Leek High School

In May 1891 the Leek Technical Instruction Committee was formed to plan a programme of evening classes and identify a site for a Technical School to deliver them in. Land behind the Nicholson Institute on Stockwell Street was purchased in August 1895. In 1897 the Town Council agreed that plans for the Technical School building should be modified to... include a co-educational secondary day school. The new building was opened on July 28th 1900 and Leek High School received its first students in September of that year. Two new rooms were added in 1914 to provide space for increasing student numbers and a further two rooms were added in 1920. By this time the school was full but it was found that building a replacement school would be too expensive. This problem was solved by purchasing Westwood Hall and transferring all the girls there in September 1922. From this date onward Leek High School was a boys school with a preparatory department for boys and girls. At the same time land between Beggars Lane and Westwood Road was purchased with the intention of building a new school on it. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on February 10th 1938 and the school moved to Westwood Road in 1940. Today these buildings house St. Edwards Church of England Academy. In 1965 the national reorganisation of schools to create modern comprehensives led to the school moving again to its present site on Springfield Road occupying the buildings of the former Mountside Boys School and Milner Girls School.Read More