SCHOOLS.
The chantry priest of St. Laurence
was teaching a school in Warminster before the
Dissolution. (fn. 89) Simon Forman, the astrologer, was
a schoolmaster in the town in 1577, (fn. 90) and William
Lockier (fn. 91) and Giles Daniell (fn. 92) taught there
in the earlier 17th century. William Gough kept
a school in the town during the Interregnum. (fn. 93) In
1662 three men were presented by the churchwardens for teaching unlicensed, and one of them
was recommended as fit to keep a school. (fn. 94) Lord
Weymouth's Grammar School was founded in
1707 to teach the youth of Warminster, Longbridge
Deverill, and Monkton Deverill, but, owing to a
lack of definition in the master's obligation to take
free scholars, few seem to have been educated
there; (fn. 95) in 1783 the curate wrote that there was no
public or charity school in the town. (fn. 96) It was about
that time, however, that the beginnings of public
elementary education in Warminster are to be
found in the Sunday Schools. That begun at the
Old Meeting in 1785 was directly under the influence of Robert Raikes. The children were instructed in reading for three hours on Sunday
mornings, and returned in the afternoon for another
reading lesson before going to the meeting; after
it they went back to the school for instruction in
the catechism. They had to be recommended for
admission by subscribers, and three years instruc
tion was considered long enough for each child. (fn. 97) A
Sunday School was begun at the New Meeting six
years later, (fn. 98) and it was the establishment of another
at the Methodist chapel in the early 19th century
which first encouraged the establishment of a
public day school in the town. The Methodists had
over 200 children, and failed because numbers were
too big for the teachers to control, but their effort
provoked the New Meeting not only to double the
size of their Sunday School, but to begin a day
school as well. This failed, but roused the Anglicans
to establish a National School in 1815. (fn. 99) From that
time the histories of the individual schools are
dealt with below.
Other educational provision in the town can
only be briefly mentioned. Sunday Schools continued to supply the lack of day schools in the
early 19th century; in 1833 eight schools of all the
chief denominations instructed 800 children. (fn. 1) In
1798 there were five private schools, two of them
boarding schools for ladies; (fn. 2) in 1822 five private
schools out of eight took boarders. (fn. 3) The Christ
Church Establishment for Young Ladies was
conducted for many years from 1842 by Miss
Haskew and Miss Cruse at Cambridge House,
Sambourne, (fn. 4) and another successful ladies' boarding school of the same period was Mrs. Hardick's at
East End House. (fn. 5) Sir J. E. Philipps founded St.
Boniface Missionary College in a house in Church
Street in 1860, and subsequently raised £17,000
for a new range of buildings adjoining which was
opened in 1910. (fn. 6) The design was by J. A. Reeve; (fn. 7) a
chapel designed by Sir Charles Nicholson was
added in 1927. Since 1948 the college has been
associated with King's College, London, as a postgraduate training centre for mission work. (fn. 8) Philipps also founded the Community of St. Denys;
in addition to training women for work abroad,
it has run St. Monica's School for Girls, founded in
1890, and, until 1959, the Orphanage of Pity. (fn. 9) A
Reformatory School for Wiltshire was begun by
another vicar, Arthur Fane, in 1856. In the buildings now known as Tascroft Farm boys committed
by the magistrates worked 20a. of land, the produce of which partly supported them. (fn. 10) In 1868 they
spent 10 or 15 hours a week at lessons, and worked
for the rest of the time in the fields. (fn. 11) The school
was closed c. 1925. (fn. 12) There was a Mechanics'
Institute in East Street in 1842. (fn. 13) Its place in
popular education was probably taken by the
Athenaeum, which from its foundation in 1858 was
used for many years for programmes of winter
lectures on an enormous variety of subjects, generally to packed audiences. (fn. 14) It also housed a readingroom, library, and class-rooms, in one of which a
government school of art was begun in 1861. (fn. 15) The
Literary Institution, opened in 1838, provided a
reading-room and library for more exalted inhabitants of the town and district. (fn. 16)
The day school which the New Meeting established early in the 19th century (fn. 17) was educating
about 100 children in 1808, (fn. 18) but only lasted for a
short time. A new school for girls on the Lancastrian
principle was begun in 1827 in a large room in Ash
Walk. (fn. 19) In 1833 80 girls attended, paying 2d. a
week. (fn. 20) Three years later the committee was
granted the use of the newly-built schoolrooms
at the Common Close chapel, and moved the school
there in 1837. In 1842 a British School for boys was
started in the same building. (fn. 21) In 1859 there were
altogether 85 children under a certificated master
and two pupil teachers; the school 'bore the stamp
of managerial indifference', and the top class were
unusually ignorant. (fn. 22) The girls' section was moved
to the disused Unitarian meeting house in North
Row in 1872. (fn. 23) By 1890 there were separate boys'
and infants' sections in the Common Close, the
boys south of the chapel and the infants north of it.
The girls were still at North Row, and total average
attendance was about 220. (fn. 24) After the 1902 Act the
schools were taken over by the county. In 1923 the
girls were moved to the Close and united with the
boys, and the infants sent to North Row. The
senior children were moved to the Avenue School in
1931, which then took over the North Row building
as a manual training room. The buildings adjoining
the Common Close chapel became a junior mixed
school. In 1959 the New Close Junior School was
built at Woodcock by the county, but the old
buildings in the Close were in 1963 still in use as
part of the new school. (fn. 25)
A British School was begun at Warminster
Common in 1845 (fn. 26) in a building adjoining the
Methodist chapel there; it began to receive a grant
c. 1868-70. (fn. 27) In 1893 average attendance was 96
boys and girls. (fn. 28) The building was enlarged in 1898,
and taken over by the county in 1902. In 1903-4
the average had risen to 88 mixed senior children
and 44 infants. (fn. 29) Senior children were removed to
the Avenue School in 1931, and the Common
School, later called New Town, remained in use as
a junior mixed and infants' school until 1959. (fn. 30)
A National School was begun in 1815 in a building
in Church Street which bears that date, and was
evidently converted then from a small private house.
It was supported by subscription and provided for
about 200 boys and girls of the poorest families. (fn. 31)
In 1835 another National School was built at
Sambourne near Christ Church; it apparently
housed girls and infants, and the Church Street
school remained in use, presumably for boys. (fn. 32) In
1842 207 boys and 128 girls attended on weekdays
and Sundays, and another 369 children attended on
Sundays only. In summer 145 infants attended, but
in winter only 85, and there was a winter evening
class in Church Street for 60 working youths, run
by the vicar and his friends. (fn. 33) In 1846 a new building at the junction of Back Street and West End,
now Emwell Street and Vicarage Street, was
opened, (fn. 34) and the Church Street school given up. (fn. 35)
In 1848 the National day and Sunday schools were
providing for 800 children. (fn. 36) In 1859 the National
Schools in Warminster were divided into boys',
girls', and infants' departments, but it is not clear
how they were divided between the two buildings.
About 300 children attended, and the schools were
regarded as very good both for accommodation
and instruction. (fn. 37) The Vicarage Street school was
extended in the 1880's, and by 1890 was divided
into girls' and infants' schools; (fn. 38) the girls' school
was called the Hall School, but was united with the
infants' school in 1904. (fn. 39) At Sambourne there were
separate boys' and girls' schools. In 1890 combined
attendance at the Vicarage Street and Sambourne
Schools was 350. (fn. 40) In 1923 the Sambourne school
was re-organized as a senior mixed school, and the
Vicarage Street, or Minster School, for junior
mixed children and infants. (fn. 41) No change was made
until 1955, when the senior children from Sambourne were sent to the Avenue School; (fn. 42) since
then the Sambourne and Vicarage Street schools
have been junior mixed and infants' schools. Both
have controlled status under the 1947 Act.
In 1868 it was announced that a small school in
connexion with Christ Church was to be built in
Kettle Alley at Warminster Common, where
children of parents who were too poor to send them
elsewhere could be educated. (fn. 43) Grants were made
by the government and the National Society, and
a small building was put up at the corner of Cannimore Road and South Street. (fn. 44) It was extended in
1878. (fn. 45) In that year Matthew Davies left £1,000 for
the benefit of the school, then known as the Ragged
School, and the income was subsequently used
toward its maintenance. (fn. 46) In 1893 average attendance was 68. (fn. 47) It remained in use as an infants'
school until 1922, when it was closed. (fn. 48)
The establishment of a school on the Boreham
road followed naturally on the building of St. John's
Church there. The National Society made a grant,
and the building was finished in 1872 and called St.
John's School. (fn. 49) The stone building, designed by
G. E. Street, was added to by the Temple family
in memory of Vere Temple (d. 1892). (fn. 50) In 1903-4
it contained mixed and infants' departments, and
was attended by some 95 children. (fn. 51) Since the
removal of the older children in 1931 it has remained
a junior mixed and infants' school. It received
controlled status under the 1947 Act.
When the County took over the administration of
education under the 1902 Act, a Secondary School
for boys and girls was built in the Common Close
adjoining the Athenaeum. (fn. 52) In 1931 a new county
Secondary School was built at the Avenue; some
children from the old school went to grammar
schools in Trowbridge, and the rest to the Avenue
School, which became a Secondary Modern School
under the 1947 Act.