Enfield County
School for Girls

In the 1914 edition of ECS School Magazine student Hilda Obott writes a historical account of 'Old Enfielde'

The site of Enfield County School, pre-1900. The railings are of the Garden of Rest, with Dairyman Hawkins' cattle shown in this early photograph.

Ms Emily Rose Broome is the first Headmistress when The Enfield County School opens on 25 September 1909, a site of five acres designed to accommodate 250 girls. Initially welcoming 111 pupils, by the end of 1910 the school had grown to 153 students.

Lessons originally comprised of, "Holy Scripture, Reading, Writing, English Literature, Composition and Grammar, History, Geography, French, German, Latin, Mathematics, Botany, Physics, Nature Study, Art, Needlework, Singing, and Physical Exercises, with such other subjects as may be arranged from time to time."

From 1909 Enfield County School use the Middlesex County badge featuring three 'Gurka Knives' in a shield garlanded with laurel leaves. Over time, the ECS school logo was modified to remove the laurel leaves but retain its essential design.

In Sir Clifford Radcliffe's book Middlesex, the county arms are described as, "Three Seaxes (short notched swords) fesswise (horizontal) in pale (one above the other). Radcliffe writes, "The knives or seaxes, as they are usually termed, are similar to the duellist knife of the gladiators of Ancient Rome. A knife of the same type was used by the Saxons as a weapon of defence."

Middlesex, Sir Clifford Radcliffe, new edition, Evans Brothers Ltd., 1950

Written by Ms E. R. Broome, ECS first Headmistress, the school motto was later used as inspiration for Daisy Wright's poem, 'Onward Ever'.

10 November 1909: A note to parents. Headteacher Ms Broome writes to parents. School rules are also distributed to all form rooms.

Writing in ECS Magazine, 1914, Nellie Biggs describes being on a school trip in Germany when Russia declares war on Germany.

"We were allowed to cross the bridge two and two, escorted by a file of soldiers on each side, with jeering crowds looking on, and taken to the Criminal Police Office. Here we were told we might not leave Cologne until the end of the war, and that if we attempted to do so we would immediately be put in a fortress."

Isa Spencer’s 1917 poem, ‘An Air Raid.’ A poignant description of an ECS student's first-hand experience of WWI.

Armistice Day

"...the girls of Enfield County realised, with millions throughout the British Empire, the individual responsibility of each one of them to make the future better than the past."

Mary Jewell, 1919

Enfield County Sixth Formers past and present

1930s fashion reflected in ECS students' belted coats, gloves and buckle shoes

Lower school students past and present

Queen Anne's Place, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, 1940

The diversity of clothes and untamed hair in this early 1940s photograph may be explained by war-time shortages, a relaxation in some minor rules due to war and pupils who transferred to ECS from other schools

Ms Sharp with ECS Prefects, c.1940

Ms Gumbrell with ECSfG Head Girl Team, 2023

"The sun which, while we write, is beating down upon a peaceful Enfield, may shine upon a different scene by the time the magazine is printed."
ECS Magazine, July 1940

The Old Building war damage, April 1941

Mary Beagles, née Comyns, kept a diary whilst a student at Enfield County School (1937 - 1943). This extract details her personal experiences of VE Day in 1945.

Science lessons past and present

Science lessons through the ages

ECS sporting event reported in local newspaper: Mrs Nightingale, mother of the Head Girl, presenting the senior individual championship cup to Pat Newby.

ECS Maths lesson. Lift-up lid desks with ink wells: each pupil stored her books in her designated desk in her form room. Students used fountain pens for best work, pencils for rough/draft work. In the early 1950s ball-point pens were not readily available and, even when they became so, they were not permitted at ECS because they didn’t promote good handwriting.

Lower school drama production of,
'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Visitors from local schools came to enjoy the comical antics of an irate chef during, "Spanish Afternoon."

ECS Librarians pictured in 1953 as the library introduces,"Special borrowing privileges for the Sixth Form."

In 1954 Dinah Barsham established a choir at ECS. After leaving County in 1956 Dinah went on to study conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

State Scholar, junior and senior Sports champion, Dinah specialised in conducting and choral training, lectured at Homerton and became a senior lecturer for the Open University.

Dinah's older sister Eve was the first woman to gain a first in Music at Oxford University, subsequently winning a scholarship to research for her doctorate.

Rule Breaking Day

Green and white summer dresses were optional for County students. Summers in the early 1960s were generally cool so students wore winter uniform all year round, as indicated by this photograph taken July 1962.

The student on the extreme right is a Prefect, shown by the white braid on her blazer. At least two students are contravening school rules in this end of term tradition, with their peep-toe and backless shoes.

Sports Day 1963 had inclement weather with relentless drizzle throughout the day. Note Gillian's plastic rain hood, which folded concertina into a small pouch - extremely popular in the 1960s.

Painting the Prefects' Common Room vs breaktime in the Prefects' Common Room.

In the 1960s GCE A levels took place in June. Term usually ended around 20th July so there were a few weeks when Sixth Formers had no formal lessons but were still required to attend school. There was usually plenty to do: supervising Preps (if they were Prefects); mending text books; stocking taking in the library; repairing sports items such as hockey sticks; assisting with Sports Day preparations; helping with the end of term concert and staff leavers' presentations. In the summer of 1963 there was also the re-painting of the Common Room.

Fashion conscious ECS students relaxing outside O block

ECS A level students make the local news