Title:
PURFLEET PRIMARY SCHOOL, WEST THURROCK
Level: Category
Records of educational institutions, especially schools
Level: Fonds
PURFLEET PRIMARY SCHOOL, WEST THURROCK
Admin History:
Purfleet Primary School originated in the early nineteenth century as a nonconformist school held in a chapel built by Samuel Whitbread MP. It was supported by the Whitbread family for many years, but on 1 July 1876 was transferred to the West Thurrock School Board.

The School Board erected a new school building on Garrison Hill (on the corner of the later Tank Hill Road and Tank Lane) in 1889. An infant room was added in 1894, and from 1896 to 1917 the infants formed a separate department. In 1897 a library was set up at the school, with 356 books for loan to the children. West Thurrock School Board ceased to exist on 30 September 1903, its responsibilities passing to the Education Committee of Essex County Council.

Additional rooms were erected in 1907, to give a total of five rooms with accommodation for 222 children. In September 1904 a small piece of land adjoining the school was leased from Mr Whitbread in order to teach cottage gardening to the boys. In 1909 it was extended to include a fruit garden with 100 fruit trees, and the school won numerous medals for fruit at Royal Horticultural Society shows. A manual, cookery and laundry centre was built at the school in 1914. From October 1914 to June 1915 the school was requisitioned by the military authorities as a hospital for Purfleet Camp, where 12,000 men were encamped.

By 1930 the former Purfleet Council School was known as Garrison Hill Council School. This name remained current until at least 1948. In April 1939 the school - formerly a Mixed and Infants' School - was re-organized as a Junior Mixed and Infants' School. The Second World War caused 65 children to be evacuated to Martlesham, Suffolk, in September 1939, and a further 14 to Devizes, Wiltshire, in June 1940. The school was badly damaged by incendiary bombs on the night of 8 September 1940.

By 1951 the school was known as Garrison Hill Primary School. It was used as an emergency relief centre during the floods of 1953. By 1959 the school was called Purfleet Primary School, and by 1968 Purfleet County Primary School. Remodelling of the school and the erection of new classrooms began in 1973, and the new accommodation was finally occupied in April 1974.

The former 'county' status having been abolished by the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998 (c.31), the school was known from 1 April 1998 as Purfleet Primary School. From the same date it was included, in any case, in the new Thurrock unitary authority.