National Schools - Blakeney (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, September 27, 2013, 21:04 (4076 days ago) @ jerigby

Just to confirm there were at least three Schools, two National, in the area in 1840.
"AWRE, a parish in the hund. of Blidesloe, union of Westbury, Gloucestershire; 2 ½ miles east-north east from Blakeney; on the estuary of the Severn, which bounds the parish on three sides. It includes the chapelry of Blakeney (which see) and the tythings of Blidesloe, Etloe, Etloe-Duchy, and Hagloe. Living, a vicarage in connection with Poulton, transferred from the archd. of Hereford to that of Gloucester, in the dio. of Gloucester and Bristol; rated at £10 5s.; gross income £572; and in the patronage of the Haberdashers’ company, London. There are three daily schools here, two whereof are National. Charities connected with the parish produce about £24 per annum. Sternhold, one of the translators of the common English metrical version of the Psalms, was born here. Pop., in 1801, 952; in 1831, 1,309. Houses 219. Acres 4,120. A. P. £6,632. Poor rates, in 1837, £503".

Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1840.

From the excellent Parish Roots website
http://parishroots.co.uk/category/gloucestershire/

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You mention the British History entry. It's easy to miss this completely separate entry within that same website albeit much later in the text. It's odd that it's separate, perhaps a later and poorly edited addition ?

"Two schoolmasters were teaching at Blakeney in 1572 but one had failed to obtain a licence from the diocesan authorities and the other was declared contumacious and suspended by them. Another schoolmaster was teaching in the parish in 1605 and two were recorded in 1623, one at Blakeney. Nicholas Billingsley, curate of Blakeney, was teaching a school in 1682, and the same year another man was licensed to teach a private school in the parish. Some of the masters recorded at Blakeney evidently held their school in the church house which in 1683 was said to have been used for that purpose from time immemorial. (William Brown, described as a baker and schoolmaster, died in 1750. In 1818 the only school for the poor recorded in the parish was a Sunday school attended by 120 children.
By 1833 there were two National schools in the parish, said to have been started in 1830; they were supported by subscriptions and pence and taught a total of 133 children. One was evidently at Blakeney and the other in Awre village. Awre National school was provided with a new building in 1855, built on part of the green at the junction of the main village street and Northington Lane; the site was given by the lords of the manor, the Gloucester charity trustees, who in 1856 agreed to give £10 a year towards running the school. In 1874 the income was mainly from voluntary contributions, a shortfall being made up by the vicar. The school had an average attendance in 1885 of only 36 and in 1910, as Awre C. of E. school, of only 34. The average attendance was down to 24 by 1922 and the school closed in 1927.
Blakeney National school was evidently one of the schools said to have opened in 1830, though it was later said to have been built in 1827 and enlarged in 1831 in which year the building, north of Blakeney chapel at the entrance to Lowfield Lane, was secured by a trust deed. It was again recorded in 1856, and in 1827 it was teaching c.90 children and was supported mainly by voluntary contributions and pence. In 1873 the old building was replaced by a new school, built beside the main Gloucester road above the village on a piece of rectory glebe land leased by the Haberdashers' Company to the vicar of Blakeney. In 1885 it had an average attendance of 80, and in 1910, as Blakeney C. of E. school, it had accommodation for 176 and an average attendance of 98 in mixed and infants' departments. The average atendance fell to 51 by 1922 and to 32 by 1932, and the school was closed in 1935. The building was a private house in 1989.
By 1852 there was also a British school at Blakeney but it was apparently re-established and placed under a new management committee in 1865. In 1865 it had an attendance of 60 and was supported mainly by pence, the children paying 2d., 3d., or 4d. a week depending on the number of subjects they studied. The school, on the south side of Bridge Street near the west end of the village, was rebuilt in 1873. In 1885 the average attendance was 70 and in 1904 it had an average attendance of 129 in mixed and infants' departments. The school was renamed Blakeney Council school in 1905 when it was transferred to the county council, and the building was enlarged during 1907 and 1908 to accommodate the children from Blakeney Woodside C. of E. school, at Blakeney Hill. The average attendance was 197 in 1910 and rose to 250 by 1922. The school was enlarged to accommodate 380 before 1932 but in 1938 the average attendance was 232. In 1989, as Blakeney County Primary school, it had 101 children on its roll.

From: 'Awre', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 14-46.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23250
Date accessed: 27 September 2013.