A picture of the school in the late 1950's, which clearly shows where Sir Isaacs pond was. It is now our playground and sometimes fills up with water making playtimes wet!

Oakworth Primary has changed a lot since it was built in 1937, and has become bigger and bigger throughout the years. The school was built on the grounds of Sir Isaac Holden's outdoor gardens. Orginally the building started with just a long corridor with classrooms (now the KS1 corridor) and a shorter corridor coming off to a hall, now our assembly, P.E. and dinner hall.

Side view of school

During the 1960's two extensions were built coming off the hall. Recently a further storey has been added to these and the hall extended to provide a library.

Picture from outside year 5

The old nursery has become the after school care club and we have a new purpose built nursery. Our buildings are still surrounded by the trees and shrubs which Sir Isaac Holden had planted. We can use and enjoy his garden just as he used to.

Picture of new year 4

Sir Isaac Holden was born in Hurlet, Scotland on 7th May 1807. His father was a miner who set up Sunday and Night schools. Isaac worked in the mill in the early morning hours until 8 at night then he went onto night school. During his life he became a teacher, invented many things including the Lucifer match, owned several mills, lived in France, built a magnificent mansion in Oakworth, became an M.P. in 1865 and eventually a baronet.

In 1832 he married Marion and they had 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. Marion died in 1847. His second wife, Sarah, daughter of John Sugden of Dockroyd brought him to Oakworth. In the log books of the school it says that at Christmas Mrs Holden came across to the school and gave the children oranges.

Sir Isaac Holden was a keep fit fanatic. He ate lots of fruit. He had special houses in which he grew fruit e.g. bananas, grapes and peaches. He walked 3-4 miles per day no matter what the weather was. Sometimes he even walked from Oakworth to Bradford (about 15 miles) to go to work. Isaac was very popular in Oakworth and he gave money for Oakworth mechanics institute, Victoria Hall and opened his gardens for people to walk around at weekends.

The house was the first place in Oakworth to have central heating and a telephone in the telephone room. Isaac had a magnificent winter garden where he grew oranges and other fruits. There was half an acre of garden where the caves are today in the park, it was in a great glass house. The family of Holden's wife, Sarah Sugden, owned a small House on the site of Oakworth house and Isaac lived there with Sarah for a while. It had magnificent rooms such as ballrooms, drawing rooms and also Greek patterns.The house was designed by Mr George Smith who put in a billiard room, large library, Turkish baths, bathrooms and conservatories.The garden was as luxurious as the house interior and there were 5 miles of gravelled paths to walk around. This is where our school is now. It took Italian artists 3 months to lay mosaic paths close to the house. Behind the house were the winter gardens. The whole wall in the drawing room was a huge French glass window so that he could look at them. Half an acre of ground was covered in a glass roof with multi -coloured stained glass dome. Under the glass he excavated caves and passageways into the solid rock.

The beautiful mosiacs can still be seen in the park now

Many features of the house are still remaining in the park e.g. the caves, the mosaics, the chair and the teddy bear house. The caves were originally at the back of the house. The mosaics were designed and made by French and Italian craftsmen. In the Caves you can see the light switches which were used by Sir Isaac Holden to turn on the lights in the Winter Gardens, water would trickle down the caves with lights behind making it look like "fairyland".

Holden Park is named after Sir Isaac Holden because he built Oakworth House there. The park was opened in 1925, 16 years after Oakworth House burnt down in 1909. The Portico is the only remaining part of Sir Isaac Holden's magnificent house. Guests would ride up in their horse and carriage and climb out under here so that they didn't get wet.

Sir Isaac Holden's masterpiece was ruined by the flames that started in the library. Last Saturday Wilson Whitaker, a local joiner, left the house after working on repairs in Sir Isaac's library. He had been cold in the library and the central heating had not been on, so he decided to light a fire. Even though the fire was put out some embers had been left behind.

Overnight the embers from the fire must have spread throughout the entire house. It must have set the rug alight and then a long tapestry hanging on a chair was set on fire. The next day (Sunday) the local milkman was on his way to the station when he noticed smoke pouring out of a chimney and the windows. He instantly knew no one would have lit a fire because since Sir Isaac died (1897) the house has been deserted. Keighley fire brigade refused to come when the alarm was raised because Oakworth Council did not subscribe money to them, so the local fire brigade had to fight it on their own.
Everyone tried to save the front part of the building and fortunately their plan worked but the rest of the building was burnt away.