In 1884, the hamlet of Ancrum was established here in what is now the Municipality of Riverdale. Later, an Anglican church and community hall were built nearby. It was hoped, on arrival of the Great North West Central Railway (later purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway) in 1902, that a train station would be built. Instead, the station was built at Bradwardine where some of Ancrum’s buildings were relocated. The Ancrum church and manse remained until after the end of the Second World War. The Ancrum Anglican Cemetery, located one mile north, remains in use.
The original Wellwood School District was established on 27 September 1884 but renamed as the Ancrum School District on 9 December 1884, prior to classroom operations beginning. The first school building was destroyed by fire in April 1905. Rebuilt that same year at SW16-12-22W, the school closed in December 1915 and its students went to Bradwardine Consolidated School No. 1307. The school building was moved to Bradwardine where it became a private residence and, in 1957, to a farm at NE12-12-23W. A stone monument at the former school site was erected in October 1983.
Among the teachers who worked at Ancrum School Clarissa Hays (Spring 1885 - Fall 1886), Jessie Cameron (Spring - Fall 1887, Spring-Fall 1901), Mary Laurie (Spring 1888 - Spring 1889), Peter D. Stewart (Fall 1889), George A. Thomson (Spring-Fall 1890), J. C. McMannus (Spring-Fall 1891), Susie Haskell (Spring-Fall 1892), Minnie Marshall (Spring-Fall 1893), M. E. Warren (Spring-Fall 1894), S. Windsor (Spring-Fall 1895), Tena Whyte (Spring 1896 - Fall 1897), Louise Murray (Spring-Fall 1898), Helen B. Corbett (Spring 1899 - Fall 1900), records not available (Spring 1902 - Fall 1904), Ruby Donald (?-?), Helen Lee (?-?), Edythe E. Chapman (Spring-Fall 1905, January-February 1906), Belle McTavish (March-July & July-December 1906), Ethel M. Doherty (Spring 1908 - Spring 1909), Violet E. Bradley (Fall 1909 - Fall 1910), Elsie E. Ivens (Spring 1911 - Spring 1912), Myrtle May Wark (Fall 1912), Amanda Sheils (Spring 1913 - Spring 1914), and Alexander Delahaye“Alex” Wright (Fall 1914 - Fall 1915).
Ancrum School commemorative monument (September 2011)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.00709, W100.43904
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Wellwood Consolidated School No. 135 (Wellwood, Municipality of North Cypress-Langford)
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.
“School site marked,” Rivers Gazette Reporter, 18 October 1983, page 8.
Bradwardine and District: A Century and More, 1880-2003 by Bradwardine History Book Committee, 2003.
Board of Education registers (A 0050), Archives of Manitoba.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Ancrum School District No. 329 - Registers of Attendance, GR2063, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Ancrum School District No. 329 - Daily Registers, GR2063, Archives of Manitoba.
Attestation papers, Canadian Expeditionary Force [Alexander Delahaye Wright], Library and Archives Canada.
This page was prepared by Keith Maitland, Gordon Goldsborough, and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 21 October 2025
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