Newcastle High School
EARLY HISTORY
History of the school site
“Since the school has been in operation for little more than six years, its history up to the present date must necessarily be a brief one though it is unique in some respects … more “ History of the Schools taken from Newcastle Library Archives … more“ |
The Foundation Stone for the building was laid by Clarence Hannell, who was at the time the president of the local school board, on the Prince of Wales’ birthday, Saturday, 9 November 1878.[2] The ceremony was performed at midday by placing a glass jar beneath the stone. The jar contained four newspapers and a document inscribed with details of the ceremony and the names of relevant dignitaries such as the headmaster, M. Willis, Jr.
On 20 November 1879, Hannell officially opened the building as Newcastle Public School before a “very large and fashionable audience in the large schoolroom of the building”.[2] The man responsible for the design was the celebrated architect George Allen Mansfield, who was architect to the Council of Education from 1867 to 1879,[3] building a series of single storey suburban schools in that time, all in the Gothic Revival style.[4] The final cost of this construction was 10 000 pounds.[5] The original purpose for this newly built building was to house the Newcastle Public School, a school that was established in 1859 in nearby Brown Street. At this time the school consisted of boys’, girls’, infants’, and babies’ rooms and accommodated over eight hundred students.[5] In 1880, the school became a Superior Public School, reaching a peak of over 1000 students in 1884. The school on Bolton Street was enlarged soon after and other schools opened, causing a drop in enrolments. In 1906 and within the same confines, the Hill High School was established in the westernmost classroom. As the only high school in Newcastle at the time, it continued after Newcastle Public School was closed in 1911. The high school enrolled over 300 students by 1912. In 1929, Newcastle Girls’ High School began its separate existence at Hamilton and the Hill High School became Newcastle Boys’ High School. In 1934, they moved to a site in Waratah, and the site housed Newcastle Boys’ Junior High School until 1973 when it was closed. |
Written Histories of NHS, NGHS, NBHS 1906 – 1978
Written by John Beach – Student NBHS, Principal Newcastle East PS “School on the Hill”
Read Here
Written by Elaine Orton, NGHS, 5C 1955 – for the 1956 Centenary Edition of the Nobbys magazine …
Read Here
Written by OBA Committeeman John Birt in 1996 – Early History a different perspective …
Read Here
Timelines
NHS
Before 1906
About 50 young Novocastrians catch the train daily to Maitland, to the only State high school in the Hunter.
1906
The original school on the hill opened on Tuesday 5 June; Charles Rattray (“Caesar”) Smith is Headmaster, with a staff of Mr T Roberts and Miss Louisa Cole; school comprised primary students plus 28 older girls and boys; assembled at 9:00 in Room 2, one of three that formed the school); tables but no chairs, blackboards, chalk, maps . . .
1917
12 October; Captain Clarence Smith Jeffries killed winning his Victoria Cross, in the Battle of Ypres, Belgium.
1919-1924
George Campbell Saxby is Headmaster; “His Majesty”; “The Grey Ghost”; former Captain and Dux of Sydney Boys’ High; deeply religious, with a stern moral code; disallowed dancing.
1922-1926
Charlie Goffet attends the “School on the Hill”.
1924-1928
Len McRae attends the “School on the Hill”.
1925-1926
Frank McMullen is Headmaster; “One of Nature’s Gentlemen”; a strong bias towards sport; “exercised a fairly soft discipline on the School”.
1926-1931
Robert F (Bob) Harvey is Headmaster; “a grim visage” and “a formidable reputation as a disciplinarian”; unsuccessfully tried to change the school colours; set up a school tuck-shop and banned Mr Tuttle’s horse-drawn pie cart from the school grounds; disliked Newcastle intensely – “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”; continually stressed the need for “school spirit”; insisted on the wearing of a school uniform.
1928
Two portables destroyed by a cyclone; contract let for the construction of Newcastle Girls’ High School, at a cost of 34,120 pounds ($68,240).
1930
On 4.2.30, with NHS overcrowded, girls moved into the all new NGHS at Hamilton; first Headmistress Agnes Brewster; replaced by influx of Cooks Hill Intermediate High students; NBHS created; The Great Depression; overcrowding in the “archaic architectural anachronism” (Newcastle Morning Herald); Alfred Freeman sets NBHS long jump record of 21 feet 9.5 inches (6.64 m), which still stands.
1931
Silver Anniversary; 820 enrolled (including 120 overflowing to the Hunter Street Technical College).
1932
Country deep in depression, NHS seriously overcrowded, and the promise of a new school at Waratah long overdue; NHS described as “an archaic, architectural anachronism”. Enrolment was 700 + 120 in the Annexe at NTC (with its own staff of 5).
1932-1934
Chas A (“Daddy”) Chrismas is Headmaster (see Note 1 below).
1933
Move to Waratah commenced during “half-yearlies”; school spartan, noisy.
1934
NBHS starts at Waratah; first Headmaster Charles (“Daddy”) Christmas; NHS becomes Newcastle Junior Boys’ High School.
Note :
The following appeared in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate on Saturday 30 July 1932, under the heading ‘The City’s Disgrace’:
“A gentle reminder that the proposed Newcastle Boys’ High School building is still in the ‘blue print’ stage was given by the Headmaster (Mr C. H. Chrismas) yesterday, when he advised visiting footballers not to judge Newcastle by Hunter Street or by its railway approach. ‘Have a good look around,’ he said ‘but for heaven’s sake do not come near my school. It is the only place that is a disgrace to Newcastle.'”
This heavily edited but extremely informative document was found while cataloguing the briefing material used by Audrey Armitage in preparing her book “Newcastle High School – the First 75 Years”.