Our History
"Killinghall CE Primary School is a rural, primary Church of England Controlled School. The Church School was opened in the village of Killinghall in 1852. Twenty-four years later, in 1876, a second school, known as the Board School was opened. The oldest part of the current school is the original Church School, also known by generations of village children as the “TopSchool”, because of its location at the ‘Top’ end of Otley Road as against the Board School which was towards the bottom of the same road and needless to say was known as the “BottomSchool”. National educational changes in the 1930s led to the former West Riding Education Committee deciding to merge the two schools and, following discussions with village elders, the Board School was sold in 1937 for £650 so that residents could turn the building into Killinghall’s own village hall, a role which it still fulfils today. However, because of pressure to provide enough class room space at the remaining Church School, the new village hall continued to house infant classes for another 20 years. Even when these classes moved into temporary accommodation at the Church School village children still made the daily walk between the two buildings for school meals, which were cooked and served in the village hall. It wasn’t until major extensions were carried out at the Church School in 1994 by North Yorkshire County Council that all services came under one roof and the strong link between the two locations was finally broken but, thanks to blue historical plaques outside each building, not forgotten. At Easter 2007 the school helped celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the acquisition of the Board School by the village."
(With grateful thanks to the late Colin Waite, local historian, for providing this information)