St Nicholas School – 3 and 4 Furzedown Road

This is fascinating.

Courtesy of William Burns, Southampton Sotonians and Friends.

Children are seen outside numbers 3&4 Furzedown Road in an image captured no later than 1909.

Running off the north side of Highfield Lane, Furzedown Road dates to the early 1900’s.

If we look up high there is a sign between the properties which reads “St Nicholas School” as I currently find nothing previously written about this school which was in existence for more than 20 years I thought I would conduct a little research.

The principle of the St Nicholas boarding school here in Furzedown Road was Miss Kate Groves, Kate was born in Sydling in the parish of ‘St Nicolas’, Devon on the 16th of December 1865. I can trace the Grove family who were Yeoman & Gentleman Farmers in Dorset back to the 1700’s, Kate’s father William Groves was a Dorset Farmer of 620 acres employing 20 men and six boys. Kate’s home parish of St Nicolas was used to name the School.

Kate was assisted at St Nicholas by her elder siblings Alice Jane Groves & Bessie Groves who all worked as teachers at St Nicolas in Furzedown Road. Before coming to Southampton the Grove sisters had previously worked as teachers in Dorset.

The ladies had originally set up the houses which consisted of 14 rooms as St Nicolas girls school, typical of the times I would guess is that finding enough parents to pay for a girls education was a hard task in the early 1900’s, which is probably why the Grove sisters decided instead to switch to a school for boys. By 1911 the school had five boys boarding at the school ranging in age from 7 to 12 years old. The Grove sisters also employed a cook at the school, and a domestic parlour maid to keep the school clean.

The school continued under the stewardship of the Grove sisters, sadly though on the 13th of October 1920 the elder of the Grove sisters ‘Bessie Groves’ died at the school aged 56.

When the Grove sisters were running St Nicolas School in Furzedown Road in 1911, the Rev. Reginald Edward Langdon MA was a Clerk in the Holy Orders he was then working as Head Master at the Royal Merchant Seamen’s Orphanage in Wanstead. Then came the great war and even though the clergy were exempt from subscription, Reginald signed up with the British Army serving in the French Red Cross as an ambulance driver, a important and dangerous job it was to, if we were to save some of those men wounded at the front. Rev Langdon was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his service.

By 1925 the Rev. Reginald Edward Langdon MA, had taken over the St Nicolas Boys’ School in Furzedown Road. The son of Devon born Surgeon ‘Thomas Langdon’ (1836-1905) Reginald was born in Winchester on the 15th of January 1884.

Two of Edward Langdon’s brothers also served in the great war, his older brother Lawrence Langdon who served as a Army Lieutenant was one the many that did not return from those battlefields, Lawrence died of his wounds in France on the 14th March 1916.

Edward’s younger brother John Langdon also served in France during the great war as a Captain in the Prince of Wales Regiment, he was one of the lucky ones that returned home, John Langdon went on to become a School Master.

Keeping the school’s name as ‘St Nicholas ‘ the Rev. Reginald Edward Langdon MA restyled the school as a Preparatory School for Boys running it until at least 1932, by 1935 St Nicholas school had gone, numbers 3 & 4 Furzedown Road had became private residences.

Rev Reginald Edward Langdon who had run St Nicholas school in Furzedown Road was 85 years old when he passed on the 27th January 1970.

The two houses that made up the school are still there today, they have changed a little from the outside but are still recognisable.

As for the Grove sisters who had set up St Nicholas school, the surviving sisters moved back to Dorset where they retired.