Bidefordians are rightly proud of the antiquity of our Grammar School, celebrated on a plaque attached to Bridge Buildings, where the school once stood. But that history hides an uncomfortable truth – that the school was for boys only and there was no similar provision for girls. Bideford Grammar School only started to admit girls in 1972, just three years before it was absorbed into the comprehensive system. 

In this, Bideford was no different to the rest of the country. In 1864, only twelve public secondary schools existed for girls in the whole of England and Wales. But from the middle of the 19^th century, there was a movement towards secondary education for women, and the gap was filled by private providers. Two remarkable women from Bideford were part of that story, which we have uncovered as part of preparations for a Bridgeland Street Heritage Open Day on 17 September this year. 

Helen Lacy was born in Nottingham in the early years of the nineteenth century. In April 1833, she married the Bideford merchant Thomas Ley at St Mary’s Church. They lived on the Quay and Helen gave birth to four children, two girls and two boys. By 1850 Thomas had become an Alderman of the town. 

At some point after 1851, the family moved to 13 Bridgeland Street where, in 1861, Helen is recorded as schoolmistress of a small girls’ boarding school, aided by her elder daughter, also called Helen, then aged 24. There were just four boarders, from Ilfracombe, Petrockstowe and Westleigh. 

Ten years later, the school had expanded to eight boarders, including a nineteen-year-old girl from Glasgow and a fourteen-year-old born in Bombay, as well as local girls. The school continued to function with around seven boarders into the twentieth century, employing local girls as cooks and housemaids. In 1891, two young women from Buckland Brewer, Elisabeth and Eliza Friendship, aged 26 and 18, were living at the school and working in these roles.

Helen Ley the elder died in 1893, aged 86, but her daughter continued as school principal until at least 1911, although there were no boarders listed at that time. She also was very long-lived, dying aged 91 in a Nursing Home on Meddon Street. 

Although the Ley duo were clearly championing female education – and did so for at least half a century – there is evidence that on occasions, younger boys were admitted. Richard Holman, aged 7, joined his sister Margaret there in 1871.