The Runnymede School District was established in May 1893 and a one-room schoolhouse operated somewhere in the centre of 20-9-23W, in the Rural Municipality of Sifton. The original building was replaced in 1906 by a stone structure constructed at SE20-9-23W. It was placed by a new building in 1929 and the older stone building was used for the horses ridden by students until 1937 when it was demolished and replaced by a wood frame barn. In June 1942, low enrollment forced the school to closed and the remaining students went to Griswold School, Oakwood School, or Hillsdale School. It reopened in 1954 but closed again, this time permanently, in 1961. The former school building was sold in 1965 and to the homestead of a local resident. The district was dissolved in 1967 and its area became part of the Oakwood Consolidated School District and later the Fort La Bosse School Division. Only a shelterbelt of trees remains at the site.
Among the teachers of Runnymede School were Miss Betty Balfour and Miss Elsie Henderson.
The second Runnymede School (circa 1906)
Source: Education Department Report, 1906, Manitoba Legislative Library.
The second Runnymede School (no date) by W. R. Beveridge
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 11.
A tree shelterbelt is the only remnant of the former Runnymede School (August 2014)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.76101, W100.55460
denoted by symbol on the map above
Virden East topographic map, 62F/15 East, Edition 1, Series A743 [Archives of Manitoba].
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.
Ox Trails to Blacktop by Oak Lake History Committee, 1982, Manitoba Legislative Library, F 5649.O23 Oxt.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 April 2021
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