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When Mrs. Audrey Timmons took a teaching job at SS 14 Nottawasaga in Avening, she requested a new desk.
It was 1927 and Mrs. Timmons thought the desk old and worn. It had likely been used by many of the previous 40-some teachers who had taught at the school since it opened in 1871. She was given a new oak desk with swivel chair, which sat at the front of the classroom where she taught Grades 1-10.
Mrs. Timmons taught at the school for seven years before taking some time off to get married and raise three children. Her daughter, Dorothy Shropshire, said once she had gone off to teachers college and her younger sister started high school, her mother went back to her teaching job at Avening but it was only supposed to be for one year. She was still there in 1965 when the school closed for good and Mrs. Timmons transferred to the new elementary school in Creemore.
When the one-room Avening school was closed, the school board sold off the furnishings and Shropshire bought the teacher’s desk, paying $15. The school itself was also sold and became a private residence.
For almost 16 years, I have had the pleasure of calling it home. The schoolhouse is alive with memories of its pupils – some living and some passed – and the community members who attended functions there, sometimes dancing away the nights before Avening Hall was built.
When Shropshire was looking to free up some space in her Creemore home, she began looking for a new home for the desk and I am very grateful that through a little brokerage by Bob Curran and Ellen Whitley and some muscle from my husband Bill Hewitt and neighbour Mark Ruzylo, the desk has made its way back to SS 14 Nottawasaga.
Although it wasn’t that long ago, it was a different world in some ways. Mrs. Timmons would have taught all grades to 40 or so students, in one room.
Originally from Kincardine, the young teacher fresh out of normal school in London, sent out about 100 applications to schools throughout Ontario. Teaching jobs were scarce but Audrey was at the top of her class and had won a Grey Bruce scholarship award. At 19, the future Mrs. Timmons was teaching students who were close to her own age and training student teachers. She was at one point among the top earners, bringing in an annual salary of $750, while an assistant teacher made as little as $85. She boarded at a home in Avening until she was married and moved to a farm at Banda Corners. Later, when she returned to her teaching job, she walked to and from the school each day. Shropshire was a student at the school and sometimes, during her hiatus from teaching, her mother came in as a supply teacher. Shropshire said her mother was an excellent teacher, and strict, always staying up to date and organized. She was also very professional and Shropshire said she could not recall ever hearing her mother complaining or talking about any of her students. She said all the students played together, regardless of age, and there was rarely a need for the teacher to be out on yard duty.
Shropshire said going to a country school was also a lot of fun, recalling offsite baseball games and concert rehearsals but it was also challenging because everyone knew each other and their families.
The Avening school has undergone a few transformations; The original school was built at the north end of Avening in 1871 but in 1880 there was a vote and by a narrow margin it was decided to build a new school at the south end of the village at a cost of $900. In 1885, a second classroom and teacher were added to accommodate a surge in enrollment, which lasted until 1924 when attendance dropped and the second classroom was removed. At that time, the original building was bricked. Hydro wasn’t installed in the village, or at the school, until 1939.
Needless to say, when we leave the schoolhouse one day, we will not be taking the desk with us because the desk belongs to the building more than it does to its current owners. I hope the next owners will appreciate the reunion, a small nod to the village’s rural roots, as much as we do.
– with files from Myrtle Carruthers.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][mk_image heading_title=”SS14 Nottawasaga” src=”http://creemore.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Z-OP-Aveningschool1964-65-web.jpg” image_width=”1000″ image_height=”786″ title=”Avening school 1964-65 ” desc=”Back row, from left: Rose Helmkay, Heidi Striegl, Karen Fisher, Sharon Scott, student teacher, Mrs. Audrey Timmons, student teacher Miss Plater, Caren Dennison, Paul Perreault, David Scott, Dennis Middlebrook. Middle row: Steven Striegl, Sharon Grant, Maureen Weatherall, Darlene Dennison, Sandra Middlebrook, Donna Kerr, Camiel DeBeer, Gary Helmkay, Bonnie Trott. Front row: Alan Trott, Frank DeBeer, Diane Kerr, Terry Grant, Rick Dennison, Heather Weatherall, Robert McLaren, Debbie Emerton, Bonnie Fisher and Brenda Carruthers. ” caption_location=”outside-image”][/vc_column][/vc_row]