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STRUTTS - A Short History
After 18 months of bureaucratic wrangling with the educational authorities,
Herbert Strutt was finally given the go-ahead to provide a school for the town
in March 1907, for which designs were drawn up by Hunter and Woodhouse. The
site he chose for the new school was opposite the town‘s workhouse, Babington
House By the spring of 1909 the work was complete, and the school, named after its creator, was officially opened on May 7th. The Duke of Devonshire carried out the opening ceremony. The school cost some £20,000. It was decided some five years later that an
extension was needed, Some of the photographs seen here from the first years of the Herbert
Strutt School were part of a photographic album presented to the school by
students J and B Snow in 1911, and now in the possession of Belper Historical
Society. Amongst them is one Mr House prepares a slide projector for a geography lesson. In the school hall sat the bust of George Herbert Strutt, The weather station, being studied by boys from the school. There was a very clear distinction between boys' and girls' subjects at the
time these photographs were taken at Herbert Strutt School in 1911. While the
boys had woodwork lessons in the south block (later to become the
gymnasium) The school football team of 1910/11. A later class from the 1930s. Herbert Strutt School‘s first prep form in February 1936. Herbert Strutt School after the iron railings were removed from the
boundary wall for the war effort in the 1940s. Herbert Strutt School became a primary school following a shake-up in education brought in by the Government in 1971. It remained a primary school until its closure in February 2007, when children moved to a new school, taking the Herbert Strutt name with them. | ||||||||
and it was created
in a style which would compliment this older building.
costing Alderman Strutt a further £10,000. The
original headmaster was Mr W W Tunnicliffe,
who was appointed in
February 1909 and served in that post until his retirement in 1936. 
of
the original staff. With headmaster
Mr W W Tunnicliffe (centre) are Mrs B M Davenport, Miss E M Barker, Miss N
Symons, Mr H G Wright, Mr J W Raistrick, Mr H B Snow and Mr S E House. Below
is the school football team for the 1910/11 season.
presented to the founder of the school in January 1910 in appreciation of his
paying for the building of the school, and providing the land. About 1,500
people from the surrounding areas had donated money towards the bust, which Mr
Strutt decided should remain at the school. The sculptor had been given a
number of photographs to work from, including this one. 
, the girls were taking
domestic science in the north block. 
In August of that
year, the school was told that about 90 schoolboys would shortly be evacuated
to Belper from a coastal district. In the end, about 200 boys from Westcliff
High School were found homes in the town, and shared the school with local
children, Westcliff in the mornings and Belper students in the afternoon.