The Lidstone School District was organized formally in April 1900. A wood frame school building was erected on land belonging to Thomas Lidstone, on the southeast quarter of 30-35-26 west of the Principal Meridian in what is now the Municipality of Minitonas-Bowsman. A new building was constructed in 1916 which served as a hub for the local community until the school closed in 1967. The building was used for the Lidstone Women’s Institute Community Centre until 1993 when it was moved to a nearby yard to become a storage shed. A monument at the original site commemorates it.
Among the teachers of Lidstone School were Charlie McKay, Mrs. Malard, Sady Baldwin, Emily Kinley, Miss Ried, Miss Sales, Cora McConnell, Miss Smith, Miss Wilson, Jean Madill, Fred J. Kennedy, Matthew Myers, Miss Negrave, Belva Allen (early 1950s), Mrs. North, Florence Anderson, Leslie Dart, Jack Orchard, Miss Miller, Mrs. Alvin Mitchell, Winona Howell, Miss Mildred Sillgren, Jessie McLeod, Miss Armstead, Miss Moffat, and Margaret Lowden.
Lidstone School (no date) by J. S. Peach
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 49.
The former Lidstone School building, in use as the Lidstone Women’s Institute Community Centre (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 675.
Lidstone School commemorative monument (July 2012)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N52.02723, W101.15665
denoted by symbol on the map above
One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Boots, Buggies & Buses: Swan Valley Schools in Quest of Education, Swan Valley School Division No. 35, circa 1998.
We thank Roberta Baskier for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 4 February 2021
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