Maud Maxfield School

Until recently, I had no idea who Miss E Maud Maxfield was and decided to do some research hence here is a summary regarding Miss Maud Maxfield and the school.  East Hill House was the home of Alderman John Wycliffe Wilson and his wife, Ruth. John Wycliffe Wilson had a long and distinguished career, becoming a member of the City Council in 1890 and Lord Mayor from 1902-3. His wife, Ruth was also very active in Nether Chapel and education being the first woman to be appointed to the Sheffield Schools Board where she served for nine years. They were friends and colleagues of Miss E Maud Maxfield who was also a member of Nether Chapel and interested in education. From 1894 Miss E Maud Maxfield was also a member of the Sheffield Schools Board  and then from 1903 a member of the Sheffield Education Committee, her special interests being the care of mentally and physical defective children and children who were deaf and blind.

After John Wycliffe Wilson died in 1921 his son, Talbot Wilson sold East Hill House to the Sheffield Education Committee to use as a day school for deaf children. Until then deaf children from Sheffield attended Deaf Institutions as boarders in Doncaster, Manchester, and Derby. It was decided that deaf children should attend a day school in Sheffield where they lived.  East Hill House was ideal being a large house with surrounding gardens, playing fields and within easy reach of the town centre.

Miss Maud Maxfield was involved in arranging all this and the schools founded at East Hill were named after her. East Hill became the Maud Maxfield School for the Deaf and opened in 1922, but there was also a school for the partially sighted, the Myope School which opened in 1923 and was housed in three x-army huts placed near the entrance gates. Miss Maud Maxfield always took an active interest in both schools and was a frequent visitor; she died in February 1940. The school moved to Ringinglow Road and I believed it closed in 1981