Education in Keinton Mandeville and Neighbouring Villages

Education in keinton mandeville and neighbouring villages

Keinton Mandeville

In 1818 there was a day school for 30 children taught by a poor man and supported by the rector.[i] Wesleyans opened a Sunday school in 1823, which by 1835 had 77 pupils, as compared with 35 pupils at the Church Sunday school.[ii] A schoolmaster was in the parish in 1841.[iii] The Church Sunday school was affiliated to the National Society by 1846 when it had 46 pupils; it was then hoped to open a day school when an efficient master could be found.[iv] By 1851 a master and his daughter taught at the Church school, which had 69 pupils on Sundays. Wesleyans and Bible Christians both had Sunday schools.[v] In 1861 the National School teachers had four pupils boarding, a couple were teaching at the Wesleyan school which may already have taken day pupils, and a staymaker was a teacher at the Bible Christian chapel.[vi] By 1875 the Wesleyans certainly had a day school[vii] and difficult relations between the two churches probably resulted in the creation of a school board in 1878, which was responsible for a new school for 100 pupils.[viii] However, in 1888 and 1893 the schoolroom was used for Anglican services.[ix] Not all parents found the school adequate as in 1881 six girls from the parish were away at boarding school.[x] In 1891 a couple taught and resided at the school and two other board school teachers and a pupil teacher lived in the parish.[xi]

The church school, originally a single classroom in Westfield Road, later Chistles Lane, had a second classroom and porch added to designs by J. Day of Glastonbury, possibly in the 1840s. He also designed a three-bedroom teacher’s house to the west, which does not appear to have been built.[xii] A new and larger school was built west of the older school to the designs of a Mr. Bowring[xiii] in 1902—3 and there were 97 children on the books under 4 teachers in 2 rooms, although six teachers were recorded in 1901.[xiv] A night school and later cookery and dairying classes continued to be held in the old schoolroom. In the 1920s the school produced a remarkable number of pupils who became teachers and was regarded as a model. Girls from Lovington and Lydford attended the cookery classes and pupils came from Barton, Kingweston, and Babcary.[xv] Attendance fell significantly after seniors were transferred to Ansford but the number of pupils more than doubled between 1985 and 1995 as the general population of the village expanded.[xvi] The school building was extended in 1994[xvii] and in 1998—9 there were 161 children on the books aged between 4 and 11 years.[xviii] The old National schoolroom, which had been used as a hall, was demolished and houses were built on the site c. 1997.[xix]

Parents’ days were held at the school from 1919 and a special meeting was arranged ‘to promote cordial relations between teachers, managers, and parents’.[xx] A parent-teacher association had been formed by 1967.[xxi] By 1979 there was a pre-school playgroup[xxii] and a nursery play school started in 1988.[xxiii] Stepping Stones was registered for pre-school education in 2000.[xxiv]

Evening classes were held from 1899 and for some years after the First World War there were choral and orchestral classes.[xxv] Evening classes were still being held in 1979.[xxvi]

Babcary

Two dame schools taught c. 20 children in 1818 and 40 children attended a Sunday school.[xxvii] A Wesleyan schoolmaster was recorded in the 1820s.[xxviii] The Sunday school was said to have 30 boys and 40 girls in 1825[xxix] and 20 children in 1835 including Wesleyans. A day school taught 15 boys at their parents’ expense,[xxx] probably the school for which a book of arithmetic exercises survives from 1825.[xxxi] The National school was built in 1841 with two rooms.[xxxii] In 1846 day and Sunday schools were attended by 10 boys but only 4 girls, a further 5 boys and one girl attended only on weekdays, and 16 boys and 21 girls attended only on Sundays of whom 10 boys and 3 girls came from two dame schools which taught 14 boys and 13 girls.[xxxiii] In 1886 a vestry meeting agreed an annual rate to support the National school.[xxxiv]

It was transferred to a Board of 5 members in 1890 and had 57 mostly from the National school but many were later enrolled who had not attended school previously. An extra classroom was built in 1891 to accommodate 110 although attendance in the 1890s was c. 70, falling to 37 in 1903 when there were 50 children registered. An evening school was held twice.[xxxv] The children of railway navvies attended until 1905 when the Board refused to increase the salaries of the two teachers. They were said to be often absent and unpunctual leaving infants in the care of older children who abused them. Absenteeism was aggravated that year by the diphtheria epidemic which closed the school for 5 months. By 1910 there were only 13 infants and the sewing teacher was discharged. Bad school reports in 1913 and 1914 also led the county council to recommend closure. However, the school was reprieved and the Board supported the same teachers, father and daughter, about whom they had complained earlier. Absenteeism continued as both boys and girls obtained release on labour certificates during the war and other children followed the hunt or picked blackberries, the last encouraged by the head teacher who recorded over 640 lb. picked. The post of monitress was suspended between 1923 and 1926 as numbers fell to 14 in 1925. From 1928 the school took juniors only, the older children transferring to Keinton Mandeville.[xxxvi] Incoming junior children raised numbers temporarily to 32 in 1931. Frequent staff changes and building problems probably caused numbers to fall to 11 in 1944, after the early evacuees had left. In May 1945 the school closed.[xxxvii] It became a village hall and after 1959 a private house.[xxxviii]

Hester Bartlett kept a private day school in the Cary road in 1861 and in 1871 was assisted by her daughter.[xxxix]

Barton St David

In 1709 Richard Phelps (d. c. 1725), formerly a schoolmaster at Market Dayton, Salop., was licensed to teach English grammar. He seems to have taught until his death, probably at Church Farm, which he bought in 1704.[xl]

Weekly schools for small children were in existence by 1818.[xli] In 1825 20 boys and 20 girls were taught,[xlii] although at least one local boy attended school in Babcary.[xliii] Three dame schools in 1833 taught 26 children at their parents’ expense. A day and Sunday school supported by two ladies taught 40 children with 50 attending only on Sunday,[xliv] supported by the prebendary in 1836,[xlv] in a room east of the church on land belonging to the Dickinson family.[xlvi] It was the parochial school in 1847 attended by 43 children daily and on Sunday, 32 children on weekdays, and a further 33 on Sunday. Twenty pupils were infants.[xlvii] In 1861 it was an infant school supported by Mrs Dickinson.[xlviii]

In 1864 there were 65 pupils on the register but grant was withdrawn because too few were presented for examination. Many children absented themselves on Fridays and were taken out of school for home duties, farm work, and employment at an early age.[xlix] That year the rector and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners gave glebe land opposite the schoolroom for a new school for children and adults of the poorer classes.[l] It opened in November with 60 pupils and more were admitted later. However, absences, epidemics, including scarlet fever, which killed two pupils in 1865, and the lack of qualified teachers led to loss of grants and examination failures. Night schools were held on Mondays and Thursdays in 1868. In 1870 few boys attended and children presented a poor appearance due to poverty. There were frequent changes of head teacher, possibly because there was no accommodation; the earlier teachers had been local women.[li] The younger children were often in the care of two older girls but the vicar and his family visited regularly and one daughter taught singing. In 1887 one parent withdrew a girl to be educated privately because he was unhappy with the school. In 1891 education became free and the children were encouraged to start savings accounts with their school pence.[lii]

In 1896 69 children were registered and the school was enlarged in 1898 to accommodate 79.[liii] Absenteeism continued and the school closed for up to a week for elections or the chrysanthemum show.[liv] There were two classrooms with two teachers in 1903 when there were 55 children on the books and both evening and Sunday schools were held.[lv] The infant gallery was removed c. 1908. Despite absenteeism the school received good reports until 1913 when a deterioration was noted.Lectures on agriculture and poultry keeping were given in the 1900s and the children had school gardens, which they maintained mainly in their own time until the 1930s or later. There were clashes between managers and the head teachers over politics and the treatment of assistant teachers, and frequent changes of staff.[lvi]

Attendance fluctuated from 62 in 1905 to 75 in 1908, including 15 from Kingweston, and 48 in 1917. Belgian children were admitted in 1915 and the children collected vegetables for sailors. Absenteeism remained a serious problem mainly due to epidemics but also to attend horse races at Keinton Mandeville. In 1930 admission of children under 5 was discouraged. The state of the school gave cause for concern including the lack of water and the dangerous state of the ceiling. Numbers continued to fall to 33 by 1945, despite the presence of many evacuees, and 18 by 1949 when all but 3 children had chickenpox. Another fall of part of the ceiling caused the children to be transferred to Keinton Mandeville and it was decided to close the school and keep the children at Keinton.[lvii]

In 1994 a pre-school had opened at Barton St David with 21 children aged between 2 and 5 in 1998.[lviii] It is held on weekday mornings in the old school, now the village hall.

Kingweston

In 1818 there was a day school for little children but the poor attended a neighbouring parish Sunday school.[lix] In 1825 20 boys and 10 girls attended school[lx] probably the Sunday school which taught 6 boys and 6 girls in 1835 when an infant school taught 6 children at their parents’ expense.[lxi] In 1846 there was a parochial day and Sunday school, probably provided by Francis Dickinson who paid for work on it in 1844 and 1850. It was described as a good little school worthy of a better room. It taught 6 boys and 17 girls during the week and on Sunday, a further 2 boys and 3 girls on weekdays only and a 4 boys and 2 girls on Sundays.[lxii] The school was described as a National school in 1859[lxiii] and was well-attended in 1867 although the rector said there were insufficient funds to procure proper teachers. He thought every boy of 11 should be able to read, write, and spell and have a knowledge of arithmetic and scripture.[lxiv] Two teachers were recorded in 1871, one a former cook, but in 1881 the schoolmistress was 20 and a 14 year-old boy was a pupil teacher.[lxv] The school was supported by Francis Dickinson[lxvi] but had closed by 1889 when the children attended Barton St David school.[lxvii] It was later used as a parish room before a fire in 1930.[lxviii] It was converted into a private house c. 1980.[lxix]

John Gray, the land agent, had three agricultural pupils, boys between 18 and 25, boarding with him in 1871.[lxx]

West Lydford

EDUCATION

In 1666 a man was to give up 3 or 4 boys English because it was not worth his labour.[lxxi] John Draper kept a school in 1688 and there was a dame school. In 1690 Thomas Jacob, son of a former rector, set up a writing school with 20 pupils of both sexes which despite his indolence was still in existence in 1696. Humphrey Morris started a writing and Latin school in 1691 with 30 children from surrounding parishes in several classes. His sister Rebecca taught infants and needlework to the girls. The school moved to Yeovil in 1697. In 1723 John Cannon started a small school but had few pupils and his school to teach engrossing to lawyers attempted in 1728 was unsuccessful.[lxxii]

Thomas Pope (d. 1731) left lands to provide £7 a year to teach 6 poor children for 2d. a week each for a maximum of 3 years, any to relieve the poor.[lxxiii] The legacy may have been ineffective and in 1755 Elizabeth Pope bequeathed £100 to teach poor children and relieve the poor. The money was held by the rector and churchwardens who paid £5 10s.[lxxiv] and in the 1780s 3 poor children were taught.[lxxv] Elizabeth Pope’s gift was invested in land in Baltonsborough which produced £14 14s. net in 1818 of which £5 5s. was paid to a woman to teach 20 young children. In 1825 the school taught 10 girls and 10 boys.[lxxvi] The schoolmistress was paid £5 a year from the charity.[lxxvii] In 1835 between 16 and 20 children were educated at the day school and 20 to 25 at a Sunday school both supported by the charity.[lxxviii] There were two teachers in 1841.[lxxix] In 1846 only 4 boys and 8 girls attended the day and Sunday school with a further 6 boys and 7 girls attending on Sundays only.[lxxx] The school was held in a cottage part of the former Court house behind the church. In the 1840s a schoolroom was made there with two small rooms above for the teacher. It was dilapidated in 1855 but deemed adequate in 1870.[lxxxi] A pauper’s daughter was the teacher in 1871[lxxxii] when plans were drawn up for a new school.[lxxxiii]

The West Lydford National school was completed in 1873.[lxxxiv] Two sisters were teacher and monitress in 1881[lxxxv] when the teacher received £1 from the Pope charity, increased to £8 in 1902. In 1906 four year’s money was repaid to the charity.[lxxxvi] Attendance was poor, 28 in 1883.[lxxxvii] In the 1890s many children only attended in the summer and several were withdrawn on health grounds.[lxxxviii] In 1896 there were 37 children on the books but 49 went to Sunday school.[lxxxix] In 1903 one teacher taught 29 children[xc] but by 1908 there were two teachers and the infant gallery was to be removed. In 1922 only 38 children attended and by 1925 only 30. In 1939 9 senior children transferred to Castle Cary. A few evacuees were admitted during the Second World War mainly from London and Hampshire but one from Glasgow.[xci] In 1946 the closure of East Lydford saved the school which obtained aided status in 1952 as Lydford on Fosse Primary school. The church room was used for extra accommodation until a prefabricated extension was built in 1958 when two teachers taught 35 children. The school celebrated its centenary in 1974.[xcii] In 1979 13 children were admitted and by 1986 there were 50 on the roll but only 20 in 1988 and 12 in 1990 when the school closed. Most pupils transferred to Keinton Mandeville or Baltonsborough.[xciii] The school became a private house.

A ladies collegiate school was kept in 1875[xciv] by the Maidments, teachers of English and of music, and in 1881 a young cousin was a boarder.[xcv] In 1889 the school was kept by Emma and Henrietta Cornish Maidment (d. 1890)[xcvi] and in 1891 the boarders comprised 11 girls aged 10—17 and the brother of one girl.[xcvii] It had closed before 1901. The rector had two boarders, brother and sister, in 1881.[xcviii]

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Mary SirautPage 1Somerset Reference

[i] Digest of Returns to the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224) ix(2)), p. 786.

[ii] Abstract of Educational Returns (Parl. Papers 1835 (62) xlii), p. 810.

[iii] TNA, HO 107/937.

[iv] Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846—7, Som. 10—11.

[v] TNA, HO 107/1926; HO 129/317/1/5.

[vi] Ibid. RG 9/1628.

[vii] PO Dir. Som. (1875).

[viii] Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1889); below, religious hist.

[ix] Dioc. Kal. (1888, 1893).

[x] TNA, RG 11/2379.

[xi] Ibid. RG 12/1888.

[xii] SRO, DD/EDS 5992; OS Map 1:10560, Som. LXIV. SW (1885 edn). Old site now under houses.

[xiii] K. Man. school, school board minute book.

[xiv] SRO, C/E 4/380/213; TNA, RG 13/2287.

[xv] K. Man. school, log book.

[xvi] SRO, C/E 4/64.

[xvii] Inscription on building.

[xviii] Som. CC. Schools List, 1998.

[xix] SRO, D/PC/k.man, box 4066, planning file.

[xx] K. Man. school, log book.

[xxi] SRO, D/PC/k.man 1/2/3.

[xxii] Ibid. A/AGH 1/188.

[xxiii] Ibid. D/PC/k.man 1/2/6.

[xxiv] Char. Com. Reg.

[xxv] Keinton Mandeville school, school board minute book.

[xxvi] SRO, A/AGH 1/188.

[xxvii] Digest of Returns to the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224) ix(2)), p.772.

[xxviii] SRO, D/N/smc 3/3/5.

[xxix] Ann. Rep. Bath & Wells Dioc. Assoc. SPCK. (1826).

[xxx] Abstract of Educational Returns (Parl. Papers 1835 (62) xlii), p.791.

[xxxi] SRO, A/AFV 1.

[xxxii] Ibid. C/E 4/380/13.

[xxxiii] Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846-7, Som. 2—3.

[xxxiv] SRO, D/P/bab 9/1/1.

[xxxv] Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1899); SRO, C/E 4/268/2, 4/380/13; C/T 2.

[xxxvi] SRO, D/PC/bab 6/2/1; C/E 4/64, 4/268/1.

[xxxvii] Ibid. C/E 4/64, 4/268/1—2.

[xxxviii] Ibid. D/PC/bab 1/2/1.

[xxxix] TNA, RG 9/1628; RG 10/2393.

[xl] Ibid. D/D/Bs 43; DD/DN 16; DD/SAS C/61/5.

[xli] Ibid. Q/RJl 9/6; Digest of Returns to the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224) ix(2)), p. 772.

[xlii] Ann. Rep. Bath & Wells Dioc. Assoc. SPCK. (1826).

[xliii] SRO, A/AFV 1.

[xliv] Abstract of Educational Returns (Parl. Papers 1835 (62) xlii), p. 792.

[xlv] SRO, D/D/Pg 9.

[xlvi] Ibid. tithe award. Now part of a private residence.

[xlvii] Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846-7, Som. 2—3.

[xlviii] PO Dir. Som. (1861); TNA, RG 9/1628.

[xlix] SRO, D/P/b. st. d 18/7/3.

[l] Ibid. 18/1/1.

[li] Ibid. 18/7/3; TNA, HO 107/1926; ibid. RG 9/1628; RG 11/2379; RG 12/1888.

[lii] SRO, D/P/b.st.d 18/7/3.

[liii] Ibid. 18/7/4; Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1906).

[liv] SRO, D/P/b.st.d 18/7/4.

[lv] Ibid. C/E 4/380/21.

[lvi] Ibid. D/P/b.st.d 18/7/1, 4; 18/11/1.

[lvii] Ibid. 18/7/1—2, 4; C/E 4/64.

[lviii] Char. Com. Reg; Western Gazette 12 March 1998.

[lix] Digest of Returns to the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224) ix(2)), p.787.