The Battle of Aycliffe

Her Majesty does not know, though, of the right unroyal rumpus which caused the school to be built in the first place. There isn't enough room in Saturday's Memories to tell the fantastic story, but here is the version of it that appeared in Echo Memories in 2006: =============================== THE Battle of Aycliffe was a magnificently parochial confrontation. The vicar, egged on by his wife, sacked the popular schoolmaster for missing choir practice. After a comical showdown at the school door, villagers victoriously dragged the teacher on a sleigh through the snow to the back of a pub where he held temporary lessons.

Then they raised nearly £1,000 to build him his own school, which opened triumphantly just three minutes' walk from the vicar's educational establishment on the green.

This weekend, the villagers' school is the scene of an exhibition which recalls the Battle of Aycliffe and the history of the village that was cut in two by the Great North Road - and was bitterly divided by the behaviour of the vicar.

The hero of the tale is Henry Thompson, an Alnwick lad who had qualified as a teacher at Bede College, Durham. He was working in a school in Northumberland in May 1875 when Canon John Eade offered him the post of schoolmaster of Aycliffe National School.

Canon Eade was the vicar of St Andrew's Church, in the village; his son, Reverend Charles John Aylmer Eade, was a curate.

All went well. Henry started work on August 8, 1875, and three years later, Canon Eade awarded him a £10 bonus due to the good results. "I hope your school will continue to flourish, and be a great and lasting good to the people of Aycliffe, " wrote the Canon.

In 1879, Canon Eade retired.

His son, Rev Eade, took over.

Life in Aycliffe continued swimmingly. Until 1885, when Rev Eade married.

The vicar took his new wife to meet the schoolmaster. It was breaktime. There were a couple of children in detention.

"You must send them out, " said Mrs Eade, who had no educational experience, to the headteacher of ten years' standing.

"Oh, yes, Mr Thompson, " said the vicar. "You must send them out. Mrs Eade says so."

A little while later, Mr Thompson was so engrossed in his work, he forgot to ring the schoolbell until five minutes after the appointed hour. Mrs Eade in the vicarage was outraged. She sent the vicar over to remonstrate. Rev Eade said: "Mrs Eade will have punctuality in her house and in all who serve her."

Then - about 1892 - the vicar caught Mr Thompson's son "opening his eyes" during Sunday prayers. The vicar ordered that the boy be reprimanded so Mr Thompson - desperate to keep the peace - publicly marched home across the green to their home.

Rumour raged like wildfire about how Mr Thompson had been compelled by the vicar to inflict serious punishment upon his own son for a trivial offence.

The rumour reached the vicar's ear. He summoned the teacher to the vicarage. "If ever you annoy me again, you go, " he said. "Do you understand me? You go."

The final annoyance happened on August 10, 1894.

Friday night. The teacher and his sons were heading to Darlington along the Great North Road in their pony and trap. Coming home from Darlington were the vicar and his wife. In passing, they waved.

Abruptly, the vicar turned his horse around and pursued the teacher. "Why are you and your boys hurrying away from choir practice when Mrs Eade and I are hurrying to it?" shouted Rev Eade.

It was holidaytime. As the Thompsons were going to be miss Sunday's service, Henry thought they'd skip the practice as well.

"You, Mr Thompson, are the parish schoolmaster, and you set a bad example, " bellowed the vicar.

Next morning at 10am, a letter was hand-delivered to Henry.

"It is with great regret, and after many months of consideration, that I now write to carry out my threat of some years ago, when I stated at length my complaints which have not be given up but rather increased, and I now give you notice that your work will cease on November 11, 1894, " read the letter from the peeved vicar.

The Battle of Aycliffe had begun. A petition rattled round the village saying Mr Thompson had been sacked "ignominiously and without valid cause" and demanding his reinstatement. It was signed by 162 parents representing 449 children.

The National Union of Teachers took up the cause. It alleged that the vicar was unable to account for some money in the school budget, and that the dismissal was illegal.

To counter the second allegation, the vicar called the first meeting of the school's managers in 20 years on August 27. It was held in the vestry and was attended by the vicar, his churchwarden (Mr Baker), George Chapman (a councillor who had refused to sign off the school accounts some years earlier, much to the vicar's annoyance) and John Henderson.

A new minute book recorded that Rev Eade and Mr Baker voted in favour of the sacking of Mr Thompson - Mr Chapman and Mr Henderson merely acting as "amused onlookers" - and so the teacher received a second notice of dismissal.

The Bishop of Durham halfheartedly tried to arbitrate, and on November 5, Rev Eade invited the overseers of Aycliffe, Brafferton, Preston-le-Skerne and Woodham, plus the churchwardens, to another meeting in the vestry. He called these people the "trustees" of the school, and they agreed to send Mr Thompson another notice of dismissal - his third.

Friday, February 8, 1895, was his last day. He wrote to all parents saying that if the vicar refused to allow him into the school on Monday, he had set up - with much assistance from the NUT - a temporary classroom in the High Street behind the County Hotel.

"In this time of trouble I rely on your moral support and kindly sympathy which, for the present, can be best shown by your continuing to place your children under my care, " he wrote.

That snowy evening, Herbert Flowers arrived at Aycliffe station. The vicar had offered him the headship of the school to replace the sacked Mr Thompson.

"He was met with a warm, but by no means encouraging, greeting from a number of the villagers, old and young, who had congregated to receive him, " reported The Northern Echo. "On alighting from the train he was assailed with groans, derisive cheers, and hooting, and on his way to his house he was the mark at which numerous snowballs were hurled by the juveniles amongst the crowd."

Monday, February 11, dawned with the whole village encamped on the wintry green awaiting the showdown.

Mr Flowers - whose relatives still live in Aycliffe - was the first to show, greeted by hoots and shouts of "blackleg".

"Walking rapidly with a jaunty air and would-be careless smile, he passed through the excited throng unimpeded, only to find (the main door) locked and entrance impracticable, " reported The Echo. The crowd's mocking grew, and, flustered, he sought shelter in a cottage.

Enter the vicar and his solicitor, EE Meek of Darlington. They "were also assailed with jeers, hoots and other unequivocal marks of general disfavour". The vicar unlocked the door and, with Mr Flowers, disappeared inside.

Enter Mr Thompson. "The old and esteemed schoolmaster was cheered again and again as he crossed from his house to the school, at the door of which he was confronted by Mr Meek who informed him that 'the committee did not require his services' any longer, " said the partial Echo.

"After a brief colloquy, Mr Thomson faced about and, addressing the assembly of villages, said: 'This gentleman has been sent for the purpose of preventing my entrance, and you see that I am forcibly prevented from obtaining entrance this morning.' (Cries of 'shame' and renewed hooting. )" Someone found a sleigh. "Mr Thompson was invited to seat himself in this conveyance and was hauled rapidly to the temporary premises, " said The Echo. "With very few exceptions, the whole of the scholars - numbering over 70 - and many adults followed the sleigh, cheering and applauding its occupant, who was also greeted with unvarying expressions of sympathy and encouragement."

There were only 15 pupils rattling around in the vicar's school which had room for 250.

Mr Thompson must have thought he'd won the battle: the "trustees" regrouped and reinstated him, and the Charity Commissioners investigated and awarded him £100 for unfair dismissal.

The vicar, though, was not defeated. After a year without hostilities, Rev Eade formed a new group of "school managers" who summoned Mr Thompson to a meeting. They offered him just £66 6s 1/2d in compensation, gave him a fourth notice of dismissal and told him to quit the schoolhouse forthwith.

This time, Mr Thompson set up school in the Methodist chapel on the green, and poor old Mr Flowers received yet more hooting as he took over at the church school.

Mr Thompson's supporters, egged on by the union, realised rapprochement was impossible, and in April 1897 began collecting to build a new school.

Councillor George Chapman immediately offered a piece of land fronting the Great North Road; farmers started carting 80,000 bricks free of charge.

The Aycliffe Diamond Jubilee School was formally opened on April 18, 1898, amid great celebrations and great words.

Mr CJ Addiscott, president of the NUT, said the people of Aycliffe "had given a lesson to the country which he ventured to say would not be lost for some time. Aycliffe had shown the world it would stand no hole-and-corner business".

And so this little village had two schools. The vicar's struggled on until the 1920s and was demolished in the 1950s.

Mr Thompson's thrived. It survived his death in 1914, and lasted until 1970 when the current school was built behind it.

Since 1970, it has been the village hall and as such, it will host this weekend's exhibition.