BUILDINGS AND BACKGROUND Greenford, Ealing & Middlesex Our school is only just in Greenford. The boundary for postal purposes runs along the pavement outside the main gates putting the Ruislip Road in Greenford but leaving our buildings in Southall. (Kensington Road is in Northolt, Lady Margaret Road is in Southall, Gosling Close and the shops opposite are in Greenford) Matters were even more confused in the past. The 1940 Ordnance Survey map had the border about twenty feet further south leaving the front corridor and hall in Greenford and the rest of the school in Southall. An entry in the Victoria County History of Middlesex (Vol.III, 1962) states quite clearly that The Greenford County Grammar School in Ruislip Road does not lie in the old parish of Greenford. And yet a document drawn up in connection with the purchase of the land in 1935 says that the land was formerly in the Parish of Northolt! Another document states that the land lies in the Sanitary District of Southall / Norwood. Another potential source of confusion concerns the administrative relationship between the district of Greenford, the Municipal Borough of Ealing and the County of Middlesex and it is worth taking a little time to sort it out. Luckily we don't need to go back further than 1894 when the Urban District of Greenford, Perivalc and West Twyford was created from existing parishes. In 1926 this council very reluctantly agreed to be absorbed into the Municipal Borough of Ealing, as did Hanwell the same year followed by NorthoIt in 1928. Ealing also started the century as an Urban District but in 1901 successfully applied for the status of municipal borough of which it became very proud, its charter being the first to be granted in the new century, the first to he signed by King Edward VII and the first to be granted to any district in Middlesex. As already stated, Greenford, Hanwell and Northolt were added to it in the 1920s. To bring the story up to date, in 1965 Southall and Acton (both boroughs by then) joined with the Municipal Borough of Ealing to form the new London Borough of Ealing. And it was at this time that the County of Middlesex was abolished as an administrative unit. Middlesex still exists as a postal area and in the organisation of certain sports, notably rugby, cricket and athletics, but as an administrative county it was abolished in 1965 and its powers transferred to nine Outer London Boroughs, including Ealing and Harrow, overseen, until its abolition in 1984, by the Greater London Council. This was not the first mishap to befall Middlesex, the 'Little Home County' second smallest after Rutland which suffered a similar fate in 1974. In the 19th century the boundaries of Middlesex extended into central London as far as the Thames with the City of Westminster falling within its jurisdiction. In 1888. however the London County Council was created thereby robbing Middlesex of a considerable area of land. Brentford became in theory at least the county town of the now much reduced county, but when the siting of a new Middlesex Guildhall was under consideration in 1912, the extraordinary decision was made to build it outside the existing county boundaries. in Parliament Square, opposite Westminster Abbey. (The lawyers no doubt couldn't face the idea of commuting to Brentford!) What relevance has all this, you may ask, to the story of Greenford County School, opened in 1939? The fact is that the school was designed for Middlesex County Council by the County Architect W.T. Curtis, Education Department, 10, Great George Street, Westminster SW I. If Greenford was firmly part of Ealing in the 1930s why was the new school built by the County architect? Under the 1902 Education Act, Ealing was what was known as a Part III authority and was responsible for elementary education. Elementary schools could take pupils up to the school leaving age (14) and as a result of the Hadow Report of 1926 were encouraged to extend schooling in higher elementary, central or modern schools. The County on the other hand retained overall responsibility for higher education, this term including technical, vocational and secondary education. The term secondary was not used as it is today. A secondary school was a selective one what was to be known after the 1944 Education Act as a grammar school. A County School So the new school was called Greenford County School and the term County would have carried considerable prestige as the school was definitely selective. It is not quite true to say that the County of Middlesex was responsible for all aspects of Higher Education. In 1919 a scheme for the establishment of local higher education committees was approved by the County Council and Ealing Higher Education Committee was formed and took over the day to day running of county secondary schools. However the County retained the authority to: 1. erect any necessary buildings after consultation with the local committees. 2. approve all schemes and estimates of local committees. 3. settle scales of salaries for all teachers. 4. award County Scholarships other than free places, and deal with all matters which generally affect the whole county, hut which are not peculiar to any one district. So this explains why in the 1930s when there was a rapid explosion of the population of Greenford, in the Municipal Borough of Ealing, the decision to build a new school was taken by the County of Middlesex. The growth of Greenford was indeed dramatic, with industries such as Peerless Wire Fencing, British Baths, Lyons, Rockware Glassworks attracted by the canal, the railways, and more particularly new roads such as the Western Avenue, Greenford Road and Whitton Avenue. Between 1911 and 1951 Greenford's population grew from 1,000 to 47,000. Between 1926 and 1939 Greenford's school population increased from 218 to 7,768. (At the time of the Domesday Book there were only 27 people at 'Greneforde' including a Frenchman!) It must also be remembered that this population explosion was happening at the same time as national and international financial crisis in the form of the General Strike of 1926 and the depression that followed. The building of much needed schools in Middlesex took place against a background of economic stringency. The County was forced into the position of pioneer. Confronted by an almost insatiable demand for school places, it decided that the cost of school building should be drastically reduced according to the standards of the time. page 11