Thackley Open Air School was one of the very first Open Air Schools in the country. Bradford was a very progressive authority, and had already introduced innovations such as School Medical Officers and a school meal service, recognising that many children were held back by poverty, illness, and lack of good food. Where these problems were particularly severe, it was realised that time spent in an Open Air School would set a child back on the road to good health and normal schooling.

The Open Air School in Buck Wood, Thackley, took in its first pupils in the summer of 1908. Forty ‘delicate’ children were brought by tram each weekday for lessons and meals at the school, which was situated in the healthy surroundings of the woods. The pupils spent as much time as possible in the open-fronted south-facing classrooms and in the woodland itself. By the time the school closed in 1939 thousands of Bradford’s sickly children had benefited from the special care and atmosphere offered by the school.

At first the children who came to the School were from Bradford’s poorest slums, where overcrowding, pollution, and bad sanitation made it difficult for sickly children to recover their health. They included children with such diseases as tuberculosis, rickets, anaemia, and chronic infections. All needed a few months of fresh air, good food, and exercise to build them up. In later years the children came from better homes, but were still struggling to recuperate from childhood illnesses such as scarlet fever, diphtheria, and from TB which was still a problem in Bradford.

The School was built facing the grassy slopes of the raised area formed from waste material excavated from Thackley railway tunnel. The children could play up there as well as in five acres of woodland allocated to the School. At first there were just two classrooms, with baths, kitchens, etc., but within the first year many other chalet-style buildings were added, making space for 120 children. They were arranged in a long line, stretching out from a central block which included the dining room with its open veranda. Each of these wings – one for boys and one for girls – contained not only classrooms but also resting sheds where the children slept every afternoon.

Children were selected for the School by the School Medical Officer. Their health was carefully monitored whilst at the School, by a Doctor and by School Nurses. They were regularly weighed and measured and had their blood tested. The children were given supplements such as ‘parish’s Chemical Food’ and cod–liver-oil-and-malt. Hot and cold showers and baths ensured that they were clean, and that skin problems were dealt with promptly.

The day was long, but was not all hard work. It began with breakfast at 9 a.m, and ended with games from 5.30 to 6 p.m. In between were lesson periods, games, meals, and the compulsory rest period in the afternoon. In the open resting sheds, which had rolling shutters for wet and windy weather, or out in the Wood, the children were wrapped in blankets and had to lie perfectly still on camp beds for 1½ hours. This was seen as a vital part of their health care.

School work was done in the fresh air as far as possible. As well as normal lessons the girls were taught domestic skills which they put to practical use in the school kitchen and dining room. The boys were taught useful crafts such as woodwork, and gardening. All had nature study lessons and walks in the surrounding woodland.
The gardening lessons soon became an essential part of the school day for both boys and girls. Apart from providing exercise, the garden plots could be used in maths, writing, and drawing lessons, and the fruit and vegetables contributed to the school meals.

The meals had a major role in improving the children’s health, although the porridge and treacle they were given for breakfast was a dish so heartily disliked that many pupils remembered it several decades later! Dinner was an ample 2-course meal, with solid desserts such as jam roly-poly or steamed suet puddings. Rhubarb was grown in the gardens and used regularly for desserts. The last meal was tea – milk, bread and butter, or fruit cake. On such a substantial diet, the average weight gain of a child attending the Open Air School was over 2½ kilos.

The Open Air School grew until 275 pupils at a time could be taught there. For a while there was residential accommodation for a small number of boys. There were plans to extend the School into the field behind, and at one time to build a much bigger residential school in a different part of the Wood, but these never took place. There was always a great need for this type of schooling in Bradford – another open air school started in Odsal in 1927, and in the 1930s a sanatorium school for children with TB was opened in Grassington. But the Open Air School closed on the outbreak of war in 1939, and was never again used as a special school.

After the war it was used as a temporary school for children whose new school buildings elsewhere in Bradford weren't ready in time. After that it was a popular place for community groups such as Scouts and Guides, and other organisations held events there. Local school classes continued gardening there, and used the playing field for sports, but the building gradually fell into disrepair. It finally burnt down in 1966.
Recently the Friends of Buck Wood have begun clearing some of the site of almost forty years of regrowth of trees and undergrowth. We have published a leaflet 'Pure Fresh Air and Good Plain Food', and are collecting information for a book about this very unusual school.