National School, Market Lavington

There were four day schools in Market Lavington in the early 1830s but these probably closed when the National School opened. In 1844 the Earl of Radnor and Lord Folkestone gave land adjoining the churchyard for a school. The cost of the building was £620 and this was offset by voluntary contributions, and a government grant of £140 in 1846. The school was built in 1845. In 1850 the master of the boys' school was Robert Henry Morgan and Eleanor Sophia Wheeler was the mistress of the girls'. At an inspection in 1858 there were between 40 and 50 boys being taught by an uncertified master in a 'well proportioned schoolroom of ample size'. The desks were in lines along the walls and instruction and discipline were said to be 'moderate but in a fair way to improve'. Between 40 and 50 girls were taught by a mistress, who was an ex-governess, daughter of a clergyman and who was taking her teaching certification examination at Christmas. The room was similar to the boys' school but 'Instruction and organisation not very satisfactory at present'. Monies for the school were received from the charity of Thomas Tanner and, later, Sarah Stobbert, who died c.1865.

The school log books date from the early 1860s and there is much information in them common to both the boys' and girls' schools. Until 1891 most parents paid a weekly fee, 1d (0.4p) or 2d (0.8p) for their children to attend school. Children either brought their lunch and ate it in the schoolroom or went home. Subjects taught were the '3Rs' of reading, writing and arithmetic with scripture. Additional subjects were needlework, singing, music, geography and history. Later in the century both drawing and drill were introduced, while the boys also studied animal physiology. The infants were taught separately, learning the basics of the three elementary subjects with singing and some religious knowledge. The infants also had object lessons where they looked at all aspects of one object, such as a horse, a camel, a walnut, leather, a railway engine and a Lucifer match. The vicar and his family often came to school and took lessons.

Attendances were variable and in the 1870s and early 1880s the attendance averaged from 70 to 80 for boys but the girls and infants were in the range of 90 to 110. Annual holidays were, two weeks at Christmas, ten days at Easter, and five weeks Harvest Holiday in the summer. There were also some special holidays such as a half day after an H.M.I. inspection, for choral festivals and for the Oddfellow's fete. Holidays were also given on Confirmation days, when the school was needed as a polling station, for the inauguration of the church bells on 13 February 1877, and on account of the 'Great Conservative Demonstration' at the Manor House on 1 October 1890. Two days were allowed to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee while on 31 May 1900 a half-day holiday was given to honour the surrender of Pretoria in the Boer War.

There were many unauthorised absences and some of these were connected with activities on the farms, orchards and market gardens of the parish. These included potato planting (March), field and garden work (March-May), hay making (June), pea picking (July), reaping (September), plum picking (August-September), wood gathering (autumn), and beating for pheasant shooting (November). The weather also affected attendance with snow and storms deterring many, especially the infants, from attending school. Snowfall closed the school in March 1878, and January 1881 when the great snowstorm brought snow three feet deep to the village, while attendances were very low during other heavy snowstorms in 1887, 1888 and 1891. In January 1895 snow caused damage to part of the school roof and the boys had to take lessons with the girls to avoid the melting snow dripping into their room.

The children suffered from the usual childhood illnesses along with some more serious ones that are not often seen today. Measles was prevalent in 1876, 1880, 1883 and 1890 when the school closed for a month, mumps in 1880-1 and 1895 and whooping cough in 1872, 1876, and 1881, and 1897 when the school was closed for a month, while chicken pox spread through the village in 1893. There was a case of smallpox in 1873 and scarlet fever in 1864, 1881, 1883 and 1890 when one girl died. Diphtheria also claimed the life of one boy in 1893 and closed the school for six weeks in 1897, while two boys died from 'brain fever' in 1892 and 1896, the latter following a bout of influenza.

The cane was frequently used, especially in the boys' school, and was a punishment for such misbehaviour as, playing truant, not learning multiplication tables (12 boys), behaving badly in church, telling lies, disobedience, not learning their lessons and for scrumping apples. All the above were in the early 1860s when the master seems to have made great use of the cane.

The boys' school measured 33 feet 5 inches by 18 feet and the room was 19 feet 4 inches high, accommodating 62 boys. A gallery was removed in the 1860s while a new floor was laid in 1898. In September 1886 a new tortoise stove was installed having been bought with money raised from the village fete. The H.M.I. reports seem satisfactory in most years. The amount of annual government grant depended upon the results of these inspections, and in 1886 the headmaster noted that it was the worst one he had received (it criticised grammar, writing, and the setting out of sums), but that it was not very different from the previous year while the grant of £37.11.4d (£37.57p) was only just over half the amount received in 1885. The report of 1894 commented that new desks were needed; six arrived at the school the following January.

In the 1870s there was a master and two pupil teachers; the latter were taught by the master outside school hours and took exams over a three-year period to qualify as teachers. In 1879 the master was Thomas Huttley and it seems that at least one pupil teacher had left as in 1892 he resigned quoting the futility of teaching 60 boys in seven standards in at least seven subjects, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English, drawing and scripture. He also commented that there had been a most wretched attendance in 1892. John Duck, one of the former pupil teachers, was appointed to replace him in February 1892.

It is noticeable that some emphasis was placed on agricultural subjects in the boys' school, with animal physiology taught towards the end of the 19th century. In October 1897 two boys left to take up two year scholarships that they had obtained at the Dauntsey Agricultural College in West Lavington. Two amusing points from the log books. In May 1886 the master wrote that 'much noise was caused by a brood of starlings under the roof, whose clamorous and incessant appeals for food seemed to suggest that they had been kept by their parents at starvation point.' On 4 December 1894 there was a holiday owing to the room being required for a meeting of the candidates for the parish council. On 5 December the master noted that 'the school was left in a very dirty state and the map of Europe was very much damaged.' He was not able to open the school until 9.45 a.m.

The girls' schoolroom measured 33 feet by 18 feet and was 18 feet 9 inches in height, accommodating 66 girls, while the infants' room was 27 feet by 18 feet and was 17 feet 3 inches high, with space for 45 infants. The girls' and infants' school were both run under the mistress, with two pupil teachers, one of whom probably mainly taught the infants. The rooms seem to have been adequate for the numbers but in 1893 the H.M.I. report noted that 'A cloakroom for the girls and infants distinct from the classroom used by the infants is much needed.' Other points mainly concern new fittings. A new clock was brought to the school in April 1865, a new blackboard and easel were delivered in May 1871, while in January 1881 Mr. Saunders visited the school in the morning to look at the stove and replaced it with a better one in the afternoon. This seems to have been a second-hand one however as a new one was installed in October 1886. In February 1888 the mistress was asked to make a list of girls aged 10 or over whose duty it would be to sweep out the school in rotation.

During the 1860s the H.M.I. reports on the school are reasonable but the arithmetic was poor and this resulted in a deduction in the grant in 1868, 1869 and 1870. There was a change of mistress in September 1870, which resulted in this comment in the 1871 report, 'The present mistress has been but a short time in charge of this school, but she appears likely to raise the standard of instruction.' Sure enough in 1872, 'The discipline of the school is good and the instruction is skilful and beginning to produce much improvement in the girls' attainments.' By 1878 the report stated, 'This department is in very good order and is being thoroughly well taught in every subject of instruction.' By 1881 the girls were learning about English literature, poetry and domestic economy besides all the usual subjects.

In 1887 both 21 and 22 May were given as holidays for the Jubilee celebrations. A total of £60 had been subscribed from the parish and this allowed 500 people to dine for free in a barn and marquee on the first day. It was also enough to provide tea for the old women and the children. A note said that the weather was 'grand'. From 21 September 1891 the school participated in the new scheme of Free Education and from that day no fees were charged. An evening school opened in November 1895 teaching commercial geography, commercial arithmetic and history, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The school was taken over by Wiltshire County Council by 1905 and further information will be found under Church School, Market Lavington.