louisa Corbett, subsequently moved away from Burnley. Her address when, aged 83, she died on 22 June 1960 was 1 Falcondale Road, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol.

Roger Morgan © 2023