A building in Theobald Street that was recently left off a list of the borough's important places has been home to several milestones.

Bonnie Friend looks at the history of Borehamwood's first school

A small building that sits at 27a Theobald Street looks like it has seen better days. Slightly dishevelled around the edges, it is hard to believe the property was once Borehamwood's first purpose-built school.

Since the introduction of the Education Act in 1870, making it compulsory for children under the age of ten to go to school, another building down the road at number 35 had been used as a temporary infants' school for the area.

Leslie Davies, volunteer at Elstree and Boreham Wood Museum, said: "As Boreham-wood was not a parish in its own right until later, the area did not have a junior school of its own, and older pupils had to walk to the Elstree National School or Medburn Boys' School, which was on the route to Radlett."

But in 1896, the building, which still stands at 27a Theobald Street, was erected. It is thought to have been constructed using bricks mined from a quarry off Deacons Hill Road, in Elstree.

Mrs Davies said: "At its peak, the school took up to 66 pupils. With the building being so small in structure, classes were divided, with a screen partition used in the middle of the room."

The building was also used by Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council, for meetings in the early 20th Century. Last year, the town council posed for a photograph outside the school, reconstructing a photograph of councillors taken in 1910.

According to Paul Welsh, entertainments officer at the council, the school closed shortly before the First World War. Pupil numbers had dwindled to just 43 by 1912, as Furzehill School, in Furzehill Road, was built that year. The new school provided education for juniors as well as infants in the rapidly-increasing Elstree and Borehamwood.

The school at 27a officially closed in 1917, having acted as a feeder school to its successor.

Mr Welsh said: "Having been replaced by Furzehill School, 27a was used as a blacksmith's during the Twenties. In the Thirties, it became a functional aid to the area's film history when it housed a two-pump petrol station, principally serving the film studios. It was also used as a cab hire firm."

In more recent times, the building has been used by a skip firm and as a film prop workshop. Unfortunately, due to wear and tear over the years, it was recently left off a Hertsmere Borough Council list of locally important buildings in the borough.

Mrs Davies said: "It is a real shame it has fallen into such a bad state."

u Do you have any pictures of the school in its heyday or have any ancestors who once attended 27a Theobald Street? Please contact the Borehamwood & Elstree Times newsdesk on 020 8953 3391.