“The Maiden School” was founded by Martha Palmer, the wealthy spinster daughter of Richard and Mary Palmer of Luckley House, Chapel Green.
By her will dated June 1713, she gave £ 400 to her trustees for the purchase of lands to provide an income of £ 15 a year to pay a school mistress and maintain a school. However, it was not until June 1795 that the trustees, led by William Bremner, the minister at Wokingham and the Master at Lucas Hospital, had sufficient funds to purchase 31 Rose Street. This was then fitted out as a school house in which the mistress “of sober, virtuous, and pious education and behavior and bred up in the true faith and practices of the Church of England” was to reside and teach 12 poor girls of honest parents”.
Calling each other “sister”, these maidens were taught to read English, sew plain work, knit and spin worsted and learn the catechism up to the age of 12 years.
A National School had already been founded in 1829 at 21 Rose Street where a new National Infants School was created by amalgamating it with the Maiden School in 1842. The building son became inadequate, however, and within two years a new school room was built in the yard behind 31 Rose Street.The old school house became the residence of the school mistress and her assistants. By 1873 the National Schools were reformed as the Palmer Schools and relocated in new buildings.
The trustees then rented out 31 Rose Street. Their first tenant was James Seaward, a chimney sweep with a wife and a growing family; he lived in this two bedroom cottage for 44 years.
In 1891 he was the first working class man to be elected to the Town Council. His integrity and dedicated service resulted in his elevation to Alderman in 1903,; Wokingham’s only Alderman who was born in a workhouse and declined to be mayor.
James Seaward’s civic achievements have been overshadowed by his reputation as the inspiration for Charles Kingsley’s “Tom” in his classic book “The Water Babies”. This legend is the subject of Wokingham’s first commissioned public work of art, a unique sculpture at the library entrance.
Because of its contribution to Wokingham’s heritage, this building is part of the Wokingham Society’s Blue Plaque Trail. A leaflet giving details of all of the buildings on the Trail can be obtained from the Wokingham Town Hall Information Centre and Wokingham Library. An electronic version is available from www.wokinghamsociety.org.uk The Trail is also available on a downloadable App called Wokingham Town History.
Wokingham Town Museum Unique Identifier: WTH0314