1940 - 49
Discover what life was like during the 1940s at Charlotte Mason College
By the 1940s the college was officially named ‘Charlotte Mason College’, having changed names in 1938 from the ‘House of Education’. The name change was in honour of its founder Charlotte Maria Shaw Mason who died only 15 years earlier in 1923.
Attached to the college was a practising school which took in pupils from the local area. The Practising School began in the Beehive, a former smoking and billiard room. By the 1940s the school had expanded over the road from the main campus into two buildings called Fairfield and Springfield, which are still part of the campus today.
After Miss Mason’s death, Miss Parish took over the House of Education as the principal. In 1934 Essex Chomondeley succeeded Miss Parish as principal until 1937 when Joyce van Straubenzee was appointed.
A private institution for ladies only, the college was a safe haven during the war years and saw an increase in students during this time. In 1945 the course was extended to three years and they began to take in boarders at Fairfield and the Annexe. By 1945 provisional government recognition had linked Charlotte Mason College to Manchester University School of Education.
If you can add to our 1940s memories we would love to hear from you, email alumni@cumbria.ac.uk
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