Abbott, Miss Mabel, West Bank School, Belvoir Road, Bideford
A portrait of Miss M.E. Abbott, founder and headmistress of the West Bank School, Bideford, is in the possession of Bideford Library and can be seen online at https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/miss-m-e-abbott-founder-and-headmistress-of-west-bank-school-bideford-18961938-95092 (accessed 29 Dec 2018).
Mabel Abbott[1] (1872–1971) was born on 12 September 1872, the daughter of John and Helen Abbott. In the 1881 census the family were living at Wooder on Torridge Hill, off Lower Meddon Street, Bideford. John and Helen had five daughters, with Mabel as the middle one, and three sons. John, then aged 40, was described as an iron-founder, engineer and ironmonger, employing 56 men and boys. He had been set up in business by his father as an ironmonger, but expanded by taking on the Torridge Hill works where he completed work such as bell-founding for Bideford parish church and the extension to the pier at Westward Ho![2]
The peak of his career, however, was in 1881. He was a poor financial manager and went bankrupt in 1884, set out again in business, diversified into a collar factory (Abbott and Turrall) and was made bankrupt again in 1889.[3] At that point he left the family in Bideford and went out to South Africa to represent UK business interests there. This took its toll on his health, however, and he returned to England in 1892, but not to rejoin Helen and the family in Bideford. He obtained employment as manager to the Eagle Range company in Aston, Birmingham, and died there in 1896.[4]
John Abbott was active in Liberal politics in Bideford in the 1880s. He was involved in establishing the local Liberal and Radical Association in 1881 and was a town councillor in what the North Devon Gazette described as the ‘stormy years of 1885–6’.[5] During his brief stay in Bideford on his return from South Africa, he attended a Liberal meeting addressed by Miss Alison Garland (q.v.) on the subject of establishing a branch of the Women’s Liberal Association, and it was he who proposed a vote of thanks to her.[6]
Mabel was sent away from home to be educated at Miss Parrott’s Ladies’ School, 8 West Cliff, Dawlish, where she was living in 1891, aged 18. Her sister Florence (aged 17) was also there and, though described as pupils, they are also listed by occupation as ‘governesses’, presumably teaching the younger girls. By the time of the 1901 census Mabel and Dorothy were living with their widowed mother Helen at Endsleigh, Abbotsham Road. Mabel is described as ‘Principal of school’ and Dorothy as ‘governess.’ One other teacher and five boarders were also resident.
It appears that Mabel and her family had opened a private school for girls in Lansdowne Terrace in 1896, and moved to Endsleigh in 1898. The school flourished, and they moved to West Bank, a newly built house on Belvoir Road in 1902.[7] The school began to record successes in examinations and contribute to local entertainments. By 1911 the census recorded as residents not only Helen, Mabel and Dorothy but also teachers in music, French, gymnastics and a Kindergarten mistress and student. Mabel advertised its services and amenities in the North Devon Journal in 1914 as ‘Two and a half miles from the sea … Good boarding school for girls. Fully qualified resident staff and visiting professors. Opportunities for advanced work in Languages, Music and Art’.[8] By 1917 the school was preparing to open a second boarding house.[9]
Her status as a professional self-employed woman and, possibly, her background in Liberal politics, led to her enrolment in the women’s suffrage movement. In the spring of 1911 Marguerite Norma Smith, an organiser for the National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), undertook work to develop the movement in North Devon, timed to coincide with the Barnstaple by-election, where the Liberal candidate, Sir Godfrey Baring, who was a pro-suffragist, was elected. Smith held a meeting in Bideford which she described as ‘splendid’, saying that they ‘drove away amidst cheering and the waving of hats’.[10] In June Mabel Abbott lent the West Bank School premises for a follow-up meeting, also organised by Norma Smith, which resulted in the formation of the Bideford branch of the NUWSS. Abbott lent the Gymnasium at the West Bank School again in April 1914 when Mrs Whalley of the NUWSS gave an address prior to the South West Federation’s May caravan tour in North Devon and Cornwall.[11]
The school continued to flourish, and was able in 1920 to state in its advertisements that it was ‘recognised by the Board of Education’. In 1939 Mabel was in the process of retirement. She had moved away, together with her sister Dorothy, to ‘Bide-a-Bit’, Northam, but still described herself as a Principal. She died in March 1971 at the age of 98.
Entry created by Julia Neville, December 2018
[1] Census and family information from www.ancestry.co.uk
[2] North Devon Gazette, 7 Jan 1896.
[3] North Devon Gazette, 19 Feb 1889.
[4] North Devon Gazette, 7 Jan 1896.
[5] ibid.
[6] North Devon Gazette, 26 Jan 1892.
[7] The Jubilee Book of West Bank School, Bideford, 1896–1946, Bideford, 1946.
[8] North Devon Journal,15 Jan 1914.
[9] North Devon Journal, 19 Jul 1917.
[10] Common Cause, 11 May 1911, 84.
[11] Common Cause, 12 Jun 1914, 13.