British Schools, Calne

When the pupils of the Calne British School posed for their first group photograph in November 1868, the school had been open for only ten months. It opened in January, in rooms in Church Street adjoining Calne Free Church, and 38 children were admitted on the first day. The first two headmasters both started there as young men in their early twenties, the first being William Lambley Tucker, who stayed for fourteen years. His successor, John Edward Wood, served a full forty years, finally resigning in 1922.

The first few months of the school's existence was a hectic period. A new, improved pathway to the school had to be made. Copybooks and exercise books were sent from London, a desk was bought for the master and new desks for the pupils, and window blinds were put up. A work table was brought in for the girls and a book closet put up. Pegs were fixed for the pupils' caps. Monitors were selected to assist the master and an assistant master appointed. Gas was not put in until September. The architect, Mr Stent, declared that the school would 'work' two hundred children well.

An Inspector reported in March 1869 that 'The rapid increase of the School is a sign of its popularity: and the discipline, for a new School, is surprisingly good'. However, 'The Infant section know hardly anything', and 'there is not at present proper accommodation for the large Infant section'. A new infants' room was soon provided, for those under six years of age, and the infants' school acquired its own log book, with the first entry written in December 1869. There were 42 infants in August 1870, but numbers had increased to 76 in June 1873. They were taught by a succession of mistresses. After four years, Elizabeth Williams was succeeded by her former monitor, Frances Cripps, who served from 1874 to 1880. The next teacher, Emily Ann Weston, died in service in 1892, and was succeeded by Phoebe Perry.

Once the problem of separate premises for the infants was solved, the mixed elementary school received generally favourable reports: 'the master shows vigour and skill in the Discipline of his School' (February 1872); and 'the elementary Instruction is very sound' (January 1873). The teaching of geography was often selected for praise, though spelling (and sometimes arithmetic and writing) was usually described as 'weak'. Time was mostly spent on lessons like reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar and scripture. On cold or wet days, and when the children were particularly restless, 'marching' and exercising took place indoors. Various ladies from the town regularly inspected the girls' needlework. Singing was an important part of the school day. Songs taught to the children included 'The Swiss Toy Girl', and 'Once more before we part' (1868), 'The Men of Harlech' (1878) and 'This world is not so bad a world' (1886) and, more predictably, 'Shall we gather at the river?' (1869). In 1869, the master 'taught the children a round, Do re mi fa', and he noted later that month, 'spent half an hour in sol-faing'.

Mr Wood, the second headmaster, introduced 'Home Lessons' for the first time in January 1883. Perhaps to make the homework pill easier to swallow, at the same time he began offering prizes for those scholars who gained the highest number of marks during the Quarter. But school work was not always entirely predictable, and there were occasional out-of-school activities. In the 1880s, Rev. Wheeler gave magic lantern shows to the pupils every winter, and in the school's first year, Mr Acton explained the working of the 'Electric Telegraph' to thirty children after school. Also in 1868, a missionary and 'a colored youth' visited the school to speak to the children. In May of that year, the master dismissed the children early one afternoon and took some classes on to the Downs. The infants received an annual 'treat' of tea and cake in July, usually before they broke up for their summer holidays. The older scholars also had their summer treat, usually held in a field belonging to either Mr Harris or Mr Henly; two hundred and fifty children attended in 1869. Holidays for school children at Calne in Victorian times consisted of a week to ten days around Christmas and the New Year, a few days at Easter, a week around Whitsun and the long summer holiday, usually taking up all of August and called 'Harvest Holidays'.

Misbehaviour does not seem to have been a major problem. Occasional impertinence and unpunctuality were mentioned in the log book. In 1869, 'as unpunctuality has obtained of late', the master kept the late comers in school for an extra half hour. In April 1883, it was noted that 'the second standard ...has been rather noisy...they seem to take little notice of their teacher'. More seriously, in August 1884 two boys broke into the school during the night, wrenched open the teachers' desks and stole the 'school pence', but they were later discovered and appeared in court.

By August 1868, the school had already attracted 160 pupils, and this had grown to 214 by July 1869. The Inspector reported in 1869 that 'The rapid increase of the School is a sign of its popularity: and the discipline, for a new School, is surprisingly good'. By the last decade of the nineteenth century, numbers stabilised to figures around 140 or 150, and around 90 for the infants' school. Numbers tended to fluctuate greatly, however, from day to day; wet days showed far lower attendance, throughout the Victorian period. Flooding of the school was a problem periodically, and was mentioned in the log book in January 1879, November 1894 and March 1897. The most serious incident occurred in October 1882, when Miss Weston, the infants teacher, noted: 'A great flood inundated the School on Tuesday last, owing to very heavy rains, and the river overflowing its banks; the water being here several feet deep; consequently the room could not be used again for the remainder of the week'. Registers and log books were completely saturated and the school took several days to dry out. Snow falls were far more frequent in Victorian times than they are today and they also affected school attendance. In the three years from 1889 to 1892, snow was mentioned five times in the school log book, and in February 1888 the drifts were so high that the school was forced to close for a whole week.

Attendance also fluctuated due to various local events and national celebrations. Local events which drew many children away from school included: a waxwork exhibition on the Green (October 1868); annual visits of the fair (usually in May and September); the Volunteers being drilled at Bowood (April 1869); visits of Wombwell's Menagerie (1880s); and annual Oddfellows' fetes and Wesleyan, Baptist and Methodist school treats. In October 1890, a half- holiday was given, at the Mayor's request, to celebrate the opening of the new Post Office in Calne. In January 1884, a similar holiday was given for the annual Tea in the schoolroom given by Thomas Harris to his employees and their children. By the later 1880s, C. & T. Harris were also organising annual summer excursions to Weymouth for their employees. A half- holiday was given for the funeral of the Duke of Clarence in January 1892, and for the opening of the new Town Hall in July 1886, and the school closed for three days in June 1897 for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Children sometimes failed to attend school because they were needed to help their parents, particularly in potato planting and picking. This was a constant source of disappointment to successive teachers. Mr Wood in 1883 noted a very thin attendance in September 1883 'owing to the ingathering of the harvest, potatoes, etc'. The prevalence of infectious diseases also contributed to the unpredictability of school numbers. An extra week's holiday was given in May 1881 because of the prevalence of fever in Calne, and in June 1882 and October 1894 the infants' school closed for a week and three weeks respectively due to measles outbreaks. In the summer of 1881, the usual four week summer holiday was doubled after an outbreak of scarlet fever. Such diseases were not only frustrating for the schoolmasters; they could also prove fatal for the children. In September/October 1885, the master remarked on the deaths of three scholars. The infants school suffered more: four deaths due to croup and diphtheria in summer 1883; two deaths from fever in summer 1881; a four year old girl burnt to death in her home in July 1891; a death from drowning in August 1897; and various other tragedies.

In spite of all these problems, the British Schools achieved a lot. 'The discipline and general tone of the School are most creditable', reported the Inspector in February 1871, and again in January 1873, 'The Elementary Instruction is very sound'. Ten years later, the efforts of the second headmaster were bearing fruit: 'The whole condition of the School bears witness to the exercise of much care and skill in handling. The quality of the Elementary work is uniformly sound', the Inspector recorded. The infants' school generally enjoyed even more complimentary reports from successive Inspectors. In 1871, the mistress was described as 'commanding and capable', and eleven years later it was reported that 'The Infants are in a very satisfactory state of Discipline and have been taught with much success. Their notions of writing and the elements of arithmetic are very accurate...' In 1885, the Inspector went further and declared that the scholars were 'altogether being trained in a manner befitting young children'.

In the previous year, the mistress had listed in the log book the titles of the object lessons, which she was obliged to teach to the infants. Among the 'minerals etc.' were coal, slate, salt, chalk, glass and gold. 'Animals and birds' included the elephant, lion, cow, sheep, bear, fox, cuckoo, pig and dog. The 'miscellaneous' section included potatoes, a hive of bees, a needle, dew, truthfulness, bread, paper, a candle, and cruelty to animals. The mistress frequently recorded five- or six-year old pupils admitted to the school 'who did not know one letter', so the achievements of successive teachers were all the more remarkable. At the end of the century, the Inspector reported that the infants were 'being taught with considerable care and skill'.

The year 1900 was memorable for several reasons. In February the infants' school was closed for four days due to heavy snowfalls. In May, one of the Harris family paid for each child in the British Schools to be given a packet of sweets, to celebrate the relief of Mafeking. In September, another glowing Inspector's report praised the good order of the children, the sound work done, and the marked progress made both in elementary and class subjects.

Average attendances for the British Schools were 155 (mixed school) and 87 (infants) in 1903, and 175 and 53 respectively, eight years later. The infants' school closed in 1922, when the pupils transferred to the school in Mill Street. There were 95 pupils in the mixed school in its last year of existence, when the Inspector recorded that 'the teaching generally is careful and sympathetic'. The school closed in 1930 and pupils were sent to the newly-formed Calne Junior School, with older pupils going to the Calne County Secondary School.