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Following some excellent, detailed research by a fellow Fothergill-ologist, Darren Turner (also author of the fascinating Catalogue of the Works of Watson Fothergill – CLICK HERE), a previously unrecognised Watson Fothergill building has been discovered!

All Saints School, Forest Road West

Funded by the wealthy silk manufacturer William Widley, and built in 1872

The article from the Nottingham Journal, Saturday 23rd March 1872 reporting that Mr Fothergill Watson [as he was known then] had won the competition to design the new boys’ school.  
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One of the judges of the competition was Ewan Christian from London, who was the architect responsible for the restoration of Southwell Minster 1879-81.

1882 Ordnance Map showing the All Saints New Boys School

William Windley

William Windley was born in 1822, the eldest child of Thomas Windley (a dyer from London) and Jane Hutchinson who had married the previous year. At age 29, William was recorded in the 1851 census as a silk throwster employing 221 persons, living near his parents in Park Valley with his wife Elizabeth, their son Thomas and three servants. His silk business flourished and he became a wealthy man.

Windley was a staunch Conservative and strong supporter of the Anglican church. He was one of a band of half a dozen men, among whom were the Rev. Canon Brooks, Colonel Holden, Thomas Adams, and F. B. Gill, who when the town was largely developing, 1850-60, set themselves to provide Churches, Schoolrooms, or future building sites, for aiding spiritual work in the town. Windley donated about £20,000 (around £1.8m in 2022) for the building of All Saints Church and (original) School on Raleigh Street, Nottingham in 1864 (designed by T C Hine), were he continued to worship for the rest of his life.

In the early 1870s it was decided that an additional All Saints School was needed to give the older boys from the Raleigh Street school some more advanced education. William Windley was also the benefactor funding the All Saints New Boys School on Forest Road West later known as the Windley School in his honour.

In 1877 Windley died suddenly at age 54 after a short illness. His funeral was at All Saints church where he was buried. His estate was valued at £30,000 (around £3m in 2022).

The Windley School c. 1960
(photo: Picture The Past)

In the mid-20th century, the Windley School and attracted a high proportion of children from West Indian, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds who comprised a third of the school roll by the time of the centenary celebrations in 1967. The school closed in 1978 and is now used as offices by various organisations.