Scarisbrick Avenue

Scarisbrick Avenue Temporary Board School opened in 1901 (assumption)
The reason was due to there being far to many children based at Lander Road Council School (partial fact)

This was hand drawn in the front of a school log book by Walter F. Tomkins in 1901.

Mr Walter Franklin Tomkins (born in 1877 fact) Worked as an assistant master (trainee teacher) at Scarisbrick Avenue Council School in 1901, while also taking a teacher training coarse at Liverpool University. Walter worked at the Scarisbrick school  from 1901 up until the end of school term in 1904. Sometime between 1901 and 1904, Walter got his teacher training certificate and officially became a school master (teacher).

I believe Walter was a camera enthusiast (due to other things ive been finding) and i think he probably took this photograph, which would explain why he's not on the photograph (assumption)
I think he took this photo before moving to Lander Road because this was his first real teaching position he was leaving and wanted a keepsake.

This is said to be 1903, I think it is June 1904.

It's commonly known those two female teachers also appeared on a 1912 photo taken at beach road school featuring the boys school teachers. Today i can reveal for a fact that only one these ladies was a teacher, Sarah Lucy Smith, the other lady in the tin hut photo Marion M Holiday was only a teachers assistant.

In 1904 Walter moved to Lander Road Council School to undergo Head Master training under the guidance of lander road schools headmaster Francis Balvaird Lowe, or Joe Lowe as he was often called. After at least a year of having the camera i assume he some how took this or got a fellow teacher to take it for him, again showing that need to capture these moments in time.

(so the old photo of tomkins & lowe at lander road was taken in 1904??)

After serving a year at lander road, at which point his headmaster training had ended along with instruction on the new grade system, Walter then moved back down in 1905 to Scarisbrick Avenue as it's Headmaster to run the school.

Scarisbrick school re-opened on the 1st of march in 1905 with Walter at the helm along with that 1 teacher and 1 teachers assistant.

For a number of years information has floated round about the old scarisbrick tin hut and its often overlooked as being an actual school, but i have enough information to prove it was more than just a temporary location. It surprises me just how often information has been wrong and gets so mixed up. For example, there is a photo from the 22nd of may 1908 that many people said was beach road, It was argued it can't of been beach road as beach road didn't open until the august of 1908 (this is true) but the argument of it not being beach road also lead to the assumption it must of been Lander Road. I beg to differ between the two arguments...  Here is that photo and i will explain what they all failed to acknowledge within this photo.
I also think Walter took this photo too (assumption)

Empire Day Litherland Council Schools 22.5.1908

It's been long argued, but the real clue is in what's wrote on the photo, it says Schools, not School.. Litherland Council Schools, people always focused on the date, never the wording of it. So how many schools where in Litherland in May 1908?.   Ok i think the best way to turn what i think, into fact, is to go find and pluck out of time, a factual document, to confirm a theory. I don't always manage to find one.. but erm.. I did and here it is..

Empire Day Litherland Council Schools 22.5.1908

I knew that if it existed, it would be right where i thought it would. See i have learnt a lot about Walter (all thought up by snippets of information and total assumptions bridging them snippets) and yet apparently i seam to be correct around 99.9% of the time when i make the imaginative bridges in information it does seam to become fact.

As it consisted of children from Lander and Scarisbrick (with zero mention of beach road) It does lay the claim it was taken inside beach road to rest. We could assume it was taken inside the old small church next to the Scarisbrick avenue school, or even in a passageway inside Linacre Methodist Mission. But it does make note of saluting the flag, ide assume neither church had a flag pole.

 So there it was, the event programme, stuck in an official school log, making it more like a scrap book. Walter was a bit of a historian him self and kept information about a lot of events, i think he also encouraged the girls & the infants departments head mistresses to do the same. It was so important to Walter to collect these bits of history that when the programmes where made, who ever did so, was always sure to write "log book copy" in the corner of one for safe keeping.

Xmas Party 1921

Empire Day 1916

Walter also kept news paper clippings as did the heads of the girls department & the infants.

At this stage ive got no doubt loads of people are sitting their thinking wtf.. how the f.. All i can say is i don't no, i just look at what we've all come to understand as fact, i calculate, i consider it and to be honest i have come to realize that anything regarding the council is a mismanaged crock of. I guess so far i have proved that empire day photo wasn't just lander road (and the kids from scarasbrick did move to beach road, i can prove that) Ive named the 2 women in the photo, which i still have no doubt Walter took it & it was approximately June 1904. We also have the Register Header proving the school was officially named a council school (not just a temp board school).

The Inside Page of the 1907 to 1910 School Register

Surprising that the 1910 to 1916 register has no school name, yet beach road opened in 1908

Ber in mind i was meant to be video editing and composing on this documentary and its ok thinking someone says that 1903 or abt 1878 or what ever would do. But i go out my way to make sure (that's respect, let alone doing a good job right?) but it seams to be a case of  boom.. Every time i attempt to clarify something we've all taken as fact.. it's been close'ish.. but no cigar...  I have been running this in my head like i am writing and directing a movie, i take one possible fact for a character and roll the person in varied directions, an ever evolving credible set of scenario paths. Many of which eventually hit a Dead End as they run slap bang into a "Fact" that proves it's path was wrong..

The paths i end up with in theory (the stuff i share) is the only viable path i can fathom, in turn,  when i go to see if i can find proof, it seams to be right where my theory expects to find it.. Not where we have far to often been lead to believe. I mean at this stage in the research i am at a loss as to just how far off base most the info has been that's floating about, considering everything i have shown and spoke of above flops the whole small tin hut and its opening in 1903 and a stack of other errors. I bet Scarisbrick Avenue Council School Litherland L21 6NJ soon starts to pop up on google search.. it was a googlewack at this very moment in time that i typed this & i made it one :D    But before that, the school didn't exist in any context "online" until today.

Some Proof of these Dates and Facts, besides what's above before i continue?

Hows about Walters own work history ?

Walter Paid Money To Register This Information In September 1920 (Fact)

What about Walters complete date of birth?
In a headmasters log book regarding Beach Road School, Walter noted the names, dates of birth and the year each teacher at the school began working for the Teachers Council. The following image is in Walters own hand writing and for the first time in many many years.. I can provide..  not only the year of Walters birth, but the whole date.  (this information is not currently on record within any other web site as they all say "abt 1878" )

Walter Franklin Tomkins Born 25th June 1877 began training 13th August 1900 (fact)

What about them 2 women's names?

Walter Lists The Two Women In His Log Book

The beach road council school (boys department) log book covering 1908 - 1928 hides the only factual remains of a school that no longer exists. There is not much information about the scarisbrick school, by the state of the place and the cramped conditions (and age of the children & limited staff) I assume he didn't have much time to fill in log pages, though the pages he did compile, for that specific school, were pretty uneventful, though informative of some of the conditions in Litherland during 1901 to 1908, before going to the new school at beach road.

Beach Road Council School Headmasters Log Book 1908 - 1928

It is in the March of 1905 that Walters real work began in helping to adapt and evolve the education system in Litherland. While lightening the load for lander road school...

As the education system evolved and rules started being put into place, it had been already  decided by 1901 that the division of children across grades would improve the education possibilities of the brighter children, while allowing the other less intelligent grades to be educated at a slower pace, while trying not to distract the higher grades.

The problem was putting this into practice with such a small school building and a lack of qualified people who could take legal responsibility. This is the reason the Infants and Nursery initially got moved from Lander Road Council School to the Scarisbrick Avenue Temporary Board School. It wasn't just due to there being too many children at lander road, it was the fact that they were unable to separate and educate the varied ages and implement all these changes to how things where now to be done within the ever evolving education system.

TO BE UPDATED...

I have a stack of other information to put into a  readable, informative and visual context, but remember a lot of it has to be theorized while trying to fill in the blanks, only the do i feel the right to make that information public. Otherwise it just adds to the mess of wrong information already out their.  While i work on what i have and try to justify the theories into reality please look below and see if you can help provide anything i am looking for.  There is no doubt a great little video in this project alone, but Visuals always help when it comes to a video, and i have been working on some visuals, but tbh i have a hell of a lot going on in the real world so times often short, so please help if you can  ;)  also ber in mind this page is for the scarisbrick school,  check out the video On the Trail of Walter Franklin Tomkins and the walter researched info page here with that went into the video here for more info on walter him self.

HELP US IMPROVE THIS PAGE?

 Does anyone have any photos, images, info of any kind regarding the patch of Land that used to hold    "The Council Child Services Medical Centre"  or even images of anything that was next to it that briefly show a part of it in the corner of an image?

It used to be just off Penrhyn avenue by beach garage.  It's Car Park gates opened onto Scarisbrick Avenue and its Pedestrian Gate (with the odd little pram ramp and sharp edged paving stones either side)  Was accessed by Sefton Avenue (The 2 story clinic was located essentially in between Scarisbrick and Sefton Avenues) and at the top was Linacre Road and at the bottom (closest to the clinic) was Penryhn Avenue.

There was a church on Linacre Road (in between litherland library and a row of shops) The church stood facing onto linacre road. (sefton and scarisbrick avenues sat either side of it like a buffer between the shops & library) The remaining church section was later used by a foam company that made varied shaped sponges (they later moved round the corner) into the old pool hall opposite seaforth taxis (fact)
Behind that church was a big patch of waste ground with an outline of bricks that looked as though the back of the church had been bombed.  Then the little clinic, then the ally way (entry) then Penrhn. 

This image represents a Solid Memory of it's location.  I really would like more images / photos of what ever people can provide regarding the church,, its name,  the patch of wasteland and most importantly the School AND/OR the two story Clinic That was later built (fact) on what was the long forgotten school (assumption) The school could of been at the back of the church before it was bombed (IE On The Patch of Wasteland) but land ownership that i can prove is plot number ,6, 8 and 10 In Scarisbrick Avenue was council land (fact). So the school (between Scarisbrick and Sefton avenues covered 6 plots of land in total) (fact). It's now covered by 4 houses (fact) the Yellow X marks the Clinic (fact) and where i think the school sat (assumption)

This Is The Full Image, Both Avenues & Above Shot

This is a Diagram (of it's location) This is the best i can come up with, i am not an artist, so i can't draw the clinic, though i can picture it perfectly in my head.