A Brief History of the School

Alsop 1967

Alsop 1990s

The school was founded to provide higher education for boys in the northern end of Liverpool, by the Liverpool Education Committee, in 1919, under the chairmanship of James W. Alsop, after whom the school was named (Queen Mary High School for girls was founded at the same time, but was named after someone else ). The school was originally spread around several locations - an existing private school called the Oakes's Institute, the Brook Road Methodist Sunday school, the Aintree Institute and Longmoor Lane school were all once part of the fledgling Alsop High school - must have been a great time going between classes! (Funnily enough, as an infant, I attended Longmoor Lane, and as a teenager, spent many a night at the Aintree Innie playing snooker)

The school moved to its current premises on Queen's Drive in 1926, and acquired the rectory and soon built the Gym and one of the workshops.

Nicholas Pevsner in his Buildings of England, South Lancashire, has this to say about the Rectory: "Behind and even part of the school a Gothic house in Walton Village, part of what used to be the village. It was the rectory, is of stone, and consists of two parts, the East part c. 1800, the West part c.1830. The windows and a general thinness characterize the earlier part, the three broad open porch arches across the West front and a general heaviness the later part."

The first headmaster of Alsop was F.B. Halford, after whom one of the school "houses" was named - I was in Halford House for my five years - we wore green shirts. The other houses were Crawford, Mersey, Queens, Stanley and Walton (my thanks to Terry Hill who remembered the other five!)

Crawford house was named for the Earl of Crawfordand Balcarres, who laid one of the foundation stones at the front of the school.

Gordon Butler (1936-1941) won a scholarship to Alsop in 1936, and explains that one had to attend a `recall' to see if you were really `up to par' - "At the recall, while waiting to be interviewed by the Head, I was given a piece of literature to read. I was questioned on the details later during the course of the interview. I was fairly composed waiting to be ushered into the Presence, but was a bit shaken to see my own headmaster sitting there as well."

F. B. Halford retired from the school in July 1939 - his final letter home to parents is reproduced here, courtesy of Gordon Butler

From George Lucy (Teacher, 1966-1985), some insight into the founding of the school and the scholarship system -
"Alsop was the result of a takeover by the Liverpool Education Committee at the behest of Central Government to provide at least 20% 'free places' in grammar schools after the First World War. The Oaks Institute , a private school owned by a Mr. Oaks and operating in the Aintree area was taken over and a new building on Queen's Drive was built to replace the disparate classrooms scattered about Rice Lane and Walton Vale.
Until the 1944 Act only a proportion of its students had 'free places'. In 1936, when Gordon got his Junior City Scholarship, fifty five 'free places' were awarded at Alsop. As it was probably a four form entry school this meant that 65 of that year group's students were fee paying. The standard amount was 5 guineas a term.
The schools which were taken over were allowed to keep their 'prep' forms hence forms 1 and 2 to which parents could send their children at, I think, a reduced rate of 3 guineas a term. Some parents did under the impression that their offspring would stand a better chance of a 'scholarship'. When the parent had to select a school for their son or daughter to sit the exam it meant that the boy or girl had to attend the school of their choice to sit the exam.
Gordon is right to remember the anxiety of the 'recall'. No 'recall', no 'scholarship'. And he is right to remember what a formidable experience it was for an 11 year-old to face this board of important people who fired questions from all sides. In the same year I remember having to face such a grilling.I had to read a passage which I have since identified which came from 'Ivanhoe' in which a knight came to a hermitage. I was asked what was a hermitage and I replied "A pub". I think I would have lost my chance if a perceptive member of the august committee had not asked me why I thought that. I replied "Because a pub is called that round our way." Such are the accidents of education.
After the 1944 Act came into operation 120 boys who had passed the 11+ and indicated that they had shown some preference for the school attended Alsop. What happened to those who narrowly 'failed' the 'scholarship? They went to Central Schools such as Evered Avenue, St Margarets, Arundel Avenue where they were supposed to get a commercial education."

The war saw the school evacuated in September 1939, to Holyhead in North Wales , under a new headmaster - S.W. Whitehouse (later Rev. Whitehouse). The boys stayed there until February 1940, before returning to Liverpool and the blitz. Jack Hill (1940-1944) tells me that "the school was evacuated a second time, to Bangor, North Wales after the May blitz in 1941." The school escaped damage during the war, even though places as close as Walton Church were completely gutted by the bombing. The only damage was caused by a barrage balloon which apparently occupied the cricket pitch! Gordon Butler (1936-1940) and his brother Peter gave us this account of the Barrage Balloon Incident recently on the Topica List

After the war, further buildings were put up - the dining annex, the assembly hall (where we watched "League of Gentlemen" for the end of term movie in 1966), the Library and Art room (completed around 1953-4) and the Woodwork shop. Previously the Hall had been the ground floor area behind the front tower with windows onto the yard; when the new hall was opened this area was converted into three classrooms onto the yard and laboratories(?) to the front onto Queens Drive. (Thanks to Bill Lea for this info).
Further additions later, included a new block with Laboratories, a gym, and the Metalwork shop. In recent years, the school also acquired the old Arnot Street school On County Road and adjacent to Arnot Street primary school, the lower school was designed by a company or Architects called Gilling Dod, based in the Cunard Buildings Liverpool. The lower school was demolished and the site has been used to develop a Kwik Save and a car park. Even more recently (Summer 2002), the old playing field has been paved over, and filled with Portacabins and parking spaces - this has provoked much discussion on the Topica list, and there are photographs documenting the changes at Brian's site.

Mr Whitehouse retired in 1953, and the headmastership was taken over by L.W. Warren, who was headmaster during my time at the school, eight years later, and was to take the school into the comprehensive system, in 1966.

The upheaval of amalgamating the grammar school and a secondary modern school in 1966 was felt not only by the boys and staff but the Headmaster - here is a bulletin to the staff from the period: (Thanks again to George Lucy);"I am constantly involved in an unpredictable variety of detail where the daily life of the school is concerned. I still find myself doing anything from talking to the D.E.S. on the telephone to dealing with cut knees, feelings of nausea, taking deliveries of goods when no one else is about, to acting as a buffer on which staff and boys can relieve their emotions when internal temperature has reached flashpoint. At one time Friday afternoon could be quite memorable for distant roarings which culminated in angry scenes at the the study door. Last week, there being no other resource available, I stapled a gaping seam in the trousers of Burton of 5B. He was appreciative at the time, but did not hesitate to tell me at 4 p.m. that the experiment had failed."

The Headmaster after L W Warren was Arthur Roberts who was head through the change to a co-ed school. After him, was Alan Yates and the current head is Phil Jamieson.

For most of its history the school was known as `Alsop High School "for boys", but in 1986, the first girls were finally allowed to attend! It was always a wonder to me why they thought to keep us all in separate schools anyway - and I'll be very pleased to hear from any former pupils, of either gender! It was only in the late 60s that female teachers made an appearance, (apart from the war years, when all the male teachers were away). The summer of 2002 saw the school adapted to take all the students formerly of Queen Mary High School which has been closed