Adcroft Girls' School, Trowbridge

This opened in 1832 in British Row, as a British School, the oldest school log book starting in April 1863. The School was divided into sections or classes A-D originally, E and F begin added as the school expanded, and there was also an infants' class. Pupils were taught a range of subjects including: arthmetic, history, geography, scripture, needlework, and natural history. There were also occasional periods of drill or marching. Miss Townshend was mistress until 1864 when she was succeeded by S.A. Dyer until 1868 when she, herself, was replaced by Miss Bickle. There were, then, 3 standards and the mistress was, originally, assisted by pupil teachers . Numbers were regularly effected by bad weather and illness. Holdays were given annually for the coronation day, for Miss Dyer's marriage and the Christmas treats from 1870. By 1871 numbers were steadily rising and there were 3 infant classes and standards 1 to 5; to assist her Miss Bickle had an assistant mistress as well as two pupil teachers and monitoresses.

School became free in 1891 for the infants and standard 1, the others paid 2d (about 0.8p) a week. Miss Bickle left in 1891 to be replaced by her assistant mistress E.A. Symes. By then there were six pupil teachers and the H.M.I inspections were never totally praiseworthy. A new infant school was opened in 1894 and 94 pupils and one pupil teacher were moved to the new school; a lot of children also left when the Newton School started in 1901. Miss Symes resigned due to illness in 1904, eventually to be replaced by C. Lister. She started laundry classes in 1907, cookery classes having been started 15 years earlier. Fire drill also became a regular feature from 1909, and religious inspections were started in 1910. Miss Lister died on September 30th 1912 and she was succeeded by Miss Ferriman. By then there were occassional outings to local sites, interesting lectures or educational cinema. In autumn 1917 there was a special half holiday to gather blackberries and acorns, due to the men still being at war. The first autumnal half-term holiday was in 1918, but like most other schools it was shut in November 1918 owing to the influenza epidemic.

It probably changed its name to the Adcroft Girls' School in 1907, at the same time as the equivalent boys' school; and it came under council control at the same time, a year later. Medical inspections became regular practise from 1909, and the annual school examination (from 1924) and County Sports' Day (1928) were also yearly tradition. Miss Ferriman retired in July 1933 to be replaced by K.R. Pickett, pupils transferred to the new Nelson Haden secondary modern school in 1940.