Lolworth: Education

A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1989.

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'Lolworth: Education', in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds, (London, 1989) pp. 164-165. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol9/pp164-165 [accessed 25 March 2024]

Education

Between 1585 and 1595 Lolworth had two successive masters licensed to teach grammar. (fn. 1) In 1728 the rector paid for three poor children to be taught. (fn. 2) In 1807 a poor woman taught a Sunday school, and perhaps also a free day school with six pupils, (fn. 3) but in 1818 those poor people who wished their children to learn had to send them to Boxworth school. (fn. 4) From 1831 the clergy maintained a small day school. (fn. 5) By 1846 the church day school, supported then as later by subscriptions and school pence, with 23 pupils, was held in the church. (fn. 6) In 1861 the mistress, a labourer's wife, had 22 pupils. (fn. 7) Her successor in 1871, aged 19, had 33. (fn. 8)

In 1866 (fn. 9) the Daintrees began to build, southwest of the green, a school for 50 children with an attached teacher's house. It was opened in 1869, being let to the school managers. Its pupils, some 45 until c. 1890, included in 1873 only two older boys. The annual cost was met by voluntary subscriptions. The rector occasionally taught there. Winter night classes were also held from the 1870s to the 1890s. (fn. 10) The mistresses changed frequently, (fn. 11) and attendance fell from 26 to c. 15 in the late 1890s, (fn. 12) recovered to c. 40 about 1910, and declined to 30 in 1919 and 9 in 1938. (fn. 13) In 1910 the school was taken over by the council despite the rector's opposition. (fn. 14) Proposals to send the older children elsewhere were resisted, (fn. 15) and numbers revived to 12 in the 1940s and 1950s, but the change was effected in 1947. The school was closed in 1958, the remaining children going to Swavesey. (fn. 16)

Footnotes

  • 1. Proc. C.A.S. lxv. 170.
  • 2. C.U.L., E.D.R., B 8/1, f. 22.
  • 3. Ibid. C 1/4.
  • 4. Educ. of Poor Digest, 62.
  • 5. Educ. Enq. Abstract, 64; cf. C.U.L., E.D.R., C 3/21.
  • 6. Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846-7, Cambs. 6-7.
  • 7. P.R.O., RG 9/978; cf. Kelly's Dir. Cambs. (1864).
  • 8. P.R.O., RG 10/1530.
  • 9. Not 1845, as R.C.H.M. Cambs. i. 172.
  • 10. C.U.L., E.D.R., C 3/25; C 3/31; C 3/38; P.R.O., ED 7/5; cf. Kelly's Dir. Cambs. (1869, 1888); 1st Rep. Com. Employment in Agric. 362.
  • 11. Kelly's Dir. Cambs. (1875-1925); cf. C.R.O., P 110/25/1, esp. pp. 13-14, 45.
  • 12. Rep. of Educ. Cttee. of Council, 1890-1 [C. 6438-1], p. 563, H.C. (1890-1), xxvii; Schs. in receipt of Parl. Grants, 1895-6 [C. 8179], p. 27, H.C. (1896), lxv; Public Elem. Schs. 1906 [Cd. 3510], p. 56, H.C. (1907), lxiii.
  • 13. Bd. of Educ., List 21, 1910 (H.M.S.O.), 24; 1919, 16; 1938, 20.
  • 14. C.R.O., P 110/25/1, pp. 47-8.
  • 15. Ibid. pp. 73, 77.
  • 16. Black, Cambs. Educ. Rec. 66.