The Hernefield School District was established formally in June 1885. Later that year, a wooden one-room schoolhouse was erected on the northwest quarter of 8-1-25 west of the Principal Meridian, in what is now the Municipality of Brenda-Waskada. In 1917, the original school building was replaced by a new structure at a different site, and the earlier building was sold and moved to a nearby farm where it was used as a granary until 1940, when it was destroyed by a lightning fire.
The school closed in 1958 and its remaining students went to Waskada Consolidated School No. 492. The building was used as a temporary classroom at Waskada and Tilston then moved to Melita where it became a maintenance building. A commemorative monument for the school was erected at the site of the first school.
Among the teachers of Hernefield School were Mr. Hernedon (1885), Percival Beresford Bennett, P. Fisher, Bessie Branscombe, Stella Millions, Nora Pig, Alma Meggison, Marjorie Tooke (1918), Miss Stow, Mr. Kerr, Vi Blaker, Mr. Rankin, Miss Kenner, Miss Wood, Miss Middland, Mrs. Millions, Elsie Stalker, Minnie Oberlin, Dora Corbett, Maude Bradley, and Freda McInnes (1958).
Students at the first Hernefield School building (no date)
Source: Tyler Skrabek
Students at the first Hernefield School building (no date)
Source: Tyler Skrabek
The second Hernefield School building (no date) by George Hunter
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 44.
Hernefield School commemorative monument (October 2011)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.02901, W100.79091
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.
Bridging Brenda: The History of Brenda Municipality and Area, Volume 1 by Brenda History Committee, 1990, pages 104-106.
We thank Tyler Skrabek and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 19 May 2023
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