Hawleys Auctioneers & ValuersA school facing closure has announced it is auctioning off two 1930s dining tables which generations of children have eaten at.
Former pupils of Moorlands School in Leeds donated the oak refectory tables and benches crafted by Robert “Mouseman” Thompson and featuring his trademark mice carvings.
Moorlands confirmed its closure after 127 years of educating children in June and the buildings will be vacated on 31 December.
Headteacher Jacky Atkinson said the tables were the “heart of the school”.
The independent preparatory school’s trustees have appointed Hawleys Auctioneers to sell the furniture in lots at Beverley Racecourse later today.
Ms Atkinson added: “The tables and the benches have been a central part of school. They were used every day for the children to have breakfast at, to have lunch at, at tea times.
“The children were aware of the mice and they were something they looked out for, but I think they were just well-used and well-loved.
“They’re such substantial pieces of furniture that they made an impact just in themselves, but they were at the heart of the school.”
Getty ImagesThe Mouseman workshop in Kilburn, North Yorkshire, is still run by the family of Thompson, who died in 1955.
The tables date from 1935 and 1937 and are expected to fetch up to £20,000. The four benches are being sold as separate lots.
The 1935 table is 5m long and estimated to attract bids of £5,000 to £8,000, while the 6m-long 1937 table could go for £8,000 to £12,000.
The longer table features a brass plaque with the engraved words: “Presented by a grateful old boy who went from Moorlands to Shrewsbury and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.”
Ms Atkinson said the school had a strong community of alumni, many of whom had been in touch on hearing that it was set to close.
She said: “We regularly used to get phone calls from old Moorlanders asking if they could come and have a look around the school building because people just had very fond memories of the school. It’s very strong kind of sense of community here.
“It’s been difficult because we had hopes that we could have opened the building up (for final visits), but things have moved on quickly that we just felt it wasn’t kind of appropriate in the end.”
Hawleys AuctioneersThe school is also selling a series of honour boards featuring the names of ex-pupils.
Ms Atkinson, who led the school for eight years, said the school had been empty since the summer and they were now clearing out the building, which was originally the home of the Tetley brewing family before Moorlands moved in in the 1960s.
She added: “In many ways the auction marks the end of an era. The school had a very long history and the refectory tables and benches played a significant part in it – a really sociable part.
“There will be many former pupils who will remember being here and many who will remember coming along to use the swimming pool. It was part of the community.”
In 2008, an auction of Mouseman furniture from the library of Leeds Girls’ High School in Headingley, close to the Moorlands site, fetched a total of £240,000 in a sale that attracted many former pupils. The librarian’s desk went for £18,000.
The pieces, including bookcases, dated back to the 1930s and were sold off when the school merged with The Grammar School at Leeds and moved sites.
Auctioneer Caroline Hawley said the tables were very special.
“The 1937 table is one of the biggest Mouseman pieces I’ve had the privilege of selling at one of our auctions and it’s astonishing to think the top has been crafted from a single piece of oak. All 5.82m of it – quite incredible,” she said.
