Standish: Education

EDUCATION.

In 1818 there was a Sunday school with 30 children, and there were a few dame schools. (fn. 1) A day school for girls was started in 1820, and one for boys in 1833, both supported by voluntary contributions. In 1833 the girls' school had 31 pupils and the boys' school 20. (fn. 2) By 1839 a parochial school had been established in the ancient building called the almonry, which was improved and altered to serve as a school c. 1844. Attendance was 35-40 in 1865, when fees of 2d. or 6d. were charged. (fn. 3) The numbers had risen to 60 by 1902, (fn. 4) but were down to 50 in 1910 (fn. 5) and remained near that figure. (fn. 6) The school remained in its old building until it was closed in 1963. (fn. 7) In 1967 the younger children went to schools in Stonehouse. The school building was acquired in 1950 by the parochial church council. It is of stone, two-storied, and buttressed; the mullioned windows have lights with four-centred heads; the southern half of the roof comprises three wide, arch-braced roof-trusses; and there are four four-centred arched doorways. The building is known locally as the almonry or the bede house, despite the fact that the alms which Standish manor provided in the Middle Ages were distributed in Gloucester. (fn. 8) It stands apart from the buildings of the manor-house, on the far side of the gateway, and is likely to have been the church house for which the tenants of Standish paid a rent in 1540. (fn. 9) The theory that it was the original parish church (fn. 10) presupposes that it has been greatly enlarged and thereby re-oriented; there are no clear indications that any of the fabric is older than the 16th century, though the restoration of c. 1844 may have disturbed the evidence.

By 1856 there was a small dame-school at Colethrop, (fn. 11) which from 1874 appears to have been held in the mission church there. (fn. 12) The school was closed c. 1884, (fn. 13) perhaps because it depended for support on J. D. T. Niblett (d. 1883). (fn. 14)