Academies Burney and Westons
Barry is doing a little family history and writes with a question that is probably a bit beyond me - though I'll bet it's not beyond a few of you...
He is mainly concerned with the "Royal Hospital School, as I had four 19thC ancestors go there (with families living for many years in the Walnut Tree Road collection of streets).
I am trying to pinpoint two related institutions to the School - the Burney Academy in or close to Burney Street, and Weston's Academy on or about the School's infirmary facing King William Street."
The Phantom is stumped on this one - apart from what I assume you mean is the Dreadnaught Hospital which is on King William Walk and which is now the library of the University of Greenwich, if memory serves me right (and which is open on Open House Weekend this year if you're interested...)
And that's one of the problems with living in a place that is dripping with royal connections, monuments of national (and international) importance and glorious, glamorous history. The 'ordinary' story of everyday folk seems to get lost in between the floorboards of sumptuous tales involving kings and queens, famous people, influential events and naval heroes.
Where other towns would carefully preserve the day to day life of ordinary buildings, we have such a plethora of grandness that we take for granted - and happily forget - a part of our history that is just as valid.
Looking at my bookshelves I have umpteen volumes about Greenwich's pomp and grandeur; just a few books (mainly out of print) about what the rest of us would have been doing - and let's face it - most of us would have been looking to the docks for our livings. Mary Mills especially has made several very decent fists at charting the industrial history of our town and there are other even more obscure books (someone very kindly copied a book for me by Barbara Ludlow - long out of print - for which I am very grateful indeed) but, perhaps understandably, most people choose to look at our gilded history rather than our rusted one...
The Heritage Centre in Woolwich goes some way to helping, but space is increasingly tight (whenever I go there it's absolutely heaving with family history researchers) and although they do document the lives of ordinary people, the focus is on the arsenal, given its location.
I guess what I'm saying, Barry, in a very roundabout way, is that I haven't got a clue. But I'll betcha someone here does.
He is mainly concerned with the "Royal Hospital School, as I had four 19thC ancestors go there (with families living for many years in the Walnut Tree Road collection of streets).
I am trying to pinpoint two related institutions to the School - the Burney Academy in or close to Burney Street, and Weston's Academy on or about the School's infirmary facing King William Street."
The Phantom is stumped on this one - apart from what I assume you mean is the Dreadnaught Hospital which is on King William Walk and which is now the library of the University of Greenwich, if memory serves me right (and which is open on Open House Weekend this year if you're interested...)
And that's one of the problems with living in a place that is dripping with royal connections, monuments of national (and international) importance and glorious, glamorous history. The 'ordinary' story of everyday folk seems to get lost in between the floorboards of sumptuous tales involving kings and queens, famous people, influential events and naval heroes.
Where other towns would carefully preserve the day to day life of ordinary buildings, we have such a plethora of grandness that we take for granted - and happily forget - a part of our history that is just as valid.
Looking at my bookshelves I have umpteen volumes about Greenwich's pomp and grandeur; just a few books (mainly out of print) about what the rest of us would have been doing - and let's face it - most of us would have been looking to the docks for our livings. Mary Mills especially has made several very decent fists at charting the industrial history of our town and there are other even more obscure books (someone very kindly copied a book for me by Barbara Ludlow - long out of print - for which I am very grateful indeed) but, perhaps understandably, most people choose to look at our gilded history rather than our rusted one...
The Heritage Centre in Woolwich goes some way to helping, but space is increasingly tight (whenever I go there it's absolutely heaving with family history researchers) and although they do document the lives of ordinary people, the focus is on the arsenal, given its location.
I guess what I'm saying, Barry, in a very roundabout way, is that I haven't got a clue. But I'll betcha someone here does.
Labels: Ask The Phantom
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
08:24
8 Comments:
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Surely the point about Greenwich is that it has always attracted interesting and lively people - the Phantom and Phantomites a case in point. Until recently no one "ended up" in Greenwich; they all chose to come here.
Thomas Weston was Assistant Astronomer Royal to Flamsteed. Already in 1715 he was teaching reading, writing and navigation to '10 sons of seamen who had lost their lives in the service of their country'. Weston's Academy moved from King Street (King William Walk)in 1782 to a house at the bottom of Crooms Hill and in about 1788 it was taken over by Charles Burney (brother of the novelist Fanny, son of the musicologist)until it moved to Portsmouth in about 1825. It's been said that by Nelson's day half the flag-officers in the fleet had received their instruction at Weston's Academy.
The house in Crooms Hill was pulled down in the 1830s and Burney Street formed.
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Well, the Burney Academy would have been the school run by Dr Charles Burney (1757-1817), son of the musician and musical historian Charles Burney (1726-1814) - he grew up in a slightly wild theatrical household and apparently went a little off the rails: when he was at Cambridge he got caught selling off rare books stolen from the University Library to London bookdealers. His father almost disowned him, but he settled down, studied at Aberdeen, taught in Highgate, Chiswick and Hammersmith and then moved his school (he was by then headmaster) to Greenwich. I had understood that this was in about 1793 but perhaps he'd already taken over Weston's Academy - was he running two schools in Greenwich maybe?
He had a massive library (13,500 books) which went to the British Library, and a collection of newspapers (also at the BL), plus hundreds of volumes of manuscript, advertisements and newspaper cuttings relating to the stage, which his father drew on when writing his memoirs.
I believe Charles Burney Jr has popped up here before.
He was the song of the music historian CHarles Burney, brother of the wonderful diarist Fanny (who documented at first hand the madness of King George III), a decent Greek scholar and, IIRC, the gentleman who protested again the railway running through Greenwich.
He was an indefatigable opponent of the scheme. Until the railway offered him hard cash, upon which he became an ardent supporter.
I was going to suggest you looked at the Greenwich Antiquarians Transactions but I guess you have had the info now- my server's been down all morning.
The point about the non-royal workaday history of greenwich is that it is full of remarkable and interesting people/events. We ignore all that in favour of sometimes pretty tacky/hacky stories which are only superficially glamorous -lets talk about achievement for a change!
Wasn't the ambivalent railway supporter the son (Dr Charles Parr Burney) of Dr. Charles Burney the school owner who was the son of the eminent musical historian? Haven't got me notes to hand so may need correcting.
There were several schools in Greenwich and they tended to change their name with the current headmaster - not helpful when trying to track them.
ebspig, checking the dates (the railway was 1836) you're right. Didn't realise two generations of Burneys taught at the school. Glad to hear our antiquarian, greek-speaking hero with the racy past wasn't the scoundrel after all.
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