During an MA course in History of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, I was carefully looked after by Dr David Crook, my then tutor. He was consistently supportive of this project.

The Victorian Society were very supportive during the gestation of the project between about 2006 and about 2009. Thanks are due to its then Director Dr Ian Dungavell and former staff members Kathryn Ferry and Heloise Brown. Malcolm Edwards and Frederick Wolff, Victorian Society members, provided moral support and a wealth of knowledge and photographs.

At Historic England, Professor Andrew Saint allowed me to access historical records and spent time sharing his past reports and current encyclopaedic knowledge and expertise. Emily Gee, Colin Thom, the late Elaine Harwood, Hannah Parham, Philip Seely and Beth McHattie also assisted and showed interest.

The project took a huge leap forward thanks to the exertions of James Hall. I am hugely indebted to him for sharing his research and many images of schools.

Janaka Podiralahamy lent his considerable expertise to design the website. Marshall Penn worked hard to build and host the website, tolerating my changes of mind with equanimity.

This website was initally based on research from an MA Dissertation which was completed in 2006. Research has been ongoing since that date. The website was first built in 2009 and updated subsequently, with more schools added. It was lost, due to technical issues, between 2021 and 2024. I am very grateful to the Internet Archive for their wonderful Wayback Machine, which meant I was able to rescue it from cyberheaven and then fully update it.