The Pelch School, Seend
Click on a photograph to view it.
The Seend Pelch School was opened in 1870 in Seend Cleeve for Methodist and other 'dissenter' children. In 1877 Wadham Locke gave the school the use of a hall in Pelch Lane which he funded himself. He had originally built the hall as a reading room for the employees of the Iron Works. In 1885 the children were examined by the magistrates in reading and spelling. They did very well and the school received a grant but it later closed and the National School took it over to provide a domestic science centre for older girls. In the early twentieth century it was also used for dances, concerts, and as an indoor rifle range.