Schoolhouses near Hetton Law

[belfordian]

I’m curious to know more about this place marked as Schoolhouses on old 1850/60s OS maps. Map ref is 031344. This was before compulsory schooling and is situated in a very rural location in parish of Chatton with only small farms nearby. It lies just east of Hetton  Law farmstead, a few miles north of the route between Belford and Wooler and south of Lowick and Holburn. None of the census returns listing it provide evidence that it was still a school then as it appears to be a residence for a single person or family but never that of a teacher. I have scoured local history books for information but found nothing. A school was built in 1863 less than a couple of miles to the south at Hazelrigg.
- Why would a school be built in such a position?
- Who would have provided it?
- Why would it have ceased to be a school by then yet retained the name?

There is no trace of any building on the site now which is next to a narrow road on a bend next to a burn.

Does anyone know of a similar case? Could Schoolhouses have another meaning?

I’d be grateful to anyone who can shed light on this. Thank you!

[hanes teulu]

Cannot answer your specific questions but an intriguing post that, unfortunately, is turning up very little!

History, Topography and Directory of Northumberland 1855
"Hazelrigg township ... its principal inhabitants are George Johnson, schoolmaster; ..."
The 1861 Census has George at "Old Hazelrigg, Chatton" (ref RG09 3893 29 12).

There's a National School at Chillingham but it's quite a schlep there from Old Hazelrigg. So, what's George doing in the locale?
The "Schoolhouses" have disappeared from the 1896 map https://maps.nls.uk/view/101026644

[belfordian]

I noticed the schoolmaster at Hazelrigg and thought he was perhaps in charge of an early school at Hazelrigg, probably improvised in a house as was often the case. I guess he could have taught at Schoolhouses but it’s the lack of evidence of it being a school that puzzles me……..

[hanes teulu]

Agreed.