Page 65 - J Delaney - City of Cessnock Education and Schools

72.

B UCHANAN SCH0 0 L

In January 1852, Stephen Ryan resigned his position as school
teacher at Buchanan. He gave as his reason for resigning to his superiors,
that there was no residence at the school and he was required to walk
over two (2) miles from his accommodation to the school. Ryan advised
his superiors that he had handed the Buchanan schoolhouse keys and
school records to Mr. Biddulph, Chairman of the Buchanan School Board.
(NOTE: Later in this history, an Inspector W. Mc Intyre, in a description
of this schoolhouse stated: - "although of poor standard, an area had
been set aside as a residence").

No reference is shown for Buchanan under any heading or section
of the 1852 Annual Report of the Department of Public Instruction.
The ' Church of England appears to have opened a school under the
Denominational School Board System sometime in 1853. In the 1853 Annual
Report of the Department of Public Instruction, under a heading entitled
'Denominational Sc~ool Lists and Salaries', appears a brief noca~ion:-

"Buchana!1 School - Salary £30.0.0 for year".

No other reference of Buchanan appears in the 1853 Annual Report.
Whilst it is not shown in this report, it is thought that this Church
school was located somewhere adjacent to the area where the ·later
Buchanan Church of England stood.

Whilst i~ appears from some Church of England records that
some style of a Church school operated between 1853 and 1863 at Buchanan,
scme local efforts were being made for the re-establishment of a National
School at Buchanan. The correspondent for the Buchanan residents,
Mr. John Adams, early in 1858, advised the State National Board cf
Education that Mr. Knox Childs had condemned the original schoolhouse
building.

Inspector ',Hlliam Mc Intyre was directed to make an in'restigation.
On 19th March·1858, he supplied this report to his superiors : -

"The orig.:nal schoolhouse built by Mr. Secombe in 1850
is still standing. This is a building fifty (50) feet