Also known as Llanddulas Controlled School and Ysgol Llanddulas.
Llanddulas National School opened on 21st September 1863.
Early education – for boys - was at Arnold Cottage then in a building erected in 1833 with its first head teacher being John Jones. Disputes between the head teacher and the Rector meant that when John Jones died the Rector raised money to build a new school. The school was erected in 1863, on donated land at Ty’n-y-Ffordd, the school remained on this site.
The new head teacher in 1864 was also a Mr John Jones and there were 70 pupils on roll. He brought better discipline but it was difficult to teach (ED/LB/51/1 page 107) ‘We began using the National Society Reading books – found it difficult to go on with these, having only one book for each class’
The early history of the school was a mixture of boys and infants together and girls taught separately in a neighbouring building, or of a mixed school of boys, girls and infants.
In 1874 references in the log book on pages 194 and 196 to the inefficiently run girls’ school in the immediate neighbourhood, it was agreed that the girls should stop going there and be taught in the boys’ school by the head teacher’s wife. In 1881the girls’ school reopened and 50 girls moved back. This movement of girls between the schools continued but by 1890 girls from the upper school went to the girls’ school and infants attended the boys’ school so Llanddulas was boys and infants only after this date.
Mr Benjamin Hussey Jones was head teacher from September 1890 until September 1924, a service of 34 years. He was followed by Thomas Griffiths, then in May 1929 by Maurice Roberts Jones. By 1930 there were 84 pupils on roll.
The girls’ school was built on land purchased from the Bronywendon Estate, between Bodhyfryd and Ty’n-y-Ffordd in 1846. The first head teacher was Miss Catherine Davies in 1847. She was followed by a Miss Parry and Mrs Lloyd in 1881. In 1904 Miss M A Jones became head teacher and was there until the school closed in 1941. There was an emphasis on domestic subjects in the girls’ school. In the 1920s and 1930s girls between 7 and 14 attended and as with the boys’ school the building was improved and enlarged over time.
In November 1941 the boys and girls schools were reorganised and amalgamated as a mixed junior school under the headship of Mr M R Jones – head teacher of the boys’ school. The girls’ school building was then used for the provision of midday meals, PT, drama and art.
In the 1970s the head teacher Gwilym T Williams was able to oversee the building of a new open plan school on the same site, erected in 2 phases at a cost of £58,000 and officially opened in October 1975. The new school building now provided a kitchen, staff room and assembly hall which doubled up as a canteen and physical education and drama venue.
This collection includes log books, admission and attendance registers and managers minutes.
Location
Minffordd Road,
Llanddulas,
Abergele,
Conwy.
LL22 8EW
OS Map 1880 Sheet 1V – National School (Boys and Girls) - and adjacent - Endowed Sch.
Related material-
CD/A/4/17- Plan, 1971-1973
CD/A/4/186- Plan, 1979
Secondary material-
Rev Edward Hughes (Rector of Llanddulas), 'A Short History of the Parish of Llannddulas, 1869-1939', Leigh & Williams LTD, Colwyn Bay, 1939.
North Wales Weekly Article 23rd October 1975.
Brian Jones & Margaret Rawcliffe, 'Llanddulas – Heritage of a Village', Gee & Son, Denbigh, 1985.