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Location 14: The Quadrant
Cutting back along Church Walk, turn right onto the quadrant and opposite on the east of the Trafalgar Alms Houses would have stood The Gray School.
The Gray School Vine Street
In 1822 Vine Street Methodist Chapel was sold for £950 to trustees to fund a school for the poor. In 1827 an adjoining parcel was purchase for £85 as residence for master and mistresses. In 1813 Elizabeth Woodcock transferred £1000, 4% stock as a permanent endowment. The building was later enlarged and used by the National Schools. The masters and mistresses were paid £1000 a year and £60 other expenses. The scholars, about 400 boys and 50 girls paid weekly to the trustees of Lord Crewe’s charity £20, (the endowment £40, annual subscription £4) with the rector Robert Gray making up the balance.
In 1857 the Gray School trustees sold the school to Robert and William Wright who built the Sunderland Iron foundry there.
The Gray School then moved to the Quadrant on the edge of the Town Moor.
Left: Gray School 1823 in Vine Street
Above: Gray School 1923 on Quadrant of the Town Moor
These drawings were done by a former Gray School pupil Tim Scott in 1923. The Vine Street drawing was taken from an earlier sketch. Tim Scott lost the use of his right hand in the First World War. He then learned to draw with his left hand and produced the above sketches.
Many will remember the prefab homes built along the quadrant after the end of WW2 to help house those displaced by wartime bomb damage. This 1945 housing emergency was met with prefabs, the first of which were built that year in Hendon. These homes, seen as a temporary fix to a housing shortage, still remained in other parts of the city. Many fond memories are shared of these early prefabs.
