WAKEFIELD SCHOOL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 13 January 1944, Page 2

WAKEFIELD SCHOOL

AN HISTORICAL POINT MR MATTHEW CAMPBELL’S GIFT OF A SITE Mr H. Tunnicliff wishes to see corrected a wrong impression that was conveyed during the recent Wakefield school ceptenary celebrations. It concerns the part played by Mr Matthew Campbell in early education in the Nels- i country districts Mr Tunnicliff. who is 84. says he knew Mr Campbell personally, adding that the site he gave for a school on a 99 years’ lease was not that for the Wakefield school but for the or.e at Wai-iti. which has since been consolidated with Wakefield. It was given for educational and religious purposes on an undenominational basis. The confusion, Mr Tunnicliff thinks, may have arisen because Wai-iti in those days was known as Upper Wakefield and i‘: was only after the railway went through that the name of Wai-iti wpc tak*en. Both he and his brother. Mr F. W. Tunnicliff. can remember Mr Campbell organising Boxing Day picnics at the Upper Wakefield shod grounds Two superintendents of the Sunday School were Mr Griffith and Mr Wm Wadsworth. A \i ugh ter of the latter is Mrs B Cropp. who now lives at Richmond She can also recall the occasions of Mr Campbell’s visits as well as confirm the mft of a school site. Mr Tunnicliff is of ‘opinion that Mr Campbell had no association with Wakefield School as it is known today