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At the time of foundation chiefly by subscription it was known as Heysham School; From 1817 when the Church of England National Society was formed it became The National School and a further donation was given to provide ongoing income. This was its name throughout much if not all the century; on the 1881 census Arthur Stuttard has the occupation of Schoolmaster NS. Quite when the change to the present name occurred is yet to be determined.On the 1838 Tithe Map the school is shown as two separate buildings, a school house to the south and the school itself adjacent to the north.

The site is approximately equally distant from Lower Heysham (the village) and Higher Heysham in what is now known as School Road though not labelled as such on 19thC maps. The building illustrated above is on the site of the original school house but whether or not this is the original building would be clear from the archives.

John Foxcroft is named in the  Baines 1825 Directory by which time he was already in his late forties. He is still there as Schoolmaster in the   1851 Mannex Directory and then has two other (clearly part-time) jobs as well.  The extract refers to two schools in Heyssham; the second one is a ‘private’ school at Carr Garth with James Masheter in charge, also named in that Directory.

John Foxcroft died in 1853 and we presume was succeeded as Schoolmaster by Joseph Ward; some time ago we had an enquiry from one of his great grandsons Joseph Ward was living in the School House when his first wife Ann died in 1861; in 1862 he then married Mary Oxtoby who is listed as Schoolmistress. Joseph Ward died in 1876 and his successor Arthur Stuttard was appointed in August 1877.

Arthur Studdart came from East Lancashire; church records  show he was  baptized in Burnley in 1853 and in 1880 married Catherine Mary King of Liverpool. We have only found a record of the Banns and not the marriage itself. .Census records for 1891 and 1901 suggest they had three daughters and a son.

Arthur ran the school with the assistance of Mrs Ward, widow of the previous schoolmaster. He stayed at the school until 1915 and during all his tenure he was plagued by frequent periods of overcrowding, notably during the construction of Heysham Harbour.
Hesyahm itself was expaning particularly in the north of the parish and in 1901 Heysham School Board opened Sandylandss School. The school still have their first log book and details are available  here.

We have found no further record about Arthur. His wife lived until 1935. His only son Reginald died in WW1 and is commemorated  on the Menin Gate. The reference on this link to Burnley is clearly because his father came from Burnley. Stuttard seems a  fairly common family name in East Lancashire. He is also listed in Baldwin Bent’s Roll of Honour for Heysham