Rose's School Amesbury

This school was founded from a bequest from John Rose, who gave land at Ditcheat, in Somerset, to provide an income for the school. It was to be kept on the south side of the parish church, where a school had formerly been kept. There may have been a schoolmaster at Amesbury in the 16th century and this could indicate the site of his school. Rose's School began in 1677 to teach grammar, writing and arithmetic to up to 20 pupils, aged from 9 to 15 years, who had to be able to read and recite the catechism (a series of questions and answers providing instruction in the Christian religion). The pupils were to come from the poorest inhabitants of Amesbury. A master was paid £30 a year to teach these children and also to prepare others for the grammar school. The school continued through the 18th century although little is known of it but by 1818 only six boys were being taught and these were not of the poorest class as the children of these families would have been working by the time they were aged nine.

Possibly because of this around 1818 the school trustees opened a preparatory school, known as the Pink House School, pictured here, at the western end of Church Street, under a mistress, who was paid £21 a year. There were 20 children, with boys aged from 4 to 9 years and girls aged 11 to 12 years. Both schools were conducted in the teachers' own houses but between 1833 and 1858 the two parts of the school merged. In 1858 a master (paid £30 a year) and a mistress (paid £20 a year) were teaching only 10 children. By 1867 this was an elementary school for boys and in 1872 there were 19 boys, four of whom were fee paying pupils. It later became a mixed school and in 1891 most of the 36 pupils were girls. The school closed in 1899 and the endowments