St John's CE School & Knotty Ash Infants...
A History of the 2 buildings...
At the beginning of the 19th Century, the district of West Derby had an increasing population.
A wealthy businessman, Adam Dugdale, was living at Dovecot House, and was a generous man and keen church-goer. With two friends, he obtained the funds to build two schools - a Boys School and a Girls School - named St John the Evangelist CE Schools.
Adam Dugdale saw the need for children to be educated and built these schools with the children of the poor in mind. They were to be educated in the 3 R’s - Reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic during the week and in Church on a Sunday. This was 35 years before Schooling was made compulsory.
The building opposite the church, the boys school, was built in 1837.
The girls was built at the bottom of the hill with a schoolhouse for the mistress. This was erected in 1835 and enlarged in 1882 and 1897.
Changes...
In 1886, the Boys school became St John the Evangelist CE Infants School. And an additional classroom was built. In 1938 the City Authorities began to manage both buildings, however, both buildings remained under church ownership.
In the magazine dated July 1938, Liverpool Education authority published the following note:
“The day schools will be carried on for a certain number of infants and as a juniors school for children up to the age of eleven years for a period of 18 months until a new council school has been erected in the vicinity.” With this in mind - In 1971, the school was still being used, despite there being others in the area!
The Infant School also had a library attached to it - with 686 books in all. These books were eventually housed above Dovecot Shops and form the library there.