Melksham Times Past

A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis

Pupils mourn loss of beloved schoolmaster

Shaw House is the main manor house of a set of three properties (Shaw Court, Shaw Grange and Shaw House) originally built in 1711 by a wealthy wool merchant and subsequently extended in 1840.

For upwards of three decades the building was used as a boarding school by Richard Smith, headmaster.

Alonzo Badham, as a lad about the age of four, fell and broke his collar bone. Shortly after Alonzo and Helen Davis got married in 1852, he was very ill for about seven weeks. Many people at that time thought that illness was a divine punishment for wrongdoing. The minister visited him several times. On his recovery, the minister said, “His mouth overflows with thankfulness to the Lord.”

In 1858, Alonzo’s father died and left him a sum of money. James Billings Badham of Bristol was Secretary to the Bristol and Exeter Railway company.

Alonzo Badham located to Melksham as a boarding schoolmaster, firstly living at Thornbank House (off King Street, now replaced by multi-residences) and then succeeded Richard Smith in principalship, taking over Shaw House Academy in 1860.

The school was very successful and Badham was held in high esteem.

Walter Long, MP, would occasionally grant leave to his tenants in the neighbourhood to have a day or two’s shooting in his game preserves at Ashton Wood. Badham was invited to be in a party of 14 or 15 on Monday 10th February 1862. They broke into smaller groups and as Badham was crouching to get a better view, the gun of William Eyes of Semington Wharf accidentally discharged, hitting Badham in the back of his neck.

The charge exploded, shattering his vertebrae, dividing his spinal marrow and recurrent nerve, causing instantaneous death. Badham sank to the ground without uttering a cry or word.

Dr Plimmer, who was also part of the hunting party, was summoned, but it was too late to offer assistance. The day’s proceedings were instantly relinquished and the party broke up, many of whom went to the now-widowed wife, Helen, at Shaw House to express their deepest sympathy to her and her five children in their sudden bereavement.

The following month, his widow announced that she would continue the school. In July of that same year, Helen gave birth to their sixth child.

Later that month, the pupils of the late Alonzo Badham erected a tablet in Melksham Church to his memory, with the following inscription: “Be ye also ready. In memory of Alonzo Badham, Principal of Shaw House School, who lost his life through an accident at Rood Ashton, February 10, 1862, aged 33 years. Erected by his sorrowing pupils.”

Four years later, widow Badham married Charles Ferris O’Connor, a teacher of classics and drawing and together they kept the school operational until the Shaw House lease expired in 1871, and the school was moved to Belmont House in The Spa.

Advertisements for the school ended in 1873; O’Connor sold all furnishings and moved from Melksham in 1877. Belmont was put up for auction by owner William James Griffiths in 1879. Following his wife’s death in 1880, O’Connor took a teaching position at Upper Grovesend, Colwall, Herefordshire.

George Joseph Perkins ran Melksham Grammar School in Agra House from 1881, also in the Spa.

The gifted tablet, in the photo, was only discovered by Melksham parish church wardens in 2003 at relative Shane Badham’s request and is only visible if you climb a ladder to the organ upper floor with a torch.

Pictured: The gifted tablet