Public School education started in Tamworth with the opening of the Tamworth National School in Darling Street

Public School education started in Tamworth with the opening of the Tamworth National School in Darling Street in 1855, in opposition to the Denominational School on the other side of the river.

Adjacent to today's Community Centre, the School began with an enrolment of 20 boys and 18 girls, and an average daily attendance of 28.

By 1875 the location had proved unsatisfactory, leading to land being resumed for a relocated school, from a public recreation area bounded by Upper, Bourke, Napier and Brisbane Streets.

Then known as Tamworth Superior School, the building was opened in 1877, with a nearby 5-roomed school residence (still standing in Brisbane Street).

The original 1877 building is the one in the photo with the tall chimney in the centre of the 1895 school complex.

By the end of the first year it had an enrolment of 206, with an average daily attendance of 143.

This number grew markedly over the years, with the kids in this 1895 photo being part of a school enrolment of 638.

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The nearest (Girls Department) building was added in 1885, with the one in the far extremity being the only one not existing today, with further extensions in 1923, 1935 & 1954.

The name Tamworth Superior School came, not because I taught there in the 60's (?), but through catering for some Secondary classes, in addition to Primary.

There was a small Secondary student classroom on the Brisbane Street side that no longer exists.

Over the years the school was known as a Primary, District and Practice School, before today's Tamworth Public School.

Over the years under Headmaster George Thorne, in 1888 the School started a Cadet Unit, in 1892 a Drum & Fife Band, in 1893 a special Cooking classroom catering for 11 girls.

In 1893 Tamworth Superior School was one of 5 others that formed the Tamworth District Public Schools Sports Association, which grew to 26 schools by 1899.

One of their early Athletics Carnival 19 novelty events was 'throwing a cricket bat the furthest', an event I would have won clearly, having been given out LBW in a recent Veterans cricket match.

As years went by the school suffered considerable overcrowding, particularly in the Infants Department, with an enrolment of 225 in 5 classes.

During the 1878 drought there was no water in the school's water tanks, and encroaching goats sometimes ate the pupils' lunches on the classroom verandahs.

It wasn't until 1907 that reticulated town water was connected to the school tanks.

The kids we see in the playground photo would have either walked to school, been driven in a horse-drawn sulky or phaeton, or perhaps riding their own unsaddled horse.

The horse paddock was located about 50m behind the 1885 foreground building in the photo, near the corner of Bourke St/Dowell Avenue.

Two years after this photo was taken, there were 219 enrolled in the Boys Department, 190 in the Girls and 159 in the Infants, with 5 'pupil-teachers' also employed, that were adolescents in teacher-training.

It wasn't until 1961 that the separate gender departments joined to become co-educational.

The Napier Street section of the block became occupied in 1919 by the newly-established Tamworth High School, the 23rd to be started in NSW, with the nearest being at Dubbo, Maitland and Grafton.

When Tamworth High School relocated, their buildings became part of the Tamworth Public School we know today.

I wonder what became of their lives, these kids we see in the playground 126 years ago.

Perhaps one of them was a great-great grandparent of yours?

Not sure what was so 'great' about them - only you could tell.

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