[Excerpt from Stockport Times 20/7/06]
The red brick Edwardian schoolhouse which now houses Woodley Primary School's nursery, is shutting when its nursery classes move to the main school site at Sherwood Rd.
First opened in 1864 as the Woodley British School, on Chapel St, it moved to the Bankfield Rd building in 1909, and was renamed Woodley Council School.
Lit by gaslamps, the school taught children aged 5-14 reading, writing and arithmatic, with some of the children only attending classes parttime while they worked in local factories and mills.
Headteacher Thomas Cowper wrote afterwards in the school log: "During the spell of very hot weather, a ventilated classroom with plenty of space in it has been greatly appreciated by all who remember the five-classes-one-room conditions."
In 1964 the school moved to new modern premises in Sherwood Road and only two infant classes remained at the Bankfield Rd site before it housed just the Nursery.
The school plans to commemorate with an open afternoon on Tuesday July 25, from 4.15-6.15 and has invited former old boys and old girls along.
Local author and historian Roy Frost has recorded a history of the school in his book "Woodley School 1864-2004" Copies cost £5 and are available from the school.
