National School for Girls, Devizes

Founded in 1813 the school united with the National Society in 1814. Instruction included the teaching of handicrafts and there were 80 girls in the school in 1818. In 1819 a schoolroom was built in Lansdowne Terrace, now the masonic hall. The school attracted some of the earlier charitable bequests for education in the town and by 1833 there were 100 pupils. The school received good reports in the 1850s. In a reorganisation in 1882 the girls moved into the building of the boys' National School in Sheep Street when the boys moved into a new building in Maryport Street. In 1893 the school received more girls when the British School closed and later the buildings were said to be cramped and the teaching inefficient. The school closed when the new Southbroom School opened in 1926. The building was demolished in 1958. This was one of the Town Schools.