Miss Elizabeth Farmer’s Day and Boarding School at 24 Bridewell Street, 28 Bridewell Street and at 40 Long Street, Devizes

Miss Farmer took over Miss Foster's Bridewell Street School in the late 1870s and until the mid 1880s she ran it there. In 1889/90 she was at Eastbourne House, 28 Bridewell Street as shown by the advertisment below. By 1891 she had definitely moved the school to Long Street as shown by the census. By 1895 Miss Barnham with Miss Kirby had taken over the School at 40 Long Street. It closed in 1905.

Elizabeth Farmer was born in Bath in 1849, but by the age of 2 their family had moved to the Lavington area of Wiltshire. Her father was a Mill owner, first at Littleton and then near Lavington. As her father was well off she probably received an education at a young ladies school. In 1871 she was working as a Housekeeper to an old gentleman in West Lavington.

By 1881 she was the Principal of the Day and Boarding school established by Eliza Foster in the 1850s at 24 Bridewell Street - photo on right. Miss Foster, now aged 68, was still living in the house as a retired Governess. It is probable that in the previous years Miss Farmer had been brought in by Miss Foster as a teacher and then subsequently became Principa l on the retirement of Miss Foster in the mid to late 1870s.

By 1881 the school at 24 Bridewell Street, under Miss Farmer had two other teachers. Frances Le Mage taught French and English and Ada J. Hammond taught English and Music. There are only two boarders, a girl aged 14 from Swindon and a 6 year old boy from Lavington, Wiltshire. From this information we can probably deduce that the school was primarily a substantial day school taking both middle class boys and girls aged 6 to 16. No direct evidence is yet available.                                                                  

Between 1882 and 1889 Miss Palmer moved her school to the larger and more prestigious Eastbourne House at 28 Bridewell Street.

She was clearly advertising outside Wiltshire as the advert to the right is taken from the 1889 Kelly's Directory for Hampshire. We get a broader perspective of the type of education she was offering from this. The girl pupils were regularly prepared for the College of Preceptors, Oxford, Cambridge, and Trinity College Examinations. The school had certified English and German Governesses. A Mr. Hawkins provided violin lessons for the girls. Miss Palmer is advertising for both day girls and boarders.

On the right is Eastbourne House, 28 Bridewell Street. This the same House occupied by Mr George Evan's School from 1839 to the mid 1860s.

By 1891 Miss Farmer had moved to 40 Long Street with her Ladies Boarding school. She lived there with her 19 year old niece Ada Farmer Ward, who in 1901 was co-Principal of a school at 12, Market Place in Devizes. Presumably Ada was being trained by Elizabeth as a school teacher. They had five girl boarders from age seven to fourteen years old and they also took in local day pupils.  

 Right - the "old" 40 Long Street, the portico was its entrance before the Museum linked numbers 40 and 41.

By 1901(probably 1895) Miss Farmer had moved on to another life outside Devizes.

In 1895 Miss Florence Barnham from Hampshire was co-principal with Miss Georgina Kirby (Nerby in the census) at their Ladies Boarding School at 40 Long Street.(1895 Kelly's Directory) Interestingly Miss Barnham was, like Miss Farmer, the daughter of a Mill owner and Corn merchant in Hampshire. Whether their families had known each other socially is unknown.

The Barnham and Kirby Ladies day and boarding school had two other Governesses assisting them with teaching. They had eight girls boarding with them with ages from nine to fifteen. Given the relatively large number of teachers the school was definitely taking a good number of day pupils too.

The school was still operating in 1903 (Kelly’s Directory 1903) and it closed in 1905 when number 40 Long Street was made part of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum. A linking building was built, along with its modern entrance, to join the two former schools at 40 and 41 Long Street into the Museum building we see today.

The photo opposite is looking up Long Street. On the right is the Museum. The first building on the right is the old 41 Long Street, the second portico is the old entrance to number 40 Long Street.