Coleford Schools circa 1911 -1915 part 2 (General)

by slowhands , proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Friday, August 13, 2010, 08:01 (5222 days ago) @ slowhands

EDUCATION.

A National school recorded in Coleford in 1830 (fn. 75) was presumably the infant school run by Anglicans in the former Countess of Huntingdon's chapel in Newland Street at that time. (fn. 76) A National school possibly started in 1835 as a Sunday school (fn. 77) occupied a new building at Lord's Hill from 1838. (fn. 78) Supported by subscriptions and pence, it received an annual grant from the Crown from 1841 (fn. 79) and taught 65 boys and 78 girls separately in 1846. (fn. 80) The average attendance had dropped to 15 by 1867, but following the appointment of a trained master that year it began to grow (fn. 81) and from 1869 the school had junior mixed and infant departments under separate management. (fn. 82) The school was enlarged in 1877 when, as St. John's C. of E. school, it had an average attendance of 136. In 1882, following an influx of children previously taught at a British school, (fn. 83) the junior department was reorganized with the boys in a new building next to St. John's church in Boxbush Road. (fn. 84) The infant school moved to a new building next to the church in 1896 (fn. 85) and the three departments of St. John's school had a combined average attendance of 306 in 1904. (fn. 86) The boys' school was enlarged in 1910. (fn. 87) In 1930, when the older boys and girls were transferred to a new secondary school in Bowens Hill Road, (fn. 88) the school at Lord's Hill was closed and the younger children were taught together in the buildings by the church. (fn. 89) The average attendance at St. John's school was 151 in 1932 and 196 in 1938. (fn. 90) Between 1966 and 1974 the school moved in stages to the site of the school in Bowens Hill Road, which had been vacated, (fn. 91) and in 1994 it had 234 children on its roll. (fn. 92) The buildings in Boxbush Road were converted for use as a day hospital and a clinic. (fn. 93) The former school building at Lord's Hill was used as a parish room and church hall in 1959 (fn. 94) and was converted for use as a holiday and youth centre by the diocese in 1979. (fn. 95)

The Coleford Baptists had a Sunday school with 260 pupils in 1824. (fn. 96) Baptists also started another Sunday school in Newland parish in 1828 (fn. 97) and ran a free school, presumably at their Newland Street chapel, in 1830. (fn. 98) In 1851 the former Countess of Huntingdon's chapel in Newland Street, then occupied by Wesleyan Reformers, was temporarily a British school. (fn. 99) In 1863 a new British school opened in the former Baptist chapel in Newland Street. Teaching boys and girls, it was financed by subscriptions and pence. (fn. 1) It also received a grant from the Crown and it had 185 children on its roll when it closed in 1880. (fn. 2)
Coleford had several small day and boarding schools in the mid 19th century, (fn. 3) including in 1858 a boarding school run by a former minister of the town's Independent chapel. (fn. 4) In 1862 a Roman Catholic convert took lodgings in the town and started a day school in Gloucester Road. The school soon had 40 pupils, most of them protestants. Some children moved to the British school opened the following year. (fn. 5) In 1867 the Catholic school taught 30 children and the Independents had a school with 170 pupils. (fn. 6) Neither school is recorded later. In the late 19th century there were several private girls' schools in Coleford. (fn. 7)

A schoolroom built at Scowles in 1849 by C. W. Grove, curate of Newland, was paid for by voluntary contributions (fn. 8) and from 1850 was also used for church services. (fn. 9) In 1858 J. F. Brickdale (later Fortescue-Brickdale) of Newland built a new school there on the suggestion of his daughter Mary and at his death in 1867 he left her the building and an annuity of £50 for its maintenance. (fn. 10) In 1877 it was a mixed school teaching juniors and infants and it had an average attendance of 72. (fn. 11) In 1879 Mary Brickdale, who ran it as a church school largely at her own expense, increased the accommodation and built a house for its teachers, who were to be a married couple. On the closure of Coleford British school in 1880 attendance rose and from 1883 the junior and infant departments were run separately. Not long before her death in 1895 Mary Brickdale appointed managers for the school, and in 1897 the Revd. H. A. G. Graham gave £1,000 stock as an endowment and the two departments were merged to form the Brickdale Memorial school. It was managed with other church schools in Coleford from 1903. (fn. 12) The average attendance was 69 in 1904 (fn. 13) and 48 in 1938. (fn. 14) The school closed in 1969 (fn. 15) and the buildings, which had remained in the ownership of the FortescueBrickdale family until 1922, (fn. 16) were converted for domestic use.
Coleford Senior Council school was opened by the county council in 1930 to take children aged nine years and over from St. John's school. Occupying a new building in Bowens Hill Road, it also took children from other local elementary schools (fn. 17) and had an average attendance of 161 in 1932 and 87 in 1938. (fn. 18) It became a secondary modern school under the 1944 Education Act and closed in 1966. The children were transferred to Berry Hill Secondary school at Five Acres. (fn. 19)
In 1876 Bell's Grammar school, part of an early 17th-century charitable foundation, moved from Newland to a new building at Lord's Hill in Coleford. (fn. 20) At Lord's Hill the number of pupils rose to over 30 before dropping sharply to 5 in the late 1890s.

An art school was established in 1872 and had premises in Newland Street. It apparently closed soon after 1876. (fn. 29) In the 1890s evening classes on mining, science, and art started in Coleford with support from the county council. The science and art classes, organized from the Lydney Institute, continued until 1905 or later. (fn. 30)

From: 'Coleford', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 117-138. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23255 Date accessed: 13 August 2010.

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