MYOPIC SCHOOL HAMMERSMITH 1915

[louisa maud]

I feel really sad, I have just found my fathers school record, Barbly Road, (Ladbroke Grove)
admitted 09/03/1914 and on 16/04/1915 he was discharged to Myopic School Hammersmith, does anyone know where this would be and where the records are please


Bit of the history
My father always had poor eyesight, he apparently had 14 operations on his eye till during an operation a nerve was severed, so he believed, and that was passed to me, he always worked and in 1958 was made redundant from the United Dairies Shirland Road where he had been a groom for some years till they mechanised,  he was then give a disabled card and registered blind, this broke his heart, but, after 2 years at a blind centre in Waterloo he was given a "taxi boys cabin" by the side of Praed Street, (Paddington Station) he sold anything the taxi boys wanted ice cream, drinks cigarettes and anything they asked for , he and my mother worked there till he was 70, they made very good friends with the taxi boys as my mother called them

I digress but I want to know more about the myopic school if possible

Thank you

Louisa Maud

[ciderdrinker]

Hi
Just a guess but could it be the Lawn Lane Myopic School
The records from 1915 are at London Metropoliton Archives.

Sorry but it's the only Myopic school I can see in London though there were others in Leeds and Folkestone.
It had certainly opened by 1913 when it was mentioned as full in the newspapers.

Ciderdrinker

[louisa maud]

Thank you CD
My father wasn't a border there, it was total news to me to be honest, I always believed he only went to Barbly Road school, I thought from his words it was a "blind School" but I am not 100% sure

I will see if I can read it in the newspapers

[Bookbox]

The Lawn Lane Myopic School was in Vauxhall (Lambeth), not Hammersmith.
http://www.aim25.com/cats/118/13228.htm

It may be that the term 'myopic' was used in general way, rather than being part of the school's formal name?

[HeatherLynne]

I did a little research yesterday but didn't find much, just that Barlby (rather than Barbly) Road School is still open!  Could this be the school he attended?  It's near Ladbroke Grove, 2.5 miles from current day Hammersmith - maybe boundaries have changed?   The current school website doesn't seem to mention visual impairment but I did find the school was originally called Edinburgh Road School and dating from the late 1800s, the school has been on the same plot for over a century.

Lawn Lane seems to be more than 5 miles from Hammersmith.  I have found something in a 1922 issue of 'The Woman Teacher' that mentions Upper Hornsey Road Myopic School, Islington but that's about 7.5 miles from Hammersmith.

Not very conclusive but worth considering perhaps?
Heather

p.s.  Have now found another Myopic and Infants School in Barnsbury Park Islington in the 1933 Kellys Directory   and another in Basnett Road Battersea which was a Cookery, Metal work and Manual training centre  also with mentally defective and myopic departments as well (1934 Post Office Directory)

[cockney rebel]

Hi there
That bit of the road where Barlby School was/is , was originally and until 1912 Edinburgh Road.
On an older map it is simply noted as School and not blind school so not a lot of help.

According to this book "Education and the Handicapped 1760 - 1960" the first myopic school in London was opened in Camberwell in 1908. Read more here:

https://books.google.de/books?id=ebuAAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=myopic+schools+london&source=bl&ots=CNdcMhbS0z&sig=r9BTiOJiv0HQbWSjMWyRyJqzS4o&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiikMGa3ITZAhUPKlAKHQqaAaoQ6AEIVzAE#v=onepage&q=myopic%20schools%20london&f=false

Is it possible your father was referred to a myopic school but never actually went?
Rebel
 

[louisa maud]

Thank you  all for your help,

Rebel, do you know I never thought about my father might not have gone to Hammersmith, it would have been  a bit of a journey for a young lad born 1907, he would have been  about 7/8, I am sure he stayed at Barlby Road, he often spoke about 1 particular teacher who he ran errands for, surely he didn't do that at such a young age, would he??

Louisa Maud

[louisa maud]

Having looked  at other pupils at this school I do wonder if it was for visually impaired pupils and invalids,  quite a few were sent on to various schools, St Dunstan's and other Myopic schools, some returned to "ordinary schools"

My father must have gone on to another school or the records aren't there for the following years, no doubt he must have started work at about 14 or so years old, he did work nearly all of his working life till he was 70 ish, I was very proud that he did work even though he was always partially sighted till he was registered blind, and even then he continued to work, "well done dad"

Louisa Maud