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Holmwood

Categories: Education

British History Online 1 gives "The mathematician Charles Babbage (1792-1871) and the novelist Captain Frederick Marryat (1792- 1848) attended a school run by the Revd. Stephen Freeman in a house in Baker Street later known as Holmwood."  Grace's Guide says that Babbage: "joined a 30-student Holmwood academy, in Baker Street, Enfield, Middlesex under Reverend Stephen Freeman. The academy had a well-stocked library that prompted Babbage's love of mathematics."

Freeman's ledger covering the period 1806 - 48 is held at the London Metropolitan Archives and The National Archives give: "The Reverend Stephen Freeman's School was a red brick house situated at the upper end of Baker Street in Enfield, known as Holmwood." About Baker Street, British History Online 2 gives: "Large houses which survived until the 20th century included ... Holmwood and Pattensweir, adjacent 18th-century buildings at the corner of Clay Hill." 

Sadly there seems to be no image available of Holmwood/Holmwood Academy. But the map of 1935 shows it, alongside Pattensweir at the junction. Trying to work out which is which, we found at the National Archives, a 1834 conveyance for Pattensweir (Pattens Ware), "A piece of land 1a 2r 34p fronting towards the south on the public road leading from Clay Hill to Baker Street and bounded towards the east by the new river". This has a "Plan incorporated" which would answer our question but it's not online. Also, with no mention of a house this suggests that neither house had yet been built.

The line of trees running approximately north-south on our map indicate the old course of the New River and Baker Street already existed in 1834 so the parcel of land either had a road running across it or it was only the land between the River and Bakers Street, and not the land on which the two houses were built at all.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Holmwood

Commemorated ati

Captain Frederick Marryat - Enfield

Capt Frederick Marryat, 1792 - 1848, novelist, was educated at 'Holmwood' on ...

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Other Subjects

Nightingale Nurse Training School

Nightingale Nurse Training School

In full, the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care. The world's first nursing school to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital (St Thomas's) and me...

Group, Education, Medicine

1 memorial
Chelsea College of Art & Design

Chelsea College of Art & Design

From their website: "Chelsea College of Arts is one of London's most prestigious art and design colleges." From c.2005 based at the Millbank Prison site.

Group, Art, Craft / Design, Education

1 memorial
Bushra Nasir

Bushra Nasir

Studied at Queen Mary University and in 1997 became the first Muslim headteacher of a state school, Plashet School for Girls in East Ham.

Person, Education

1 memorial
Stanley Hall & Baths

Stanley Hall & Baths

From the splendid Acland Burgley School history site we learn that the Honourable E. Lyulph Stanley (1839-1925 and son of Lady Stanley) was an energetic member of the London School Board with speci...

Building, Community / Clubs, Education, Sport / Games

1 memorial
Harvard University

Harvard University

One of the most prestigious American universities, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Named after its first benefactor John Harvard.

Building, Education, USA

1 memorial

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C. A. V. Humphrey

C. A. V. Humphrey

Surbiton man killed serving in WW2.

Person

War dead, WW2
1 memorial
John Ortelli

John Ortelli

Giovanni Battista Ortelli was a successful Italian businessman who founded the Italian Hospital Queen Square. The badly deteriorated Ortelli family vault is at St Mary's RC Cemetery, NW10. There y...

Person, Benefactor, Italy

1 memorial
Putney Bridge

Putney Bridge

The first bridge crossing the river here was constructed in wood and opened in November 1729. Badly damaged by a boat in 1870 it was repaired but then completely replaced, with the stone structure ...

Building, Transport

1 memorial
Walter Soares

Walter Soares

Pilot Officer Walter Gordon Soares was born on 19 December 1918 in Brawley, Imperial County, California, USA, the eldest of the four children of Alberto Gualter Soares (1881-1956) and Irma E. Soare...

Person, USA

War dead, WW2
1 memorial