Chelmsford County High School for Girls (CCHS) had its official opening ceremony on 1st May 1907; however, the first girls actually began their studies at the school in 1906. Happily, the 2025-26 academic year marks the 120th anniversary of schooling at CCHS and the beginning of a girls’ education community in Chelmsford.
Such milestones are made more memorable when we focus on one person’s story.
HISTORY OF CCHS
The First Ten Years
The above citation appears on our school website. Wonderfully, the 2025-26 academic year also marks the 110th anniversary of the first CCHS Alumna to graduate from university – Winifred Picking, first-class degree in Natural Sciences from Girton College, Cambridge, 1916 – which was a key moment for our then developing school community, and an occasion for us to remember now.
So, the 2025-26 academic year will be one to celebrate girls’ education and empowerment through CCHS, centred on a commemoration of the 120th anniversary of schooling at CCHS and the 110th anniversary of Winifred’s university graduation.
We will use a series of school, national and international events to frame these important celebrations, including:
- International Day of the Girl (11th October) & the ICGS Student Leadership Symposium and the CCHS Leadership Conference, both taking place in October
- International Day of Education (24th January)
- International Women’s Day (8th March)
- CCHS Commemoration (May)
- Senior Prefect Afternoon (July)
East Hanningfield Archive
Parsons – Emily Winifred Parsons nee Picking. An obituary published in the Cambridge Evening News on Tuesday 8th. July, 1980. Emily grew up in East Hanningfield and was the eldest daughter of Harry and Emily Picking who were master and mistress at the village school.
Cambridge Evening News Tuesday 8 July 1980.
Leading education and health activist dies
A Cambridge woman who dedicated much of her life to health and
education has died.
Mrs. Emily Winifred Parsons, aged 85, who died at a Littleport nursing home
at the weekend, was awarded the CBE in 1974 for her public services in
Cambridgeshire.
Mrs. Parsons, a widow who lived at 4 Clarkson Road, Cambridge, helped
pioneer the introduction of village colleges.
One of her three daughters, Mrs. Rosalind Buffrey, of 2 Clarkson Road said,
“Health and education were her main interests”.
Mrs. Parsons, a former city alderman, was chairman of the former
Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely Education Committee and served on the
United Cambridge Hospitals Committee for more than 20 years.
She was a county councillor between 1937 and 1974, served as a governor
at Addenbrookes Hospital when the board was formed in 1948 and took
part in planning of the new one.
She became hospital board chairman in1966 after a 10 year term as vicechairman.
Mrs Parson was national chairman of the British and Foreign School
Society and was also a member of the Cambridge and Isle of Ely
Naturalists Trust.
