Early Schools, Cherhill
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Returns to the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Education of the Poor in 1818 reported that no school was in existence in Cherhill. However, Arnold Platts, former HM Inspector of Schools, wrote in his unpublished Wiltshire Schools, A Short History of c.1956 that in the early years of the 19th century, the West Lodge of Compton Park was used as a 'school for girls and the 20 pupils all dressed alike in red cloaks'. Platts also indicated that a dame school was held in three old cottages near the Mill Pond and another in a cottage opposite the site, in 1956, of Cherhill C of E School. He also wrote that a school in Cherhill was erected in about 1824; this building was bought in 1830 by a Mr. L. Barter whose sister, Miss M. Barter, was schoolmistress for many years. In 1833 the House of Commons Education Enquiry Abstract House of indicated that in 1833 there were, in fact two schools in Cherhill.