Corran, Watford - circa 1910

 

Morning Post, 10th October, 1890

The same advertisement also appear in The Times on various dates in October 1890

In April 1891 a similar advertisement appeared in the Times "Indian and Colonial Children received. Airy house, gravel soil, Terms from 80 guineas."

 

Sarah Leishman was the wife of James Matthew Leishman (born Scotland 1845) a East India Merchant who died in the first half of 1880, and it seems possible that Sarah then moved to Watford and decided to set up a school. Because of the Indian connection the recommendation was presumably by Sir Charles Umpherston Aitchison (1832-1896), Liettenant Governor of the Punjab.

 

 The 1891 census records the following people living at Corran, Watford

Sarah	Leishman	Head	41	Keeping School	Scotland
Alan R	Leishman	Son	12	-	India
Jane A	Leishman	Daughter	9	-	Bayswater, Middlesex
Margaret	Young	Partner	29	Teacher Of English etc.	India
Florence	Hayes	Servant	32	Music Teacher	Kent, England
Minie B	Smith	Servant	45	Teacher Of English And Science	Inverness, Scotland
Catline	Hubback	Pupil	14	-	Ridgway, Derbyshire
Constance	White	Pupil	9	-	Stanmore, Middlesex
Mary	Young	Pupil	16	-	Surrey
Blance	Taylor	Pupil	11	-	Shortlands, Kent
Edith	Taylor	Pupil	10	-	Shortlands, Kent
Catherine	Carver	Servant	25	Cook	Herefordshire
Eliza	Lee	Servant	21	Parlour Maid	Portsmouth, Hampshire
Sarah	Read	Servant	22	Housemaid	Buckinghamshire

Ownership of the school soon changed and in 1892 the Clifton headmistress, Miss M. A. Woods, joined Eleanor Frances Jourdain in founding Corran Collegiate School, Watford, a private boarding- and day school offering ‘a thorough education of the best type for girls of all ages’, where Miss Jourdain was soon sole headmistress. She proved to be, in the words of one former pupil, ‘a born teacher’ (Evans, Prelude and Fugue, 35). The success of this school, which had by 1900 more than 100 pupils, launched her on the next phase of her career. In Paris she rented a Rive Gauche flat—270 boulevard Raspail—in partnership with the daughter of a Sorbonne professor who had been on the Corran staff, where older girls could spend a year studying.

Exeter & Plymouth Gazette, 4th January, 1894	Eleanor Frances Jourdain (1863–1924) by unknown photographer,c.1915

 

The school is recorded in full swing in the 1901 census but Eleanor Frances Jourdain (1863–1924) left in 1903 and later became Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford . The following advertisement clearly relates to her successor, Miss Elizabeth Whinshaw.

 

Yorkshire Post, 16th February, 1904

Elsie	Armstrong	17	Montreal, Canada	B.S. by parentage
Dorothy	Bayley	19	Horsehay, Shropshire
Olive	Becher	19	Southwell, Notts	[visitor]
Margaret	Boswell	16	Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Barbara	Bristow	17	Kings Lynn, Norfolk
Dorothy	Bristow	19	Kings Lynn, Norfolk
Dorothy	Cooke	16	Peavenhall, Suffolk
Vera	de Gaury	15	London
Christine	Durrant	14	St Petersburg, Russia	B.S. by parentage
Dorothea	Feild	17	St Petersburg, Russia	B.S. by parentage
Dorothy	Gibbons	14	Dudley, Staffs
Marguerite	Head	14	London
Mary	Hadden	14	Chisleurst, Kent
Dorothy	Hadden	15	Kotiyagalla, Bogoloantalawn, Ceylon	B.S. by parentage
Mary	Hazledive	17	Oxford, Oxfordshire
Ruth	Hegarty	16	Clonbur, Co. Galway
Innes	Hutchinson	17	Coddington, Notts
Iris	Lemare	8	London
Eva	Healy	18	Cork, Co. Cork
Elizabeth	Hope	17	Meriden, Warwickshire
Ida	Hope	16	Meriden, Warwickshire
Edith	Jelly	17	Hampton in Arden, Warwickshire
Agnes	Leitch	16	Silloth, Cumberland
Marjorie	Monroe	13	London
Helen	Preece	15	London
May	Phillips	13	Coventry, Warwickshire
Evelyn	Proctor	13	Hunton Bridge, Herts
Louise	Procter	16	Hunton Bridge, Herts
Clara	Sloley	18	Teyateteyaning, Basutoland	B.S. by parentage
Winifred	Thompson	20	Cardiff, Glamorganshire	[visitor]
Phyllis	Thomson	17	Cardiff, Glamorganshire
Ella	Thomson	16	Skipton, Yorks
Hilda	Walker	16	Ossett, Yorks
Aag	Wegerif	17	Apeldooree, Holland	Dutch

One of the pupils listed above, Evelyn Emma Stefanos Procter, FRHistS (6 June 1897–1980) was a British historian and academic. She also served as Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford from 1946 to 1962.   One of the teachers listed above, Miss May Leitch, was a leading woman golfer, and these press accounts also reveal something about her teaching duties at the school.   Can you help by providing information on other pupils or teachers?	Sunderland Daily Echo 17th May, 1912
Dundee Courier, 26th November, 1919

 

Trade directories up to 1917 show:  Whishaw Miss E H, (Miss) M.A. (ladies' boarding & day school, preparatory school & kindergarten), Corran & Oakleigh, Langley Road, Watford. In 1922 the entry changed to read Langdon Misses, ladies school, Cowan [sic] & Oakleigh, Langley Road, Watford and with the address correctly spelt continued to 1933. It seems likely the school had closed, or was advertised under a different name, by 1937.