Not the most exciting one for today. Visited with Rookinella and joined by Scotty. I don't get down to Plymouth half as much as I should, being my uni town it still holds many memories.
The weird thing about this explore was after putting it on my website I got a lot of traffic. Before the rise of facebook the comments section would be flooded with ex pupils. One even arranged a legit explore of the place after seeing my photos. This then led to something even more bizarre - one day I looked at stats and had a huge spike from a random forum. A vintage washing machine/dishwasher forum. What. The. Fuck?
Turns out they were getting very moist over a couple of old machines left forlorn on the second floor. Being someone who likes restoring old vintage phones I couldn't really take the piss too much. Each to their own. Anyway I helped them and put them in touch with the lady who'd arranged a legit visit and she then got in touch with the owner of the building. They eventually saved the units and restored them to working order. I believe it was the same forum who saved the units left in the hoover building at Merthyr. You can read the stories about it here should you really be that interested:
Anyway enough of that, history:
The Stoke Damerel Secondary School for Girls was founded in August 1926, when the Plymouth Local Education Authority transferred the girls from Regent Street Central School to join the girls at Keppel Place Central School, Stoke. The boys combined to create Sutton Secondary School for Boys in the Regent Street building.
When the School opened in the September there were 349 pupils on the register but within the first twelve months this fell to 329, largely because of the distance of the School from Plymouth. The Headmistress was Miss E M Bence, BA (London), and she was supported by 19 full-time staff and two visiting teachers.
There was an official inspection by the Board of Education between February 7th and 10th 1928. Their report recorded that there were three classes in the first form; two in the second; three each in the third and fourth; two in the fifth; and there were nine sixth form pupils of an average age of 16 years 5 months. It was elevated to the status of a High School in 1935.
Plymouth City Council took the decision in the early 1980's to close all grammar schools in the region. The last intake of pupils was in 1981 and the school closed in 1989. It was used in the 90's as an art college before finally being left derelict. The buliding fell into disrepair and the owner was warned with legal action by the council. Vodafone would remove their masts from the top of the building a few years after this visit and the building itself suffered further arson damage.
The weird thing about this explore was after putting it on my website I got a lot of traffic. Before the rise of facebook the comments section would be flooded with ex pupils. One even arranged a legit explore of the place after seeing my photos. This then led to something even more bizarre - one day I looked at stats and had a huge spike from a random forum. A vintage washing machine/dishwasher forum. What. The. Fuck?
Turns out they were getting very moist over a couple of old machines left forlorn on the second floor. Being someone who likes restoring old vintage phones I couldn't really take the piss too much. Each to their own. Anyway I helped them and put them in touch with the lady who'd arranged a legit visit and she then got in touch with the owner of the building. They eventually saved the units and restored them to working order. I believe it was the same forum who saved the units left in the hoover building at Merthyr. You can read the stories about it here should you really be that interested:
A couple of VERY painful to look at pics.........
www.automaticwasher.org
Operation Matchbox Rescue! - Hoover 3236H
www.automaticwasher.org
Anyway enough of that, history:
The Stoke Damerel Secondary School for Girls was founded in August 1926, when the Plymouth Local Education Authority transferred the girls from Regent Street Central School to join the girls at Keppel Place Central School, Stoke. The boys combined to create Sutton Secondary School for Boys in the Regent Street building.
When the School opened in the September there were 349 pupils on the register but within the first twelve months this fell to 329, largely because of the distance of the School from Plymouth. The Headmistress was Miss E M Bence, BA (London), and she was supported by 19 full-time staff and two visiting teachers.
There was an official inspection by the Board of Education between February 7th and 10th 1928. Their report recorded that there were three classes in the first form; two in the second; three each in the third and fourth; two in the fifth; and there were nine sixth form pupils of an average age of 16 years 5 months. It was elevated to the status of a High School in 1935.
Plymouth City Council took the decision in the early 1980's to close all grammar schools in the region. The last intake of pupils was in 1981 and the school closed in 1989. It was used in the 90's as an art college before finally being left derelict. The buliding fell into disrepair and the owner was warned with legal action by the council. Vodafone would remove their masts from the top of the building a few years after this visit and the building itself suffered further arson damage.
