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Holmwood

Categories: Education

British History Online 1 gives "The mathematician Charles Babbage (1792-1871) and the novelist Captain Frederick Marryat (1792- 1848) attended a school run by the Revd. Stephen Freeman in a house in Baker Street later known as Holmwood."  Grace's Guide says that Babbage: "joined a 30-student Holmwood academy, in Baker Street, Enfield, Middlesex under Reverend Stephen Freeman. The academy had a well-stocked library that prompted Babbage's love of mathematics."

Freeman's ledger covering the period 1806 - 48 is held at the London Metropolitan Archives and The National Archives give: "The Reverend Stephen Freeman's School was a red brick house situated at the upper end of Baker Street in Enfield, known as Holmwood." About Baker Street, British History Online 2 gives: "Large houses which survived until the 20th century included ... Holmwood and Pattensweir, adjacent 18th-century buildings at the corner of Clay Hill." 

Sadly there seems to be no image available of Holmwood/Holmwood Academy. But the map of 1935 shows it, alongside Pattensweir at the junction. Trying to work out which is which, we found at the National Archives, a 1834 conveyance for Pattensweir (Pattens Ware), "A piece of land 1a 2r 34p fronting towards the south on the public road leading from Clay Hill to Baker Street and bounded towards the east by the new river". This has a "Plan incorporated" which would answer our question but it's not online. Also, with no mention of a house this suggests that neither house had yet been built.

The line of trees running approximately north-south on our map indicate the old course of the New River and Baker Street already existed in 1834 so the parcel of land either had a road running across it or it was only the land between the River and Bakers Street, and not the land on which the two houses were built at all.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Holmwood

Commemorated ati

Captain Frederick Marryat - Enfield

Capt Frederick Marryat, 1792 - 1848, novelist, was educated at 'Holmwood' on ...

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Other Subjects

Yoshinari Hatakeyama

Yoshinari Hatakeyama

Became a student at UCL in 1865.

Person, Education, Japan

1 memorial
Brigadier-General Sir George Henry Gater, GCMG, KCB, DSO & Bar, JP

Brigadier-General Sir George Henry Gater, GCMG, KCB, DSO & Bar, JP

Army officer and civil servant. Trained as a teacher. Moved to London in 1924, and became Director of Education at the LCC. 1933 became Clerk to the LCC. He advocated the development of Bloomsbury ...

Person, Armed Forces, Education, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Enfield school-house / station

Enfield school-house / station

the V&A (our picture source) hold in their collection part of the façade of this building (not just the photo but the bricks themselves). Alamy have a photo of the saved section of the façade e...

Building, Education, Property, Transport

2 memorials
Masaru Inoue

Masaru Inoue

Became a student at UCL in 1863.

Person, Education, Japan

1 memorial
University of West London / Ealing College

University of West London / Ealing College

Wikipedia gives: 1860 the Lady Byron School was founded and later became Ealing College of Higher Education. In 1990 this merged with a number of others to form the Polytechnic of West London. In 1...

Group, Education

1 memorial

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Joaquim Nabuco

Joaquim Nabuco

Writer and statesman. Born Joaquim Aurélio Barreto Nabuco de Araújo in Recife, Brazil. In 1878 he began to fight against slavery through his political activity and writings. It was eventually aboli...

Person, Literature, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, Brazil, USA

1 memorial