Rodbourne School, St. Paul Malmesbury Without

This school was built in 1851 for the village of Rodbourne. It was constructed in coursed rubble stone, with brick and stone dressings and a roof of stone tiles. In 1858 it was described as ‘a picturesque and commodious little school room, about 28 feet by 13 feet, with a wooden floor and desks along the wall’. There were between 20 and 30 pupils under a mistress and the inspector noted that there were maps and other visual material on the walls. By 1867 both this school and the one at Corston were supported by Sir Richard Hungerford Pollen and other local subscribers. In 1872 the school at Corston closed and the children were moved to the Rodbourne school, which became Rodbourne and Corston Mixed School.

The school was extended to accommodate the extra pupils in 1872 and we know something of their school life from the log books that survive from 1878. The Hungerford Pollens, who were well known in artistic and literary circles, took a great interest in their village school. Miss Katherine Pollen was the school manager and took classes, while Helen Pollen, Susan Pollen, Constance Pollen, and Arnie Pollen all taught their own classes and each specialised in a subject, such as arithmetic, dictation, geography and scripture. Staff at the school in 1878 were Miss Catherine P. Sargent , mistress and Hannah Baker, monitress. At Easter in 1880 Miss Ellen Miller became Mistress and Alice May was the monitress. In 1881 May Freeth became the monitress and later passed her examinations to become a pupil teacher. The school then had staffing of a mistress, a pupil teacher and a monitress.

Despite the very active interest of the Pollens the early H.M.I. reports on the school are not too good. This may have been a case of too many people involved with the children instead of just the professionals. The discipline and conduct of the children was always fairly good but progress in arithmetic was bad and the infants were backward. There was change of teachers in 1880, when children could leave school aged 10, and from then the reports give a picture of an improving situation. There are comments about the lack of equipment; natural history prints, maps, slates and a blackboard and easel were required in 1883, while in 1886 it was noted that ventilation of the school room should be improved, and 1888 the room was said to be crowded.

Subjects taught were the elementary ones of reading, writing and arithmetic, with scripture, needlework and knitting. The ‘extra’ subjects of history and geography were also taught, although history was discontinued for a while from April 1880. Annual holidays were similar to those of today with two weeks at Christmas and, by 1883, one week at Easter. Before this there was a church service form 9.45am to 10.45am. on Good Friday, with a holiday on the following Monday and Tuesday. There were two days off at Whitsun and this was a festive season in the two villages with celebrations on Whit Monday. There were also four to five weeks Harvest Holiday in the summer. There were some special and half day holidays such as for Miss Katherine Pollen’s birthday and for school festival and feast and Harvest Thanksgiving in September. A holiday was also given for Ascension Day while in October 1879 a day’s holiday was given when a circus visited Malmesbury. A holiday was given for the annual Choral Festival when the school choir sang at Christian Malford in 1879 and 1881, Corsham in 1882 and 1884, Chippenham in 1883 and Grittleton in 1885.

Attendance increased steadily the 1870s. The average attendance in 1877/3 was 45 and it remained around this figure until 1882/3 when it rose to 58. By 1885/6 it was 63 and there were 86 on the register. In 1880 there were only six regular absentees, from three families but in 1893 a list of 20 names of absent or irregular attendees was given to the school attendance officer. Other absences tended to be when older children were kept at home to work in the fields although they might also take a day off to follow the hounds on foot. Attendance dropped on other occasions such as a tea for the chapel children and the election of an MP at Malmesbury on 5th April 1880.

Bad weather also brought about low attendance and some caused the school to be closed. Rodbourne seems to have been subject to frequent flooding and in August 1897 the school closed for 2 days because of heavy rain and flooding, while flooding also caused the school to close at times in March 1880, October 1882, when the roads were impassable, and October and November 1885. Even when the school did not close heavy rainfall cut attendance. From July to October 1880 it was very wet and on July 6th only a few drenched children turned up for school, while by late October there was much flooding. Heavy snow was not so common but it caused the school to close for 3 days in January 1879 and January 1881, when the roads were impassable and the snow remained until mid February.

The school was one of the village buildings improved by the Pollens with Arts and Crafts embellishments, and it had a timber porch with carved words, ‘Come ye children and hearken to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord’. The Pollens also provided schoolbooks and prizes, while a piano was installed in November 1880. The schoolroom was used for meetings in the evening, including a concert in November 1880, for which the children wrote the programmes. A Boot Club operated with children bringing in money, which was kept in a savings bank until they had enough for a new pair of boots.

By 1908 there were 65 pupils, and the school had been taken over by Wiltshire County Council. The number of pupils remained in the range of 50 to 65 until the 1930’s but after that numbers declined and the school closed in 1971. Children then went to school in Malmesbury and the school became a sculptor’s studio.