National School, Marston Maisey

As the old school was far too small to satisfy demand for places, a new National School was built in 1874 to designs by the architect James Brooks, who also designed the new parish church. The building was enlarged in 1901-2 by Waller and Sons of Gloucester, and the building is currently Grade II listed. The enlarged building is T-shaped, with the school rooms in the western range. The listing text for the building (which is now used as the Village Hall) notes that the school is “a largely complete example of a parish school with some interesting details”.

              The enlargement of 1902 cost £258 18s 5d, money that was primarily raised from private donations over the preceding three years; £192 15s was raised from donations, £25 was received from the Gloucester Church and School Fund, £20 from the National Society, £10 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, £8 4s 9d from the proceeds of a Rummage Sale and £3 19s 8d from interest. It is not clear from the surviving records what the precise nature of much of this work was, however it is recorded that the builders were asked to repair or replace the block wood floor which a surveyor had found to be “very indifferent especially as regards its inequality of surface”.

This may have been the original floor, however it is possible that the builders were asked to re-do their own work, which was not felt to be up to the required standard. In May 1902 the architects wrote to the builder to say that “we inspected this work yesterday and regret to say that the wood block floor in class room is very unsatisfactory”; the whitewashing of the cloakroom ceiling was also felt to be sub-standard.

              The new building had room for 71 children though the attendance never rose this high. Kelly’s Directory, which provides our best estimate for school attendance in the absence of the log books, records a slowly decreasing attendance in the late nineteenth century from 30 in 1885 to 25 in 1889 and 24 by 1895 and 1898. Attendance then rallied a little in the first decade of the twentieth century, rising to 32 in 1903 and 1907, before falling off again to 25 in 1911 and 19 in 1924, as a consequence of which the school was closed. As a result, from at least 1927 onwards the children of the parish went to school in nearby Castle Eaton.

              As the number of children at the school was fairly low, so far as can be determined Marston Maisey was a single teacher school.

The daughter of the village baker, John William Akers, taught at the school for a time, although given the lack of school records it is not clear when Akers was at the school. In the absence of other documents relating to the school, the best evidence for the staffing comes from Kelly’s Directory. The first teacher listed in the Directory was a Miss Sarah Eaton in 1885. By 1889 she had been replaced by Miss Ada Brooke, who in turn was replaced by Miss Constance Harding as of 1895; Harding remained at the school until at least 1898. Subsequently the school mistress was Miss Daisy Chiddy from at least 1903 to 1911. Miss Isabella Coles was listed as mistress in 1915, and the final head listed in Kelly’s was a Mrs Laver in 1920 and 1923; it is likely that Laver remained at the school until in closed in 1924.