Schools in Bampton

Schools in Bampton

A Thousand Years of Education in Bampton

by Miriam James A Bampton Archive Publication

£12

Schools in Bampton A Thousand Years of Education in Bampton

by Miriam James

A Bampton Archive Publication

A Bampton Archive Publication

Please visit www.bamptonarchive.org to view the extensive catalogue of archive video and audio recordings, publications and exhibition catalogues.

The website also features a large searchable archive of artefacts relating to Bampton going back thousands of years.

April 2016

BCA-37/A April 2016

Schools in Bampton Based on a Bampton Community Archive exhibition held in the Vesey Room of the Bampton Library in May 2016

Schools in Bampton There have been schools in the town of Bampton for almost a thousand years, and perhaps longer.

The earliest building in the town is the church tower, built before the Normans came to England; and where there was a church, there were learned men who could speak and read Latin, and could teach boys who wanted to become learned in their turn. The tradition of learning continued through the ages, with the methods and subjects taught changing according to the needs of the people who lived in the town.

One of the earliest facts that we know about Bampton is that in the eleventh century a teacher liked living here. He liked it so much that he was prepared to forgo the riches of becoming a Bishop rather than break his ties with the town. Leofric had been tutor and chaplain to King Edward the Confessor, and returned with him to England, and probably to Bampton, in 1041. Ten years later he was asked to found the Diocese of Exeter, but he insisted on keeping his interest in Bampton. Under Bishop Leofric, Exeter became one of the chief seats of learning in England; his Easter missal still exists in the Bodleian Library, its cover decorated with spring flowers. The ties between Exeter and Bampton lasted nearly a thousand years.

In spite of this early introduction to scholarship, until the sixteenth century very few people in Bampton would have been able to read or write – or even count up to more than ten. Most people had no need to read, and people who earned a few pence a week could add up amounts on their fingers.

The cover of Leofric’s Missal Dextera nam Domini fulget cum floribus Paschae ‘For the Lord’s right hand blooms with flowers for Easter’ We can just make out the figure of two tonsured monks held in the arms of a much larger figure who has a chain of office around his shoulders. The border is of growing plants.

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In any case, the only education that anybody could have received was through the Church. Here young men might have been taught to become members of the priesthood. Some of them would have learned Latin, and been ordained, but boys whose families were peasants would have expected to become lay brothers, not priests, and would not have been taught to read, let alone write. There was no question of lay women being able to read, unless they were members of well-to-do families, probably in no more than a couple of households in Bampton. Legal documents, written in Latin, were beyond the comprehension of most people, and beyond their needs as well.

The carved capital of a pillar in the cloister of the Benedictine Abbey at Cadouin, in central France, shows two men holding up a book for a priest to read. They look pleasant, cheerful young men, perhaps lay brothers in the Abbey; but their features are deliberately shown as coarse; they would not have been able to read the book they are holding. The young men of Bampton who worked for the Church would probably have reached the same education.

Carved capital of a pillar in the cloister of the Benedictine Abbey at Cadouin 8

Apart from the men of the Church, most ordinary people in Bampton were peasants, working on the land, and they would have learned from their elders how to grow crops and keep cattle. Their farming and domestic skills were developed young; boys and girls from the age of three were expected to keep an eye on their geese and sheep to prevent them from straying, or to tread the dirt out of the wool in a bucket of water, and as they grew older they took on more responsibility for farming and for homemaking skills; small girls, too young to be able to spin, could card wool to get the tangles out before their mothers spun it into thread, while their brothers drove the pigs to the woods to feed, or helped their fathers with the crops.

In church, on Sundays and feast days, the priest taught the people of Bampton the stories of the Bible; and there were probably pictures painted on the walls of the church to help them to understand and remember these stories. The pictures in Bampton church have been painted out, but the ones in Black Bourton church can still be seen, showing scenes from the life of Jesus. One shows the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, with the breath of God blowing down upon him, next to a picture of St Peter – shown with a large bunch of keys slung over his shoulder – being greeted by St Paul; while another shows the visit of the three Kings, wearing their crowns, bringing gifts to the infant Jesus and his mother.

Wall painting in Black Bourton church 9

Wall painting in Black Bourton church There were stained glass windows, too, in churches that could afford them; the windows of St Mary’s church are clear now, but they would probably have been filled with colour until the Reformation; while behind the high altar there is a carved reredos showing Christ and his twelve Apostles, each in his small crocketted housing, carved in the early fifteenth century. They would have been recognisable to the congregation by the symbols they carried: St Andrew’s diagonal cross is still easily visible.

In 1536, as part of his founding of an English church, Henry VIII authorized the English translation of the Bible; there was to be a copy in every parish church, chained to the pulpit; this was evidently not for the use of the general public, but it made literacy more important to the middle classes. Gradually there were other books to read, more information to glean from the newly printed material that was becoming available. Official documents began to be written in English, and there was an urgent need for a literate class of lay people, now that there were no more monks. Grammar Schools were built in the larger settlements, so that boys could learn Latin and Greek, those essentials of education, as well as reading and writing. Few people would have been able to do more mathematics than to add up their accounts; for the pennies that farm labourers earned, only fingers were needed for calculation.

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St Andrew; from the reredos in Bampton Church

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The Grammar School Bampton, at the centre of the legal system of Bampton Hundred, was one of the first places in Oxfordshire to develop the new education. Founding a school was a legitimate way of displaying wealth, and maybe the larger landowners realized that a literate middle class could be helpful in organizing their business interests; perhaps the demand came from the growing middle class who needed to communicate with clients. In any case, in 1635, Robert Vesey of Chimney left £300 towards a school in Bampton; £200 of this was to endow a free school, and the other £100 was to put up a stone building ‘with ashlar work’; its status was to be higher than most of the mud-built cottages of the town. The school master was to live upstairs. The terms of Robert Vesey’s will also stated that there was to be a portrait of the benefactor ‘at the upper end’ of the building; sadly, there is now no trace of it.

In spite of this early start, after the death of Robert Vesey his legacy was delayed by his executors for fifteen years; indeed the chief executor, his great-nephew William Vesey, had to be taken to court before he paid up. Robert Vesey’s legacy had dwindled by the time he died, and it was difficult for William to produce the money. Besides, there was a civil war on; cash was hard to come by. The court awarded the sum to the school, and added to it the interest of 5% per cent per annum. Finally, in 1650 John Palmer, one of the trustees for the school, left another £100, with the proviso that Robert Vesey’s will was carried out.

Even under this pressure, three more years passed before anything was done; but by 1653 a schoolhouse had been built on land belonging to the parish, near to the church. The school was one storey high, with attics and a pitched roof made of stonesfield slates. It was built to last – as it has done – for generations.

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Bampton Grammar School Now that Robert Vesey’s school had become a reality, other men felt able to leave money to support it.

Henry Coxeter, who died in 1654, left £10 to the school in his will; and thirty years after the school opened, in 1684, Richard Dewe left £50. His white marble memorial, above the pulpit in the Church, states him to have been;

‘A Person of a Religious Mind & sober Passions, of Prudent Conduct & exact Honesty.

He had all ye good Humour of a well bred G’man. , The Plainest Sincerity & Zeal of a Friend, The Modesty Humility & Candour of a Christian‘,

and no doubt he hoped to inspire other young men with these virtues.

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Memorial plaque to Richard Dewe in Bampton Church

Apart from the schoolhouse, the school’s trustees also owned a small cottage next door to it, and three fields near Fisher’s Bridge, of about twelve acres. The rents from these properties came to about £28 a year; enough to support a master for the school. The trustees for the school included the three vicars of Bampton, together with the heir of Robert Vesey, who had an over-riding vote in any dispute.

The first Master of the school was chosen by the six Trustees; he was a ‘noted grammarian’ called William Jackson; he had been educated at Charlbury School, and presumably taught the important subjects of Latin and Greek. One of his successors was a pauper student of Queen’s College, Oxford; maybe he was typical of young men looking for a first job after graduating.

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In the first half of the eighteenth century there was a marked increase in the number of professional men living in Bampton, and they were joined by the mid-eighteenth century by two practicing surgeons; in 1761 there was a ‘weekly card assembly’ where these middle-class families could meet one another.

The sons of these families were perhaps taught by tutors, but there was also a need, in the increasingly complex world of the eighteenth century, for a more widely available form of education for boys.

By 1732 all boys ‘fit to be taught Latin’ were to be charged two shillings and sixpence to enrol in the school, and one shilling a quarter to be taught; the Master had to be able to teach Greek. For English lessons the fee was higher: five shillings entrance, and five shillings a quarter for tuition; maybe there was less demand in Bampton for Greek. The boys were also taught the catechism, and went to church on Wednesdays, Fridays and on Saints’ days.

In 1719 the first effort was made to make the ordinary children of Bampton literate: Mary Croft left £100 in her will to teach twelve poor boys and girls of Bampton to read the Bible. The purpose of this legacy was to enable the twelve children to become thinking members of the church, and probably to help them to play some part in its administration, although they were not to be taught to write; and in any case it was sixty years before anything was done about putting the will into practice. Again, Miss Croft’s executors may have thought the purpose too impractical to bother with.

In 1731 the Visitors to the Grammar School established rules in the form of ‘Order and Statutes for the Free School at Bampton’. They included the time of starting school, at six o’clock in the morning in summer and eight o’clock in the winter; each teaching session lasted three hours, and the pupils probably went home for lunch. The Visitors also laid down the amount to be paid by the pupils. The main subject to be taught was Latin: English was an optional extra.

In spite of these Statutes, the standard of the School was evidently slipping. For fifty years, from 1732 until 1782, the Master of the Grammar School was Thomas Middleton, who was a non-resident Vicar of Clanfield. Twenty years after his appointment he was accused of using the position as a sinecure; six years later, in 1756, he was removed from the post, though he tried to hold on to the properties of the school.

By 1768 there were no pupils at the School at all; which was just as well, because at the beginning of that year there was an outbreak of “contagious feavers”, and the school was used to house ‘such persons that are sick’. Blankets were bought for them, and a nurse appointed to look after them. Meanwhile, it seems that in 1774 Mr Middleton was teaching the pupils in his own house. The accusation of sinecure seems to have been correct, and the empty school bore witness to its lack of success.

After the retirement of the unsatisfactory Mr Middleton, during the last quarter of the eighteenth 15

century there was a movement to make education more relevant to the young people of Bampton, or at any rate to a select group of them. To start with, in 1783, a cottage and garden west of the schoolhouse were bought by voluntary contributions for the use of the schoolmaster – there were to be no more excuses for the absence of a teacher.

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Free Education for Girls and Boys

The following year a group of three women evidently realized that something should be done to spread education more widely. Mrs Mary Frederick, her sister-in-law Mrs Susannah Frederick, and Mrs Elizabeth Snell joined forces to teach children in Bampton. These three must have been a redoubtable force between them; a letter exists from Mrs Susannah Frederick to her brother’s solicitor explaining that he had been unwell, but that she would take over the management of his business interests, which he had evidently mishandled; adding that he was unaware that she had written, and the solicitor was not to bother him: her Bro. is not informed of this Letter.

In 1784 Mrs Susannah Frederick bought annuities to add to the Schoolmaster’s salary, on condition that he taught English and Arithmetic free to ten boys who were to be chosen by them. In addition to this, Mrs Frederick used the £100 legacy of her aunt Mary Croft, which had been sitting idle for half a century. This legacy was increased by annuities of £16 a year, purchased by the three friends; the interest from this was to be paid to the Master of the Free School, and its purpose was to teach twelve poor boys and girls of Bampton to read the Bible. This narrow curriculum was not unusual; reading the Bible was intended to induce virtue, and emphasise the virtues of patience and obedience. Writing, which might introduce more revolutionary ideas, was not taught, just as it was not taught in the Sunday Schools set up in towns for working children.

The Croft income – which came to £5.8s in 1824 – had to be spent equally on boys and girls; so it was decided to share it between the schoolmaster and a schoolmistress: the Universal British Directory of 1793 names Rev Swann as the Master of the Free School. The Grammar School’s endowment was specifically for the education of boys, so the girls had to be taught somewhere else. As writing did not feature in their curriculum, six girls wouldn’t have taken up much room as they passed the Bible from hand to hand, taking turns to read.

By the time of the enclosure of the open fields of Bampton in 1823, the Grammar School’s holding extended to nearly eight acres of land; this included the School House, a yard, a barn and stable, and the garden. There were also two school fields listed; the freeholder was named as Mr David Evans. At the same time the new National School, in its contemporary house opposite the Talbot Inn, stood on three perches of land: just large enough to contain the building.

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The Grammar School property in 1823

In 1819 the Grammar School started to charge fees again; boys had to pay a guinea’s entrance fee, and another guinea each quarter. The number of pupils fell from thirty boys to six, and the headmaster resigned. The fee-paying grammar school boys had to be taught in the same room as the boys who were learning to read, whose fees were paid by Mary Croft’s fund, until they moved to the National School. Sometimes the Grammar school closed altogether; in 1852 there was only one pupil, and the school was condemned by Gardner’s Directory to be ‘not in accord with the wants of Bampton’.

However, twelve years later there were eleven boarders and thirteen day boys, most of them the sons of farmers; they paid between £20 and £30 each a year, and the boarders lived in the schoolhouse.

They were taught the essential subjects for entry into public schools – English, Mathematics, Latin and Greek – which were starting to dominate English boys’ education. Boys who needed tuition to get into the Army under the newly-introduced examination system, or into University, could be taught by Rev J.A. Giles, who was the curate in Bampton between 1846 and 1855.

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The National School in 1823 / Number 502

The first National School

In 1855 the first layman was appointed as Master of the Grammar School when Mr Edmund Robert Farbrother was appointed as Master. Mr Farbrother made attempts to revive learning at the School, and according to the Witney Gazette, several of his pupils achieved a measure of academic success. Mr Farbrother also took on the office of Census Enumerator; his neat entries for 1861 and 1871 are in sharp contrast to the barely-legible later entries. Towards the end of Mr Farbrother’s tenure, according to a pupil who went to the school in the eighteen nineties, he was inclined to sleep through the afternoon classes once he had set the pupils their academic tasks.

With the death of Mr Farbrother in 1899 the grammar school was closed by the Charity Commissioners, in spite of protest by the people of the town. Its income was directed to pay for scholarships in schools for Bampton children, under a Charity Commission Scheme. Robert Vesey’s school house went on being used for classes, meetings and exhibitions for the people within the parish of Bampton, incorporating the pubic library from 1964; it now houses the Bampton Community Archive.

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Private Boarding Schools for Boys

The mid nineteenth century was a time of fast expansion of the English education system in the form of private schools for boys; the great educator, Dr Arnold became Headmaster of Rugby School in 1827 and started to introduce the reforms for which the school became famous; Wellington School was founded in 1837, Radley College ten years later. The middle classes were starting to educate their sons.

As early as 1782 the Oxford Journal mentions a ‘private academy for young gentlemen’ in Bampton, and by 1790 there were several other private boarding schools catering for pupils from outside Bampton. One of these, John Beechey’s Mansion House Academy, moved to Weald Manor in 1820.

Weald Manor today 20

Another private school was set up in Weald, and appears in the Directories for 1864 and 1868 as a boarding school, run by Mr John Bryant; it looks as though this was a different school, perhaps in another house altogether, and it was evidently short-lived, but at Weald’s ‘Mansion House’ Mr John Beechey’s gentlemen’s boarding school was flourishing. These private schools probably found most of their pupils outside Bampton.

The different attempts to educate the young men of Bampton, of whatever class, stemmed in part from the need for both employers and employees to understand and operate the new machinery, which was being introduced in every sphere of life. By the middle of the nineteenth century there were machines for farming, for building, for transport, even though they were fairly basic by present-day standards; while business letters needed literate writers.

In 1850, in addition to John Beechey’s boarding school at the Manor House, Slater’s Oxfordshire Directory names the boarding school run by Thomas Leforestier. The 1851 Census shows that there were 19 boys at Thomas Leforestier’s school, including the son of the schoolmaster; four of them came from India – presumably sent ‘home’ to be educated; four of them, aged 13 and 14, came from Witney, including two members of the Early blanket-making family. There were two 9-year-olds, and three boys from ‘Ensham’; others came from Alvescot, Blackheath, Bristol, and London.

In the following year the Grammar School’s Headmaster was Rev John Francis Biddulph, and there was another boarding school – presumably for girls – run by Elizabeth Steed, and a boarding and day school run by Messrs Trafford & Chowpe.

In 1863 Bampton College was named in the Oxon & Berks Directory as conducted under the sanction of the Lord Bishop of Oxford, and run by Mr George Henry Drewe of Oxford University, assisted by competent Professors; the system of education and discipline is the same as pursued at Eton and Rugby, and similar advantages may be derived at this institution at a smallness of cost altogether disproportionate’.

Two years earlier there had been more than fifty boys in the school, but in spite of its pretentions and cheapness it was not a financial success, and was finally sold in 1870.

Middle-class boys, too, were expected to be better educated than their fathers had been, and small boarding schools, sometimes with a commercial speciality, were being set up to fulfill their needs.

The fee-paying ‘Commercial College’ at Wheelgate House, generally known as ‘Alfie Bryant’s School’, taught a business-based curriculum, which was perhaps more suited to the demands of the boys who attended it. It continued to flourish until 1914, partly – it was said – because the boys wore hats, which distinguished them from those at the National School. Mr Bryant was evidently an interesting addition 21

to the community, prepared to sing at a ‘Popular Entertainment’ put on at the National School on 29th January 1895.

Wheelgate House today

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Schools for Young Gentlewomen

As a result of the Enclosure of the common land in 1823, the wealth and the social status of yeoman farmers increased. Farm incomes grew larger, and farm workers were no longer put up in the farmhouse. The gentrification of smaller landowners led to a demand for the education of their daughters; they should be able to read and write, like their brothers, though less was expected of them in mathematics; they might also be taught to speak some French, to play the newly-produced keyboard instruments, and to dance and sing. These skills were sometimes taught at home by governesses, but the young ladies might also be sent to boarding schools near to their homes so as to acquire social skills and to make friends with their peers in the surrounding neighbourhood.

Prospect House, on the edge of the town in Broad Street, was built in 1829, by the schoolmaster of the National School, Mr George Frost; could he have intended to set up a girls’ school to match the boys’ Grammar School? In any event, by 1836 it was being rented by Miss Sybilla Trafford to use as a ‘School for Young Ladies’; and five years later Miss Trafford bought the house from Mr George Frost presumably the son of the schoolmaster - who was by that time a printer in America. It cost her five hundred guineas.

This Census return does not list the ‘scholars’, so we cannot tell how many children went to day schools; but by 1851 Sophia Shepherd had started a day school in Broad Street. Mary Corke also ran a day school in the High Street. Elizabeth Martha Steele’s school in the High Street catered for ladies, with twelve young lady boarders, whose ages ranged from 10 to 18 – though the eldest, her niece, may have been one of the teachers. There were two other teachers, one of whom was her cousin, Mary Anne.

The pupils came from the locality, and included the

Prospect House today 23

twin Gillett sisters, from Bampton, and the daughter of John Nalder, who had made money from early threshing machines, from Alvescot; another boarder was Eliza Early, daughter of the blanket-making family from Witney, two years younger than any of the others.

In Queen Street there was a smaller school with only five boarders, run by Rebecca Trafford and her cousin Sybilla Chasman.

Ten years later, in 1861 there were four schoolmistresses listed in the Census as living in Bampton; again, their schools are not named. In the High Street, two schoolmistresses, Elizabeth Martha Stone and Rosina Siddlewell, housed six scholars, three of them sisters from Brize Norton; while Thomas Leforestier’s establishment had only two boarding pupils. Three boys were listed as students “of St Mary’s College”, boarding with a house servant in a cottage in Church Lane.

Mary Leforestier, the widow of Thomas, was still a ‘teacher of languages’ aged 66. Another teacher was Hannah German, aged seventeen, who taught at the National School.

In the same year Miss Trafford’s school for young ladies at Prospect House was taken over by the young Miss Sarah and Miss Rebecca Pembrey; they had perhaps moved to Bampton to be closer to John Pembrey, who was a draper employing seven assistants. A year later there were six boarders, taught by the two Miss Pembreys and by nineteen-year-old Emily Townsend from Fulbrook. The eldest pupil was fourteen, the youngest was eight-year-old Mary Oakey, of Kencott, the daughter of the George Oakey, the haulier, who had newly moved there from Gloucester.

By 1881, when the Pembrey sisters were in their mid-thirties, there were thirteen boarders at their school, aged from eight to sixteen. The pupils came from nearby villages such as Alvescot, as well as from further away; there were several girls who came from London, and a 14-year-old from Paris.

There was also a six-year-old boy, the younger brother of two girl pupils.

The Pembreys were to run their school for nearly half a century. By that time the school had moved first next door, to The Elms, in Broad Street, where the growing numbers led to its expansion into South Elms next door; here they were able to charge eight guineas a term for boarders, with proportionately less for weekly boarders and for younger pupils; day pupils paid three-and-a-half guineas, while those who went home for meals paid only one and a half guineas. Music, French, Drawing and ‘Laundress’ were extras. The boarders had to bring not only their own linen but also their cutlery, including an ‘ivory handled Knife’; these girls were being educated to a high social standard.

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The Elms and South Elms today

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The Misses Pembreys’ Establishment for Young Ladies’ brochure

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The school’s last move, before 1891, was to Valetta, in the High Street. Here there were three ‘pupil teachers’, aged sixteen, and three teenaged pupils. By 1901 there were only three boarders, one a boy of six. The Census for that year lists Thomas Pembrey as a ‘Draper and Clothier’ and employer, also in the High Street; perhaps he was their brother? When the school closed in 1915 the Pembrey sisters were in their late sixties, and had taught three generations of young ladies.

Valetta today

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The Town Hall Reading Room

The Town Hall was built in 1838 in the centre of Bampton, to the design of George Wilkinson.

Its ground floor was arcaded and open, and was meant to house a weekly market, while in 1884 the room upstairs was set aside as a subscription Reading Room where the daily newspapers were available for men to read; it was still being used in 1891. When the market proved unsuccessful there was a movement to glaze the lower floor, perhaps for use as a reading room for women, but this was rejected; and in any case, as Rev. Giles sourly remarked, the glass would certainly have been broken by boys throwing stones. Finally the decision was made to use the space to house the fire engine.

The Town Hall 28

The National School The private schools did not cater for poorer children; and early in the nineteenth century there was a growing need for the poorer children of the nation to be at least literate. Industries were becoming more complicated, and machines came with written instructions. In 1811 there was a countrywide movement by the ‘National Society for promoting the Education of the poor in the Principles of the Established Church’; and in 1812 a National School was established in Bampton for boys and girls. It was to be run on the ‘Bell’ system, according to J A Giles’ History of Bampton; under this system the abler pupils were used as ‘monitors’ or helpers to the teacher; they were each taught small amounts of information, and passed it on to the other students – a cheap but not always effective method of teaching a large number of children with only one teacher in each classroom.

The first National School was endowed with two school rooms and £48 a year. It stood in the middle of the town, opposite the Talbot Inn, at the entrance to Rosemary Lane. It was a two-storey building; the girls were taught upstairs, and the boys on the ground floor. The salary of the Master, Mr Frost, was £20 a year, while the mistress was paid £15; Mr Giles thought these salaries ‘a miserable pittance, when we consider the importance of their duties.’ Most of the income of the school came from land, in the form of £30 a year from rent of an estate in Shilton and £20 from an investment in the Stokenchurch Turnpike Trust – a favourite investment for Bampton funds, where the Vestry also held shares. The Shilton estate paid another £1.10s annually, the rent of a small piece of land let separately to a Mr Waite of Aston. Parents were expected to pay a penny each week; the scale varied with the number of children in a family and could be waived in cases of hardship.

30th George Panting without School Money – Parent without work

Henry Dixey without any School Money 29

9th Monday 5th Ellen Beechey lost her penny. Note from parent to say she could not afford another.

Sent home Walter Fox for penny on Tuesday. has not returned.

14th Monday. Frederick Radband lost his penny. Notice from parents as above.

In July 1884 ‘school money’ was still being paid: Sent home Thos and Annie Woodley for school money.

In 1812 there were 140 pupils at the National School – 75 girls and 65 boys. The school expanded rapidly; three years later there were 173 pupils, of whom 92 were girls and 81 boys. By the middle of the century there were more pupils than the National School could accommodate, and the need for a larger school building was urgent. The Earl of Shrewsbury gave some land in Church View for a new school, and the building was financed by subscriptions from the people of Bampton. William Wilkinson drew up the design, and the new Bampton National School opened on 29th July, 1873.

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New National School

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One of the two classrooms of the school were designated for the smaller children, the Infants, and the other for the more senior Upper School. There were no separate rooms for the Headmaster, or for the other teachers, and no specialized facilities.

We do not know what decoration hung on the walls, but there may have been wooden boards with the letters of the alphabet on them for children to copy onto their slates, such as the one for A.

A board for copying letters

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New National School notice

The Master, Mr Williams, spent the first day at the new School drawing up the timetable; and the next day filling in the Registers with the names of the children, their ages, and the names of their parents. He then had to allot the pupils to suitable classes, either in the Upper School or in the Infant Class.

The recording of the reopening of the National School

He made a list of the School Staff in the Register:

1873 August - School Staff William V Williams Cer of 2nd Cl Master of Upper School Sophia S Lawremce Cer: of 3rd Cl Assist. In Upper School Heptzebah B Wiliams Cer of 2nd Cl Mistress of Infant School (Groton Assist. for Infant Department) Signed Edwd. G Hunt Chairman of Committee 33

On Monday 8th August 1872 the Registers were marked for the first time: and a copy of the draft time table started on a temporary basis; it had to be passed by the Inspector of Schools, and could be altered if necessary.

The Infant School opened a few weeks later, in November, with Mrs Williams as ‘Certificated Mistress’ and Louise Spurrett as Monitor.

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Timetable for National School 1873

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The first duty of the Mistress was to register the children in the morning, and again in the afternoon; payment from the Government was partly dependent on the number of children present.

Mrs Williams evidently filled in the Registration Book incorrectly to start with, and had to correct it: a task that was interrupted by the visitors:

Nov 24th Commenced with 53 children. Recopied attendances of this morning from wrong weekly column.

Visitors G Southby & Miss Southby 10.10 a.m.

Tuesday 25th Visitor Revd. E.G. Hunt Friday 28th Visitor Revd. E.G. Hunt The School Registers were checked regularly by the Vicar, Mr Hunt, and declared to be ‘well kept’. They acted as a record for the presence of each child at both the morning and the afternoon session – as they still do; and they enabled the teacher to keep track of the attendance of children:

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Enquiry forms sent to the parents of John French, Wm. Townsend, Frederick Clack, Frederick Warner and James Pinnock, with requests that they should be sent to school next week.

29 Percy Sheppard has left school on the arrival of 13th birthday 4 Agnes Townsend is away from school since the Xmas Holidays with influenza 102 cases of Ringworm have been found in the School, & children excluded

Monday 17th John Well brought to school from truanting 10.45 Wednesday 19th Three children withdrawn into Upper School Friday 21st. Revd. E G Hunt 10.10. Sent home Ellen & Emily Thomas to be washed.

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There was great emphasis on punctuality and cleanliness, because these virtues were seen as leading to employment – the ultimate aim of education. Mr Hunt visited the school at least once a week, and taught some of the children:

In an emergency he was prepared to stand in for Mrs Williams: in January 1881, after two weeks’ Christmas holiday, the weather was so bad that she could not get to the school, so he took the registers.

He recorded that the snow was two to four feet in depth, and cancelled the afternoon school. By the end of January there were only nine children at school, though by February 4th attendance had improved.

Occasionally the whole school was closed because of illness. In November 1887 there were several cases of measles; the number of cases increased until on November 22nd the Medical Officer of the Union closed the school in consequence of the prevalence of measles in Bampton; It is therefore closed for a fortnight. On December 5th The Doctor has ordered the Schools to be kept closed.

A case of mumps brought down the number of attendances from 100 on Monday morning to 62 this afternoon, and the managers decided to shut down the school, as the ‘Harvest Vacation’ of six weeks was anyway due.

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School illnesses

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The Monitor could also take the place of Mrs Williams if she had to be away, helped by a girl from the Upper School. In 1896, while Mr Hunt took the registers:

11th Marked Registers & superintended instruction in Mrs Williams’ absence through illness.

Only 25 present. Weather severe. W V Williams.

12th The usual Class & Object Lessons have been given this week under my supervision, by the Monitor, occasionally assisted by Jane Wells from the Upper Room.

The Monitor could also be asked to run other errands:

Sent Monitor to enquire after Jane Clarke’s jacket, at request of parent, and, two days later:

Sent out Monitor after truant Jane Clarke.

As well as acting as Chairman of the Governors, and making regular visits to the School, Mr Hunt started a ‘penny bank’ which opened on Fridays, where children could save up their pennies until the end of the term. After his death several of the teachers tried to run the ‘penny bank’, but within a few weeks it seems to have lapsed.

There were two rooms of the new National School: the ‘big room’ which could hold as many as sixty pupils, and the ‘infants’ room; altogether the school could hold 156 children, which seems an odd number, since there were already more pupils than that; within ten years there were 172 pupils attending on the day that the Government Inspection took place, and there was a threat that a School Board might be imposed on it because of overcrowding. Two years later the enlargement of the school building to hold the youngest children in a separate Infant School had averted this threat. The standard of learning in the National School also rose; some of the ablest pupils won scholarships to nearby Grammar Schools in Witney and Burford.

The two rooms in the school were heated by large cast-iron combustion stoves, which burned coal or coke; they were filled up by the caretaker during the day. Children from further away, who could not get home for dinner, sometimes brought baked potatoes with them during the winter; the potatoes kept their hands warm on the journey, and were put on the stove to keep warm until dinner40

time. In spite of the stoves, the cold made teaching difficult: in February 1895 the School log tells us that Weather very severe, ink frozen. Paper exercise instead of usual copy book lesson.

The primitive toilet arrangements for the school – as for most of the houses in Bampton – consisted of buckets placed under a long wooden seat, in a separate building in a corner of the rear playground, which were emptied daily; this primitive arrangement would have been familiar to the children, because there was no mains drainage in the town until the mid-1950s.

The Census of 1861 has no record of the children from Weald, but the returns for Bampton show that the families of twenty agricultural labourers were attending school; one of them was only two years old, and there was also one of three; most of the children were aged between five and fifteen; the eldest was sixteen. Altogether eighty-six children are listed as ‘scholars’. Among them was 16-year-old Mary Elizabeth Southby, whose father owned Bampton House; and was one of the governors of the National School.

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1870: Forster’s Education Act By this time it was becoming clear that Britain needed to improve its education system to be able to compete with other countries – especially Germany - in manufacturing. Under Forster’s Act, Elementary education became compulsory for children between the ages of five and thirteen. School Boards were elected by the ratepayers; fees were still paid by parents, although the Board would pay the fees of the poorest children. All schools were to be inspected to make sure that they complied with the rules, especially those of attendance. Ten years later, in 1880, education was made compulsory; it also became free.

With the introduction of compulsory attendance and State payment for schools, a daily Register of Attendance was essential. Entries were made twice a day; the morning Register was marked until 10 a.m., the afternoon 1 until 2p.m.; after that the child was deemed to be ‘absent’. When children were away from school, it was important to enter the reason in the School Log; payment from the Government depended on the number of children attending. Sometimes attendances had to be altered in the Register:

24th Tuesday Annie Home send home to have her hair cleaned and Fredk. Taylor allowed to leave at parents’ request – both attendances cancelled. Object Lesson to Lower Division: “Starch”. Readmitted Edith Kerry.

Sometimes pupils were expelled from the School:

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May 6th George Poole cancelled this morning having left school before time after an act of insubordination. On reassembling sent away for the afternoon by Manager’s instruction as an example to the class

The strong emphasis on attendance meant that prizes were available for students who attended regularly. The Bampton School Logbook for October 4th 1899 declared that The no. of children entitled to Medals & Prizes for “never absent & never late” during past School Year are 5 boys ) 7 girls ) 16 total 4 infants ) 8 children made 99% of attendance, 10 “ 98% ““ 10 “ 97% “ Average attendance for year = 187

The Infant Class admitted very young pupils: in 1871 there were five children as young as 3 going to school. They were children whose parents were both working as farm labourers, who were presumably anxious to get back to work.

28th Admitted Elsie Pryor. 3 yrs of age 29th Admitted Gertrude Townsend 3 yrs 9 mths

18th Admitted Henry Green 3 yrs of age 43

A special syllabus was drawn up for the Kindergarten:

Kindergarten & Occupations Ball Frame Occupations String Manipulations Pricking and Embroidery Drawing Bead-threading Pictures Stick-laying Letter-forming Noah’s Ark 44

Most pupils seem to have started school at 4 or 5 years old, and to go on until they were 14, though one boy was still at school at 17. Still not all children went to school: five of the nine Lapworth children at Coalpit Farm were ‘scholars’, while the two eldest siblings, at 13 and 11, stayed at home, maybe to look after the two youngest.

In 1889, two days before term ended that year, there was a holiday in the afternoon for school treat, before it closed for Harvest Vacation on August 1st. A week later, the report of HM Inspector at the end of the school year commented: Infants’ School: there is a considerable improvement in this school, which is now in a fair state of efficiency.

The report for the following year showed that the improvement noticed in last year’s report has been fully maintained. The Inspectors noted that Geography attempted for the first time has been taught with a fair amount of success, while the Report for the Lower School commented on the good handwriting throughout the school and also praised the singing.

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1891 Inspectors’ Report for the Infant School

By August 1891 the Infants’ School was very orderly, though the report commented that a urinal should be provided for the infant boys. The all-important Registers, and the comments of the Master, go steadily on, occasionally throwing light on the activities of the town: Only 89 present this afternoon, owing to the meet of the Berkshire hounds in the market place while in 1895, May 6 On enquiry, some of the absentees found to be gathering wild flowers to make garlands for parents, and three weeks later: May 31 Several children reported to be in the fields gathering wild flowers to make garlands for Whit Monday. Notice on dismissal of 1 week’s holiday.

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The following year, children took time off school to go to the annual Chapel Feast.

The Inspectors’ Report of 1894 praised the neatness of the elementary work and noted a very fair amount of intelligence, while Geography had been introduced with a fair amount of success. Faint praise comes to mind; though Needlework and Singing by rote are good.

H M Inspector’s Report 1894

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There were not enough teachers for art to be taught to each class separately, and ’Drawing’ was evidently taught to all the classes at once:

Nov 30th Drawing:

I & II

III

IV – VI

Freehand & Ruler, Measurement & Design, Freehand & Geometry.

Examinations took place at the end of term:

Nov 27th Friday Arithmetic Examination (First Class) with record of results.

Commenced Examination of Object Lessons given during the past month. Both Divisions showed very fair Knowledge of their subjects.

Highest attendance 122. Lowest 108. Average 114.4

At the end of the summer term in 1884 a Government Examination took place; the children were sent home to lunch at 11 o’clock, and had to return at noon; the examination began at 12.30, and seems to have consisted of five songs presented to HMI; the results are not recorded, though Revd. H A Pickard, the Schools Inspector, visited the school again a week later, perhaps to make a further check.

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1893, 1894 Object Lessons

‘Object Lessons’ featured on the timetable: in 1892 and 1894 they included Animal Life, Natural Phenomena, Common Objects and Food & Clothing. Domestic animals included Cow, Horse, Pig, Cat, Reindeer, Camel: the last two not very common in Bampton.

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In January 1898 the Education Department approved an ‘Aid Grant’ of £15.0.0, for the purpose of increasing staff, and providing additional apparatus; the accompanying letter warned that the grant was made only for that financial year, and that there might not be a similar grant in future years.

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Grant of £15 from the Education Department

In spite of this increase in staffing, the report of the Inspectors after their visit to Bampton in November 1903 was not encouraging: The school is understaffed, the teacher overworked and the children not properly employed. An efficient art teacher should be obtained without delay; meantime Miss Williams should assist in the department at least every morning.

1903 An unsatisfactory Inspector’s Report As a result, in accordance with HM Inspector’s request, A E Williams (68) has been placed in the Infant Room this morning to assist Miss Goschen & her class.

Two years later, as a consequence of ill health of Mr Williams, he is temporarily relieved of the charge of the school by G W Gordon (Cert Teacher). Perhaps Miss Goschen could manage the infants on her own by then.

Children were often kept away from school by the contagious illnesses that swept through the school before general inoculation became available. In 1887 an outbreak of measles was so bad that the school had to be closed; mumps and chicken pox were regular causes for pupils’ absence. Scarlet fever was more severe, and children who caught it were sent to the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Abingdon.

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At the beginning of 1907 The attendance has fallen to 149 this morning owing to so many children suffering from coughs, and the work in school is greatly hindered from so many troublesome coughs, owing to the sudden inclement weather; while next day

Jan 24 No. on Books Boys 69 Girls 74 Infants 75 = 218

No. in actual attendance is 145 against 185 only on Monday last.

A week later

Feb 1st The attendance has slightly improved but a large no. of younger children are at home with bad coughs.

At the start of the school year in 1904, monthly attendance cards were given to the children, to encourage regular attendance; and the County Council gave prizes for ‘Regular & Punctual Attendance’. This was also the date of the retirement of Mrs Williams, who had been in charge of the school from its start. The new Head Teacher was G.W. Gordon, who had already been teaching in the school.

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1904 County Council prizes for attendance, and a new teacher 53

Sometimes the school had to be closed altogether; on 27 May 1905, immediately after the Whitsun holiday, there were only 162 children present instead of the 214 registered, because the Whooping Cough is still very bad & the Attendance is poor. Next day the Local Inspector of Health called at school in reference to the Whooping Cough and on May 29th 80 children absent today with the Whooping Cough & school closed accordingly by order of Dr Coles for a period of 3 weeks, which was afterwards extended to July 8th.

As a result of this, in July, The School Gardens have required great attention after the enforced absence of the boys from school during the past 5 weeks.

The attendances for each year were carefully tallied, and awards were given for attendance; at the end of December 1906 medals were given for 100% attendance, and prizes for 99% and 98%:

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There were other reasons for pupils’ absence. At the start of the following term, on September 16th, School re-opened today, but attendance is only moderately fair by reason of the harvest still being unfinished and also Witney Fair being held today.

The start of the Autumn term was often disrupted by the hiring and firing of farm workers after the harvest: on October 11th 1907;7 children have left the school, having removed from the district today, being the customary removal at old Michaelmas among farm labourers.

In December 1905 bad weather was the cause of children being away from school:

The attendance this week has not been so good as hitherto, by reason of stormy weather & deep floods, several cottages being inundated in the Weald district.

In 1906 a new system for Elementary Schools was introduced by the Board of Education and the Oxfordshire Education Committee. The school became known as Bampton with Weald.

The L.E.A. New School Number 55

Pupils generally went to school until they were thirteen:

On 6th January 1908 School re-assembled. Daisy Reason has been withdrawn being over 13 years & qualified to leave by attendance, and on 13th January Percy Sheppard is now qualified to leave school. Percy Sheppard seems to have anticipated his leaving date by a few days: on 26th January a second note in the log book states that Percy Sheppard has reached 13 years and has left school.

The older boys have resumed the practical lessons on Gardening now that the ground has become drier and will continue same when the weather is favourable.

Gardening was an important skill for the boys to learn, because they might later earn their living by it. On July 17 1905, Mr S Heaton visited the school gardens today and awarded the prizes presented by P Southby Esq, while two weeks later P Southby Esq visited the School & was particularly interested in the gardens cultivated by the boys, and also the flower gardens of the Infants. Mr Southby, who lived at Bampton House, was a Governor of the School, and was perhaps on the lookout for a future gardener. On July 31 there was a Holiday today in accordance with the notice sent to H.M. Inspector of Schools, on the occasion of the Bampton Flower Show & Fete. The enthusiasm for teaching the pupils to grow produce was not confined to Bampton. In January 1907 the 56

Oxfordshire Education Committee send out a form asking for details of the Instruction in Gardening under the Code of 1906 to be competed and returned by the Head.

It was possible for boys to be taught other skills if their parents asked for it. George West’s parents asked for him to be taught bookkeeping, so in November 1887

Commenced Bookkeeping with George West (St V) at parents’ request. Will be taught (Single & Double Entry) to boys who have fully passed St IV if asked for by parents.

Perhaps this was in response to the success of Mr Bryants’ Commercial College?

Pupils were allowed to leave school when they reached the required age or passed a proficiency test:

Monday. Ruled off Alfred Lay, Jane Woodley & Florence Webb, who have left School under proficiency and age qualification.

During the second year of the Great War, boys of twelve were allowed to leave school a year early, so as to take the place of men who had joined the Army. On 2 February 1915 five boys were absent from school & said to be employed in agricultural work; none of them have qualified to leave school by age or attendance, in the usual way.

By April of that year the official policy had been defined: W. Smith and Edward Fox are now employed in farming work under the new arrangement permitting same. Evidently some boys tried to take advantage of the new leaving age: June 1st: School reopened. Two boys Lay and Hunt returned to school being under 12 and now ineligible for farm work under new order.

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By the following spring 16 boys had been withdrawn from school during the past year and are now engaged in agricultural work under the Resolution of District Education Committee. They included Albert Radband, who was just over eleven years old. The Register noted that ‘None were entitled to leave School under the ByeLaws’, though the pencil notes state that some were aged 14 and had already left. In spite of the boys who left school early, in January 1917 there were 166 Scholars on the books, of whom 80 were boys and 86 girls.

1916 March 13 boys left early

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Contagious illnesses were still often the cause of absence from school. In June 1915 a few cases of measles have appeared, and two weeks later the measles continue, and the attendance is poor in consequence. The epidemic is of a very slight character, and is pronounced as the ‘German’ variety. Evidently not much distinction was made between the two forms of measles.

year,

Women teachers who got married did not usually go on teaching. At the end of the 1907 school

School closed for summer vacation. Miss Hopkins’ engagement expires today and a small wedding present was given her from her fellow teachers and the children in her class. Managers have appointed Miss Packer (Lew) in succession to Miss Hopkins after Summer Vacation; and at the start of the following term,

Miss Hopkins as a Supplementary Teacher. Born Dec 28th 1888, Last school – Minster Lovell on supply up to July 26th 1907.

Miss Packer from Lew was seventeen years old.

The timetable of the school shows the great emphasis placed on the ‘three R’s’. There were also lessons on Geography: British Colonies for the Upper Division in 1907, and on History: Hanoverian Period particularly dealing with the Growth and Development of the Colonies, but these were seen as peripheral to the fundamentals of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. The last of these often involved sums of money in pounds, shillings and pence. On the back page of exercise books there was printed the various ‘tables’ which might be useful: one from 1897 gives the multiplication table, an ‘Addition & Subtraction Table’, and a table for money, including farthings, pence and shillings. Writing involved copperplate and for the younger children there were ‘Object Lessons’, where the teacher produced a picture of an object and described it; ‘Objects’ ranged from The Orange to Rivers and their work.

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The back cover of an exercise book 60

A page of an exercise book 61

At the end of the Autumn term there was an ‘Entertainment’, after which medals were given to the pupils who had the best attendance record. In December 1906 medals were given out for 100% attendances to twenty-four pupils, while fourteen pupils were given prizes for 99% and fourteen for 98% attendances. There was so great a demand from the parents of pupils to see the ‘Entertainment’ that it had to be repeated on a second evening.

By 1918 there was a severe shortage of fuel, and the times of heating the school were cut down.

The timetable which was drawn up to cater for this gives us some idea of how the school day was organized while fires are needed during the coming winter months. The morning lessons seem to have been the same throughout the School, with a lesson each on Arithmetic, Reading and Writing, while in the afternoon there were four other lessons lasting half-an-hour each.

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1918 Timetable for the Coal crisis

During the First World War there were occasional courses for teachers of cookery: on January 11th 1918 Mrs Gordon is absent from school today, being at Oxford in attendance at the special demonstration of Wartime Economical Cookery demonstration for Cookery Teachers.

At the same time, several children came to the school who had moved to Bampton to escape air raids, though this was done on a personal basis and was not on the scale of the evacuation from London of 1939; on February 25 1918: 3 children admitted – visitors from London to relatives in Bampton – to escape raids.

The influenza epidemic of 1918 struck the school hard. On October 14th only thirty-four pupils came to school, and the school closed down. Five children died as a result of the epidemic.

Oct 14th 1918 School closed for epidemic – Influenza which has very rapidly developed since Friday last.

Children on Books 161 No. present at opening of School 34 Total absent 127

Nov 18 The Influenza epidemic having somewhat subsided – 5 children dying during the last month with it – an attempt was made to re-open school, but whooping cough has succeeded Influenza, and only 40 children were present, so that school was again closed on advice of school doctor.

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The following March the school was again closed for two weeks, as the attendance had dropped to 55% because of influenza.

The Armistice celebration was observed in 1921:

Nov 11th This day being the third anniversary of the Armistice, the two minutes silence was observed preceded by a short address to the children.

A wreath was sent to the War Memorial made up of flowers from the School Garden. and in 1925 the members of the School attended the Armistice Service:

Registers marked and closed at 8.45 a.m. Secular Instruction taken first.

Armistice Service 11 a.m.

The Inspectors’ Report of 1923 was critical of the teaching of one of the Infants’ classes, and suggested that the teacher would profit from further training; but the following year there was a marked improvement… the work in each group is very promising. The Inspectors also commented that a sincere endeavor is being made to shew the real and vital importance of the Christian Faith.

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1923 Inspectors’ report on Infants’ classes

In the mid 1920s there was an increasing demand for schools to become larger, so that more specialized teachers could be employed.

Some schools were chosen to suit the supposed needs of their pupils, and the Inspectors’ Report of 1930 explains that Bampton School‘s senior classes would cater also for the outlying villages; the Local Authority had envisaged a special syllabus … for Rural Senior Schools… It involves practical work of a rural kind.

Bampton School was intended to teach children to become farm labourers.

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1930 Inspectors’ Report on amalgamation of rural schools 66

The senior classes in the neighbouring villages of Aston, Black Bourton and Carterton, and Clanfield were closed in 1927, and the pupils from these schools were officially amalgamated with the National School at Bampton, to become ‘Bampton Senior School’. As a result, the school grew in size to almost 300 pupils. The increased number of pupils meant that more space was needed for teaching; and to house them two wooden classrooms were built. More staff were employed, and in addition to the two classrooms in their new wooden building, a room was allotted for the use of the Headmaster.

Temporary buildings: dining hall & home economics centre

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The introduction of pupils from other schools had an adverse effect on the teaching in the Senior school. The Inspectors’ report for 1928 states that

The Syllabuses, although trimmed considerably from time to time, remain too ambitious for at any rate the present set of children, especially in view of their varied previous preparation, and of the fact that a year ago the whole of the Senior part of an additional School was admitted. Simplification, particularly on the academic side is clearly needed...

The Inspectors agreed, however, that there were also gains from the increased size of the school: A corporate spirit is gradually being evolved by the greater opportunities for games, for excursions of an educational character, etc. but they commented that the ‘Remove’ Class, which consists mainly of dull and backward children, would probably do better if taught by one teacher throughout.

Not all the children from the catchment area came to school in Bampton. If children passed the scholarship examination, or if their parents paid for them, they could go to the nearest Grammar Schools, in Witney or Burford. As some of the children had to travel some distance to get to the school or to catch the bus, bicycles were given to them by the Education Authorities; at Bampton, bicycle sheds were provided for pupils. The children who came from Aston were bitterly disappointed because their village was just ‘within walking distance’ as defined by the Authority, so they were not issued with bicycles.

Children who came to Bampton from the outlying villages were given dinner at school, cooked 68

in a room next to the school entrance, though children from Bampton itself were expected to go home for their dinner.

The teachers also came from further away: on September 17th, soon after the School reopened, Misses Evans and Welch arrived at 9.5 a.m. Universal joint of car broke at Lew. This must have been doubly annoying, because at the same time alterations are NOT completed, and the School had just been closed for four days, from the afternoon of 13th until morning of 17th for Witney Feast.

At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 a group of a hundred evacuee children, with their teachers, arrived in Bampton; they were put up in the village, and taught by their own teachers. However, as the ‘phoney war’ went on, many of them went back to their homes, and only about twenty stayed on in Bampton.

With the advent of wartime rationing, the children of Bampton were included in the dinner provision. The kitchen was in the house immediately south of the school; the pupils walked down from the school and in at a door from the front playground. There was a water pump outside the kitchen building, with a tin mug on a chain next to it, so that they could get a drink of water.

Courses were set up so that teachers of cookery could learn how to prepare food economically: in January 1943

Mrs Gordon is absent from school today, being at Oxford in attendance at the special demonstration of Wartime Economical Cookery demonstration for Cookery Teachers.

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The Second World War ended on 8th May 1944: all schools in England were given two days’ holiday - a red-letter day for the Register:

May 8th Today the Prime Minister officially announced the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces. `The school was closed yesterday evening, & will remain closed until May 11th.

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1944 Education Act During the War people of different walks of life found themselves working together, and it was realised that many people in England were not reaching their academic potential because their schooling was deficient. Clever children, of whatever social group, might profit by going to university. After the War, under the 1944 Education Act, Grammar Schools became free to those who passed the 11plus examination. For the children of Bampton, this meant that academically able students went to school at Henry Box Grammar School in Witney or to Burford Grammar School, where they were taught subjects thought suitable to their abilities. Bampton School became both a Primary School, for children under the age of eleven, and a ‘Secondary Modern School’, to teach the pupils who had not passed the 11+ Examination. The curriculum for the Secondary School became less academic and more practical, and a domestic science room and a workshop were set up in Army huts next to the School; these huts were meant to be temporary, but they were still in use by the time the school closed.

The growth of the school meant another expansion, under the new Head Master, Mr HughesOwens. A new Secondary School for 400 pupils was planned on Sandford Field, but for the time being temporary buildings were used, under the post-war building restrictions. Meanwhile Mr HughesOwens realized that the technical side of the school was inadequate for pupils who hoped to go on to further education, and arranged that in their two final years students could attend the newly-opened Technical College in Witney.

With the change in education policy in the 1960s, children under eleven moved from ‘The Old School’ to a new Primary School in Bowling Green Close. Bampton Primary School was one of the first open-plan primary schools in the country. It was officially opened in February 1961, under the headship of Mr Robert Smith; it was blessed by the Bishop of Oxford, and the Minister of Education attended, together with the Chief Architect to the County. There were 140 pupils at the school, and four Assistant Teachers, one of whom was ‘unqualified’.

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Staff present at the opening of the new Primary School

At the same time the School in Church View became Bampton Secondary School, teaching older children who had not passed the 11-plus examination, until it was closed five years later. After that, all the pupils over 11 years old went by bus to Comprehensive Schools, catering for all levels of ability, either in Burford or in Witney. ‘The Old School’ languished, unused, for a while; but in 1960 it became a Youth Centre; while Robert Vesey’s Grammar School now houses the Bampton library and the Vesey Room, where exhibitions of the Bampton Archive are shown, alongside those of Bampton’s claim to TV fame as the hospital of the village of Downton.

The Primary School, in New Road, now has a full staff of twenty-two; it has broken free of the restraints of the Oxfordshire County Council and become an Academy, although it has kept its ties to the church through the Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust. The pupils are aged from two-and-a-half to eleven years old, and the school is expanding. It has ‘high expectations of our pupils and strives to help them achieve high standards by delivering a broad balanced and inspiring curriculum.’

The school prospectus states that the school ‘greatly values the link we have with St Mary’s Church. Maintaining our Christian distinctiveness is an important part of our school development planning’.

A thousand years ago Leofric, tutor to the King, would have approved.

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Bampton Primary School today is a thriving and integral part of the community in Bampton

A Bampton Archive Publication www.bamptonarchive.org

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