A VILLAGE school celebrated a century at the heart of the community on Saturday.

Long Preston School first admitted pupils on January 10 1898, and exactly 100 years later, more than 200 pupils, staff, governors, former pupils, teachers and villagers connected with the school celebrated the special birthday.

A service was held in nearby St Mary's Church followed by refreshments and entertainments at the school.

Headteacher John Anderton related the history of the school, interspersed with songs from the decades performed by the children.

Then the very youngest nursery children joined former pupils, including well known local man Anthony Bradley, of Church Street, Settle, and the oldest Elsie Rhodes (ne Wilson) to cut a cake specially made for the occasion.

All the pupils received a commemorative mug and badge.

Mr Anderton told the Herald: "The school was officially opened on January 3 1898 by the Bishop of Ripon and the children were first admitted on January 10.

"Before that there were three schools in Long Preston - infants, boys and girls. They were formed into one school because conditions in the boys' school were so bad.

"They had to have all the windows open, even in the middle of winter, and there was trouble with the toilets too. The girls' school was next door to a piggery.

"In the old log books, references keep coming up that the new school would be built soon and that the children were working under terrible conditions.

"The last headteacher of the boys' school said it would be a disgrace to any village in the country."

The school was built with money given by Long Preston woman Miss Isabella Hall to Settle solicitor William Hartley to create a trust fund.

The Hartley Trust provided the £3,200 it cost to build and furnish the new school, and still operates today, giving grants to local youngsters to help them with their higher education costs, as well as maintaining an involvement with the primary school by providing funds to pay for some activities.

Back in 1898, there were 120 pupils in the school - as compared to 51 today - and they were aged from infancy to 14.

Over the years the school has continued to play a vital role in the community.

During the First World War, the children collected eggs to send to troops, and also collected £600 between 1914 and 1918. The school was seriously considered as a location for a soldiers' convalescent hospital.

Arrangements were even made to move lessons into the mechanics institute, but the idea never reached fruition.

Today Mr Anderton says the same village hall would be where he would move pupils should the school premises have to close for any reason.

In 1916 the then headteacher joined up to fight in the First World War. He came back twice on leave, and was then tragically killed by an exploding bomb.

After trawling through the records of 100 years of learning in Long Preston, Mr Anderton reckons he has now heard every excuse in the book for not coming to school.

"They often missed school for haytime, and when there were the two big fairs, the sheep fair and the hiring fair. The lads would go to look after the horses and other animals. They even used to close the school because of this."

There were also epidemics of diseases like diptheria and scarlet fever, and houses were fumigated and the school scrubbed.

"One excuse read: 'was hit in the eye with a bullet from a catapult'," said Mr Anderton.

There were treats for the youngsters too. One year a rumour flew round the village that King George V was going to pass through in a car.

The headteacher let all the children go to line the road so they could catch a glimpse of the monarch - and they were all back in school by 9.20am the records say!

Maypole dancing has also played a part in school life, although it has become more of a regular feature in recent years.

Events of national importance also appear in the annuls of the school.

When the total solar eclipse took place in 1927 the teachers took the children out onto the moors to view the phenomenon, and a party of no less than 400 teachers "rested" in the school to get up at 5am to see the eclipse.

The top picture by Stephen Garnett shows a number of the children dressed as their forebears would have done to go to school 100 years ago.

The old photograph of Long Preston School children was taken in 1935 and was loaned by John Kitson. It shows, left to right, back row: John Robinson, Robert Slater, Charlie Kitson, Brian Bradley, Frank Hogg, Charlie Waddington, John Earnshaw; centre row: Mary Umpleby, Mary Andrews, Alice Horner, Audrey Williams, Irene Constantine, Amy Procter, Margaret Gane, Florence Kayley; front row: Ernest Foster, Dennis Procter, John Kitson, Kathleen Gibson, John Gibson, Janey Gane, Mary Ostler, Margaret Slater, Ronald Arthurs, Arthur Gray, Eric Arthurs, Stephen Woodcock. Headteacher Mr J Lowe is on the left and infant teacher Mrs Handby on the right.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.