Headmistress’s Retirement.

Under the imposing roof of Denaby’s Large Hall – the Denaby Main School – sits the friend and confidante of hundreds of Denaby people, young and old.

After Sept. 30^th she will sit there no longer. For 30 years, only four years less than the building has been in being, has she occupied her place. Miss Evelyn Rimmington has been headmistress of the Girls’ Department for the past 16 years and had previously been assistant since 1897. She is the oldest teacher in point of length of service engaged under the Conisboro’ Education Sub-Committee, she has only served in two schools in her long career, and she began teaching at the age of 14 in the school in her native village, Eastwood (Notts), in which she was a scholar. Miss Rimmington was apprentice at this school, the Eastwood British School, and passed on to a training course at Nottingham University. She passed out top of the list for the certificate, with several distinctions.

Upon leaving college she was appointed to Denaby Main, which was then a mixed school. It was the only school in the village – the colliery company had erected the Large Hall to serve as school, church, and village hall – and at one time there were as many as 1100 children on the books. For 22 years Miss Rimmington was an assistant, and when the school was divided into three departments in 1914 Miss Rimmington was appointed senior assistant of the Girls’ Department. In 1918 she succeeded as head teache.

Miss Rimmington has not decided where to spend her retirement, but will remain at Denaby for a time. She has a keen regard for Denaby, 1^st place has changed greatly in Miss Rimmington’s time. When she came there were no houses in Tickhill Street, and Denaby was in Doncaster Road round the pit end in the Balby Street district. News of Miss Rimmington’s departure was disclosed at last Thursday’s meeting of the Conisboro’ Education Sub-Committee, when Miss Rimmington, in tendering her resignation, spoke of happy years of association with Denaby’s school life. The Committee received the resignation with regret and instructed their Clerk (Mr. H. Jones) to forward her a letter expressing their keen appreciation of her services and their hope that she would have a pleasant retirement. The Clerk said the County authority would not appoint a successor until the school reorganisation is complete.

Miss Rimmington computes that nearly 3000 children have passed through her hands during her period as headmistress.