Board School, Tinhead, Edington

Edington is one of the few villages in Wiltshire that did not have a church or National school in the first half of the 19th century. It was not until after Forster’s Education Act of 1870 opened the way for school boards to be set up that the village had its own ‘official’ school.

In 1859, between 40 and 50 girls were taught to read and sew, but not write, in a cottage room. The Edington boys and both sexes from Tinhead attended the school at Bratton. The Edington school, in a cottage, is described in Warburton’s Census of Schools of 1859 as a ‘nice school room with a flagged floor and loose desks’ and the children were taught by an untrained mistress. Discipline and instruction were moderate and the school was well supplied with books and apparatus.

Edington and East Coulston were made a united district and a school board was formed in 1875, the school was built in 1877 at Tinhead, at a cost of £1,000 and was capable of housing up to 120 pupils.

An Indenture dated 30th June 1876 shows a plan of the proposed school, which was instigated by the School Board of Edington and East Coulston under Simon Watson Taylor of Erlestoke Park, who oversaw the construction of the school. It included a platform for the desk and stool of the schoolmistress, a twenty four hour clock, three book shelves fixed to the wall, two fire grates, fire irons and coal scuttle, two desks attached to the wall fifteen feet, long with stools. Various desks and stools, a world map, an easel and blackboard, a door mat, hand bell and a framed movable partition. The Architect was William Smith of Church Walk in Trowbridge, and a mortgage was raised from a bank in the city of London, under a public works loan. The first entry for this dates from 23rd September 1876, and mentions the sum of £948 to be repaid over fifty years, final payment to be made on 23rd September 1926.

The school taught boys and girls of all ages and had a separate infants’ department. In 1875 the Mistress was Miss Matilda Carr while the Infants’ Mistress was Miss Fanny Drewith. From around 1880 the school seems to have had a schoolmaster in charge; the average attendance in 1885 was 106. By 1894 the school could accommodate 124 pupils and the average attendance was 119 pupils.