Thereafter schools opened at regular intervals: 1906, Parkfield Cedars Primary and Clarence Road Elementary; 1911 Derby Girls High School; 15 April 1913, Reginald Street Schools - infant and primary (now St. James'). In 1917, the mansion built by the Sanders family c1820 on Kedleston Road, known as Parkfield Cedars, was adapted and opened as the Derby Girls' Municipal Secondary School with extensions by Antliff and C.B.Sherwin. To serve the expansion of population around Rolls Royce, Nightingale Junior School was opened in 1927. In 1928, Sir Henry Bemrose laid the foundation stone of a new Grammar School to be built on the site at the Rowditch on Uttoxeter Road, where previously the Abell family's home, Elm Tree House, had stood.

Education children in expanding areas of housing was, from 1902, a concern of the borough. Two years after the Education Act, the Higher Grade School in Gerard Street was 'municipalised' and in 1917 the girls were moved out to the Sanders family villa on Kedleston Road, Parkfield Cedars, added to by C.B.Sherwin, Borough Surveyor. The boys were shifted to a new school, built athwart the alignment of the old Roman Road from Rowditch to Littleover, named after Sir Henry Bemrose who had lived at Lonsdale Hill adjacent, in 1930.

I have been unable to ascertain the age of the buildings (left) in Hastings Street which now house Hardwick School, nor whether at one time they were the home of the first Derby Central School.

The First Headmasters

The very first headmaster of the new Central School for Boys was Mr. Slater, pictured (left) in 1927. The Slater Shield for Scholastic Work was clearly named after him at some later date. Subsequently Mr. Horace Hainsworth (right) was appointed as Head in 1928 and was at the helm for the move to Abbey Street and thereafter to Darley Park. Born in 1882 young Horace lived in days when boys could leave school at thirteen to begin work. He was no exception, so after

completing his education at St. Paul's School, Chester Green he went along to the local Labour Authority, passed a required examination and began work as a pattern-maker. He might have remained in this trade were it not for the Vicar of St. Paul's who discerned that Horace might make an ideal teacher.

Horace later said: “As a pupil-teacher, I had to attend classes at night and teach during the day. Today teachers have no practical instruction in teaching until they are actually at college. That may mean he or she does not discover if they are cut out for the profession until it is too late.”

From being a pupil teacher at St. Paul’s, Chester Green, he went to St. John’s College, Battersea. Later he studied at the London School of Economics and obtained his B.Sc. degree at London University.  He married in 1908, just two years before the foundation of the Derby Central School. His own teaching posts were at  Gerard Street, Firs Estate, and then at the Municipal Secondary School. In all Horace served about 20 years as a teacher before he came to the attention of the Education Committee. Derby Central School, in Hastings Street, needed a new Head and, now aged 46 years, with a wealth of experience in Derby schools, he was seen to be just the man. When he took up his new position in September 1928 he saw all too keenly that the school was overcrowded and using overflow accommodation.

Before moving on we should also note that a mere two years before Horace became Head a young boy by the name of Ron Cook had left. In 1942, after Mr. Hainsworth had moved the school for a second time, Ron would come back to join the staff as an English Master. If only we could have an account of their conversations as they remembered the 'old days' at Hastings Street!!

Many years later Ron Cook, one of the school's most popular masters, wrote, “The boys at Central School were divided into four houses: Athenians, Corinthians, Olympians and Spartans, and the object was to find the winning house. The classical names date from the early 1920s when the school was in Hastings Street, and they accompanied the school on its various migrations. As a schoolboy I was at Hastings Street from 1919 to 1926, and was an Olympian."

Ron was, however, mistaken about the early naming of the houses. It is sure that the Hellenistic naming of the houses dated back to the early years but the first house names were: Trojans (green), Corinthians (yellow), Olympians (red), Grecians (blue). It seems that the Trojans and Grecians were dropped in favour of Spartans and Athenians after Mr. Swaine became Headmaster in 1944. Boss Swaine, after all, did have a degree in History and he probably wanted to be more classically correct!

A year after Mr. Hainsworth became Headmaster, a young Ken Goodhead became one of the pupils. Although he died a few years ago we are fortunate enough to have a letter from him in which he remarks to Arthur Redsell  "When I first started at Hastings St. in 1929 it was overcrowded and we often used a Sunday School in Walbrook Rd. in forms I & II. When the new Bemrose School was completed in about 1930 ... we moved into their old school in Abbey Street (so we were no longer called the Hastings Street Bucket Bangers). Don’t ask me the history behind that."

So that was the plan. Bemrose School was to vacate their home in Abbey Street in favour of new buildings in Uttoxeter Road. The Hastings Street 'Bucket Bangers' could move to Abbey Street. When the time came, after only two years as Headmaster the Boss, as he came to be called, would have led the charge.

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