History of Marlborough College Liverpool

The information below comes from historical newspapers, directories and online sources but above all from pupils and others associated with the school from the 1930s until the 1960s who's assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

In 1865 William Woods, born 1830, opened a school at 47 Everton Road Liverpool calling it Everton Road Academy. He had previously taught at St Peter’s ‘National School’ in Everton and before that at Liverpool College, then sited in Shaw Street. He was assisted by his two daughters both trained teachers. Woods soon moved his school just down the road to number 61 Everton Road and there offered:-

By 1884 he had moved his school to numbers 8&10 Marlborough Road Tuebrook and renamed it Marlborough Collegiate School. He was offering much the same as at Everton Road plus ‘a sound commercial education with French, shorthand & bookkeeping.’

In 1880 the house at number 10 was advertised for rent at £45 per year, being described as having two large entertaining rooms, seven bedrooms and a large cellar. We can assume number 8, the other half of the semi-detached eventually occupied by the school, was identical.

Woods was still running the school in 1891 but it was then taken over by Frederick John Wilkinson who was born 1863 at Pravancour, Madras, India to British parents. It was now called Marlborough College.

Wilkinson added to the reputation of the school and was known for taking an interest in the welfare of pupils; it was not unknown for him to delay invoicing for fees if families found themselves in financial difficulties.

Wilkinson organised annual school concerts in the Derby Hall which is now Tuebrook Post office. This advertisement is for the May 1892 event and the photograph shows Frederick John Wilkinson in 1935 .

F J Wilkinson continued to run the school until at least 1933. His descendants carried on the tradition by being deeply involved with both education and music. He had always been athletic and after retiring won the championship tennis singles at Heswall aged 83.

About 1933 Marlborough College was taken over by Mr Eliot H Roberts who was headmaster until 1946 when he moved to Heaton Moor College in Stockport to replace his father Joseph Roberts as headmaster.

In the 1930s there were about 50-60 pupils in six forms, boys starting at age 7. The 1^st form classroom was on the left hand ground floor looking from the front the entrance being via the main door corresponding to that on the other side of the building. It was independent of the rest of the school so the first year pupils didn't mix with the more elevated mortals except for morning prayers and "playtime". The junior and senior classes were on the ground floor with the intermediates on the first floor.

Before the Second World War the School shared a sports ground in Oak Lane, West Derby (at the end of Muirhead Avenue). It was used until 1939, when it was dug up to grow food as part of the "Dig for Victory" campaign. One afternoon every week pupils would troop off by tram from Tuebrook down Muirhead Avenue to Oak Lane to play football. Apart from the weekly matches there was also an annual "sports day". Mr Roberts would present the prizes which were donated by parents. There were also Guy Fawkes Night events at Oak Lane which stopped when war broke out because of the obvious risk from enemy aircraft.

Most of the staff left for war services and the school numbers declined. By 1944 there were only about 25 pupils left and not a lot was being taught except drawing. As the school was not registered for the School Certificate anyone wanting to take the exam had to move to another school. The College of Preceptors’ exams were offered, a tradition which extended from the earliest days of the school to its closure in the 60s. The teaching staff consisted of Mr Roberts and one of his daughters, also Mr Maskell who seemed to teach everything in sight, Mr Beckett and "Gus" whose surname was unknown. Chemistry was dropped from the curriculum and the lab bolted. Physics should have followed but the pupils persuaded Mr Roberts to keep it going. One pupil’s strongest memory concerned ‘carpentry’. The wear and tear of countless feet over the floor boards regularly caused a breakdown between the joists which was the call for him and his friend to find a suitable piece of wood in the basement to carry out repaired, during their lunch break, using their own tools!

The main pupil's entrance was to the right side of the building with a concrete playground to the rear. Mr Roberts parked his car to the left of the building.

Mr Ronald H P Larter took over as headmaster in 1946 and oversaw the school’s move from Marlborough Road Tuebrook out to a large house called 'The Lodge' in more rural Hayman’s Green West Derby. He was single at this time but married Miss Roberts the school secretary in 1948. Her brother, the previous headmaster of Marlborough, moved to Heaton Moor College in Stockport. Sporting events regularly took place between the schools but with Heaton Moor being larger it had an advantage and usually won the soccer games. There were also cricket matches against St Mary's College, Crosby.

Our colleague Tony Jacobs started at M.C in the third term after the school moved from Marlborough Road out to Haymans Green. The new school uniforms, (blue and white) were purchased from Watson Prickard, made to measure and quite expensive. The caps however were not made until a month later. Mr Larter asked if anyone was wearing a cap from another school so Tony put his hand up and received a brown one in the old school colour to wear until the new ones arrived. Tony, on the right below in the 'new uniform', supplied the photo showing the old cap badge.

When the school first moved to West Derby there were three houses, Tudor, Stuart and York, Marlborough house being added in 1948. At this time the school colours changed from purple and brown to blue and white. Soon after the school moved to West Derby Mr Larter gave the boys the choice of the Art class or ‘Grazing’. The latter referred to working on the land that was going to be a sports field at the end of the playground. Naturally grazing was the preferred alternative. The only student who objected was called Johnstone, a brilliant artist. The promised sports field at the bottom of the playground never eventuated, and the land was sold for housing. When the school closed down in the 1960s the rest was also sold for housing and the school building demolished. When Heaton Moor College closed in about 1970 it in turn was sold to developers and is a now replaced by a block of 21 flats called College House.

When it moved to West Derby the school had a small Preparatory Department, Transition, Third, Fourth and Fifth Forms, later a Remove was added. Mr Larter taught English and Art and a Mr Frank Jenks from New York taught languages, and organised the annual school plays which were held in a church hall in Tuebrook. These were well supported and with the assistance of Mr Jenks theatrical’ friends were quite professional. As part of French studies pupils used to go to a cinema in Birkenhead that specialised in French films.
One other teacher at this time was Mr Graham, a large and powerful fellow, who had been a tank commander in the war. He taught history and geography. There was also Mr Tynon, whose father was the minister for a large church near Anfield, Liverpool FC’s football ground and Mr Cox who gave the autograph shown below to one of the pupils in 1952.

Various clubs were started including Radio, Archery and Electronics although neither lasted for any length of time. The Archery Club was considered too dangerous, not only for the pupils, but for the local inhabitants. When the Electronics Club closed members who had paid 2/6 to join had it repaid by the boy who started it. The founder of the Radio Club, Jeff Diggle who was a real electronics genius, both designed and built a school intercom system at Mr Larter’s request. This meant that Mr Larter could hear what was going on in every classroom and communicate with any class whenever he wanted. Here is a membership card for the club belonging to old boy Tony Jacobs

There were weekly soccer matches on a public ground just off Mill Lane at the rear of the bowling greens. Pupils had to carry the goal posts there and take them back to the school before going home. Boxing became a school sport being cheap and easy, the boxing room being next to the fourth form. Most people dreaded it, but a couple of pupils were interested in the ‘noble art’ and did a lot of training at lunch times. One day Tony Jacobs was drawn to fight Eric Rowcroft. Nobody told Tony of the rule that you step forward touch gloves and step backwards, so when he moved forward he gave Eric a fine left hook. That was the only time he got the advantage, as Eric won the bout hands down.

A room was established for the prefects who, with the assistance of fathers, made a great job of painted and decorated and fitting it out with arm chairs, book shelves and other fittings. It was located on the third floor at the Haymans Green side with a nice window view. At one Xmas breakup, after Mr Dilworth the husband of one of the teachers had finished his usual conjuring act, this time with an additional escape artist show, the prefects invited the staff up to their room. Mothers had provided some rather nice food and one father, who worked for Carlsberg, provided a dozen or so largers so the prefects could offer the guests a drink. The staff stayed for possibly half an hour then Mr Larter said he would be out for a couple of hours with Miss Roberts and if we snipped and closed the back door we could stay as long as we liked. About ten Carlsberg plus some other beer was left so the prefects put it to good use and were soon intoxicated. Outside of the room’s window there was a tall tree, which one of the prefects climbed while another opened the window, and threw the bucket of water they had for washing the glassware over him. Fortunately they managed to clean up, lock the premises and got a note of thanks from the staff at the start of the next term. The room was later turned into a staff room and the prefects were allocated another one on the third floor, without the fittings, which I was never used.

A tragedy occurred in the fourth form, which at the time was located at the top of the stairs on the right hand side; it was quite a nice large room with a big fireplace. There was a large bay window virtually from the ceiling to floor and unfortunately a pupil Roland Gladwell fell out onto the playground below. He was quite seriously injured and the police were involved. Safety bars were soon fitted. Mr. Larter asked one of our old boys, Harry Davies, to catch a bus to see the pupil’s mother with a note to say that her son was in hospital as she apparently did not have a telephone. Harry was active in the St. John Ambulance Brigade as a cadet sergeant and was a qualified first-aider. Mr. Larter asked him to handle first-aid for the school especially at football matches which he did for some time, paying for the first-aid material himself (or at least his parents did). The school never reimbursed a penny.

On a lighter side one amusing incident occurred, at least from a pupil’s perspective. It was a cold winter’s day and a large fire was burning with Mr Larter standing in front of it when his gown caught fire. Thankfully he was able to put it out without damage to himself or anyone else.

Mr Larter organised a series of meeting with pupils who would soon be leaving to discuss how a ‘gentleman’ from M.C. should behave. They were actually quite a good idea, and bordered on sex education to a limited, very limited extent but remember this was more than sixty years ago. One of the group asking what he should do if he accidently swore when speaking to a lady. Larter's reply was very succinct, 'Nothing; if she was a lady she would not understand what you had said.'

He then went on to explain the difference between "Wogs' and "Wops'. He said Wop was the name given to people living on the Mediterranean coast between the U.K. and Port Said. Wogs were people residing after Port Said, mainly of African origin. He said it was very poor taste to mix the titles above, as it showed you were not a real gentleman.

For some reason the school’s slogan in the early Haymans Green years was “91 Tiverton Street” and if anyone yelled ‘91’ everyone laughed. On a school trip to the Philharmonic as the tram cars passed Tiverton Street Wavertree a mighty shout of ‘91’ erupted.

The school drew pupils from all across Liverpool and indeed Wirral, the ‘across the water boys’ coming over by ferry then taking the tram from the Pier head out to West Derby.

The main examinations offered were the College of Preceptors and the Royal Drawing Society. One of the old boys eventually became the Bishop of Lagos, while others were the actors Leslie Banks and Tony Haygarth.

Many pupils remember the tall holly hedges and fine old trees in the school grounds, particularly the beautiful beech tree which made a great backdrop for school and sports team photographs. All destroyed when the housing estate replaced the school. Also remembered are the end of term films. "Trader Horn" with crocodiles spinning in the water while eating someone, "Richard III" dying twitchily on the battlefield, “A Tale of Two Cities” and "Return to the Forbidden Planet" with the invisible beast being shown against the electric fence?

One delight for the boys was to go to the Ice Cream shop at the end of Haymans Green and buy a four penny mix, which was a mix of vanilla and strawberry and was supposed to be the largest in Liverpool. There were also two sweet shops, Bastins and over the road at the corner of Eaton Road Mac Donald’s (Mrs Mac). One pupil was Rory Best who's brother Pete was the original drummer with the Beatles. Rory lived just down the road from Marlborough and his mother opened a club for young people in their house calling it the Casbah which was the first venue played at by the Beatles. The house is now Grade II listed with a blue plaque from English Heritage.

A number of teachers are remembered from the 1950s. Mr O’Connor who taught French and Latin, attempted science, and supervised cross country runs, usually from a borrowed bicycle. Mrs Dilworth taught the younger boys in the transition class and was the daughter of Mr Roberts and sister to Mrs Larter. She and her amateur conjurer husband lived just down the road from the school; she died in 1993. Mr Daz taught mathematics and always wore an academic gown. Mrs Blackwell who almost made sense of religious studies and Miss Evans who looked after the preparatory class which was really a nursery. Mr ‘Dixie’ Dean was a young teacher well liked by the boys. Mr Fisher and Mr Brown were both Non-Conformist ministers who joined Marlborough in the late 50s. Mr Brown later became headmaster although Mr Larter remained as ‘principle’.

Disaster struck at New Year 1962 when fire severely damaged part of the school building especially the living accommodation of Mr Larter and his family. Fortunately the building was unoccupied but the damage delayed the start of the term by about two weeks.

The school carried on for some years but eventually closed in 1966. Mr Larter became headmaster of a school in Wirral then of a boarding school in Northumberland. Details can be found on his page.