Looking Back at the Whitley and Monkseaton Council School
This old postcard is postmarked July 12, 1907. The caption states only that it is a picture of a Council School in Whitley Bay. Comparisons with other photographs and maps reveal that this was Whitley and Monkseaton North School, Park Avenue, seen from what would now be the back garden of 9 Coquet Avenue.
The school was built to accommodate 1,020 pupils in three departments – boys, girls and infants. This was the infants’ section, and later housed Coquet Park First School.
William McQuillen was headmaster until the early 1920s. Edith M. Walker was the girls’ mistress until the early 1930s, and Isabella P. Harvey was in charge of the infants until about 1932. Notes at the Education Office state that the school was built in 1905, although the log book began in 1903.
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