William Highfield Jones Memorial School
Tempest Street
Originally this building appeared here as "Factory and
Offices". Well, that's what it looked like and it was in a street
which used to be full of factories. But when it recently opened as
a martial arts school I went inside and asked the present owner about
the building's history. He said it started off as a school and
suggested I look at the other side of the building and the inscription
on it. So I did. And this is as much as you can see:
The inscription stone - as much of it as I have been able
to read - says this is the William Highfield Jones Memorial School.
So the facade on Tempest Street must originally have been the back,
neatly finished in flat red terracotta window and door dressings and
hard red brick. The front must once have been visible from Snow
Hill or perhaps from an access road parallel to Snow Hill and Tempest
Street. Now the view from the adjoining car park is the best (and
very limited) view of it. The white bricks appear to be glazed and
the windows are clearly in buff terracotta. I cannot think of
anything else in Wolverhampton that looked like this. It's
appearance when new must have been rather startling.
I have not, so far, found any record of this school but
William Highfield Jones died in 1902. He was an alderman of the
borough and wrote two books on aspects of the town's history. He
and his two brothers operated the metalware and holloware company, Jones
Brothers. It is likely that this school was paid for by his two
sons, William Jones and Highfield Jones, who took over the firm on heir
father's demise.
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