EDUCATION.
The priest of St. Mary's guild,
suppressed in 1547, kept a grammar school. (fn. 64)
There were two schoolmasters in 1671, at least
one unlicensed. The vicar was probably teaching
boys 1672-80, (fn. 65) but there was no free or 'charity'
school. (fn. 66) There are references to teachers, writing
masters, and schools in 18th- and early 19thcentury Coalbrookdale and Madeley Wood. (fn. 67) A
schoolroom near Sunniside was mentioned in
Abraham Darby (II)'s will of 1763, (fn. 68) and succeeding managers of the Coalbrookdale Co. provided
schools and Sunday schools. (fn. 69) The company's
British day school was by 1818 the largest in the
parish, but a free school was then greatly
needed. (fn. 70)
The Coalbrookdale Co.'s school was exceptional. Almost all the early sustained provision of
elementary education was in the Sunday schools.
In 1818 some 750 children attended four Sunday
schools while twelve unendowed day schools (including the Coalbrookdale Co.'s school) had only
523 pupils, 173 of whom, at the eight principal
ones (excluding the company's school), paid 3d.-
6d. a week. From 1813, according to regulations
of the parish church's newly founded Sunday
school society, the Sunday schools sat 9 a.m.noon and 1.30-4.00 p.m.; primers, catechisms,
testaments, religious tracts, slates, and copy
books were used. The principal Sunday school,
evidently that at Madeley Wood, had c. 150 pupils
in 1818. (fn. 71) It owed its existence to J. W. Fletcher
who intended the meeting house which he built
there c. 1777 to be used also as an elementary day
school. (fn. 72) How long a day school was carried on is
uncertain, (fn. 73) but Abiah Darby prompted Fletcher
to found Sunday schools at Madeley Wood, Coalbrookdale, and Madeley in 1784 and 1785. (fn. 74) A
fourth Sunday school was founded at Coalport
before 1810. (fn. 75)
In 1818 two of the four Sunday schools evidently met in the Madeley Wood and Coalport Wesleyan chapels, though they were carried on by the
parish Sunday school society which, in 1814, built
a room in the churchyard for Madeley Sunday
school. (fn. 76) Coalbrookdale Sunday school parted
from the society in 1816, as Wesleyans and church
people began to separate. A separate church
Sunday school began in the Madeley Wood house
of industry in 1821, when afternoon services
began in the Wesleyan chapel: and early next year
the Madeley Wood Wesleyans reorganized their
Sunday school, which then included an adult
school. Another church Sunday school began in
the Ironbridge dispensary c. 1830. (fn. 77) In 1838 the
Madeley Wood Wesleyans founded a Sunday
school society to teach poor children of all denominations to read the Scriptures 'and to understand and practise every moral virtue'. (fn. 78)
By 1833 free elementary education was being
provided by six Sunday schools, three Wesleyan (fn. 79)
with 261 girls and 230 boys, and three church
schools (fn. 80) with 225 girls and 165 boys. There were
also eighteen day schools (615 pupils), where fees
were paid, but in one (founded 1829) the patron
and proprietor and two or three local subscribers
made up deficiencies; (fn. 81) it was probably John
Bartlett's school near Marnwood Hall gate. (fn. 82) By
1824 Bartlett (incumbent of Buildwas 1822-61) (fn. 83)
was a prominent member of the parish Sunday
school society; through it he pressed for a central
parish school and succeeded in founding parochial
infant schools at Madeley and Ironbridge in 1829
and 1831. (fn. 84)
By 1871 there were church schools serving all
parts of the parish, Wesleyan schools in Madeley
and Madeley Wood (widely supported in the
coalfield parishes by subscribers and fund-raising
efforts), (fn. 85) and the undenominational company
school in Coalbrookdale. The voluntary schools
sufficed to avoid the compulsory establishment of
a school board, though fear of a board prompted
the rector of Ironbridge to retain management of
his infant school until 1885 and inspired the
managers of the Coalbrookdale schools to appeal
for subscriptions and propose voluntary rates.
Only poor children's education was a charge on
the rates before 1903. A few indoor pauper children were taught, badly, at the Madeley union
school in Broseley until 1851 when the union
joined the South East Shropshire District School
at Quatt. By the 1860s workhouse children were
sent to the Blue Schools in Ironbridge. When the
guardians were empowered to pay school fees, few
parents applied, preferring to keep their children
away. (fn. 86)
There was no public provision in 19th-century
Madeley for schooling beyond the elementary
stage, though by the 1840s and 1850s some
children were continuing their education as halftimers at school, others at night schools. School
managers sometimes stopped their employees
from teaching a night school, considering it detrimental to the day school; at other times they
encouraged night schools and took on part-time or
temporary teachers to help in them. By 1859 a
winter night school at Madeley Wood Wesleyan
School was held thrice weekly for pupils aged
11-18. (fn. 87) A school of art founded for Wenlock
borough in 1856 gradually centred in the Coalbrookdale institution. (fn. 88) In the 1890s the influence
of the art school and the institution helped to
bring the county council's organization of technical instruction to a high degree of perfection. (fn. 89) The
school had branches throughout the borough and
in Dawley, and c. 1906 an art library was provided
at the institution. In 1949-50 there were very
many well attended evening-institute classes in
Coalbrookdale and Madeley. (fn. 90)
In the 19th century there were many private
schools, most of them ephemeral. (fn. 91) In the earlier
1840s the artist J. C. Bayliss kept one, probably in
Park Hall, (fn. 92) which was used as a private school
later in the century. (fn. 93) By 1851 William Evans,
secretary of the Ironbridge Mechanics' Institution, kept another in Ironbridge. There were then
three boarding schools in the parish, two of them
for girls; (fn. 94) those at Brockholes and Dale Coppice
lasted many years. The rector of Ironbridge took
boarding pupils in the 1870s. (fn. 95) The school near
Marnwood Hall evidently became a private school
for young middle-class children in the later 19th
century. (fn. 96) In the 1890s boys from the private
Ironbridge High School were gaining countycouncil scholarships, (fn. 97) and in 1906 a girls' high
school in Ironbridge was mentioned; it was possibly the private school, for girls only from c. 1909,
in St. Luke's Road between 1891 and 1937. (fn. 98) In
the Baptist schoolroom in High Street, Madeley,
there was another girls' private school from 1886
to c. 1922 (fn. 99) and a boarding school in Arundel
House (the Roman Catholic presbytery) in the
1890s. (fn. 1)
The borough of Wenlock succeeded Madeley
school attendance committee as local education
authority for the parish in 1903, and in 1912 the
county council took over. (fn. 2) One of the eight
elementary schools in the parish became a council
school in 1916 and closed 1938, one closed in
1926, five became controlled 1946-52, one remained aided. Secondary education was first
publicly provided in 1911 when the county council opened Coalbrookdale Secondary (later High)
School. (fn. 3) In 1937 Madeley Senior School opened
to complement the high school. Some reorganization of schools was being planned before Dawley
new town's designation, (fn. 4) and from the mid 1960s
secondary schools became comprehensive and
many new schools were built. (fn. 5)
Madeley Wood Methodist (formerly Wesleyan)
School originated in the day school planned by
Fletcher for his first meeting house and the
Sunday school which he later established there.
After the opening of the new Wesleyan chapel at
Madeley Wood in 1838 (fn. 6) Fletcher's old building
was used only by the Sunday school. In 1853,
however, it was fitted up as a day school, to be
supported largely by fees of 3d. a week, deficiencies being supplied by subscriptions and collections. With government grants a new infant
schoolroom in Fletcher's memory and a teacher's
house were built 1858-9 and another schoolroom
in 1864, by which time the school had 280 places.
Later in the 19th century the infant department
was merged with the mixed school whenever an
infants' mistress could not be afforded. (fn. 7) In 1903-4
the school had 168 boys and girls and 122 infants, (fn. 8)
but by 1928 there were only 122 boys and girls
and 69 infants. (fn. 9) The school became a junior
mixed and infant school in 1937, (fn. 10) when Madeley
Senior School opened, and became controlled in
1952. (fn. 11) It closed in 1969, the 129 children (fn. 12) thereafter attending Woodside schools. (fn. 13)
Coalbrookdale Boys' School was established
before 1816, probably by the early 1790s, in
premises belonging to the Coalbrookdale Co. It
was conducted on the Lancasterian or British
system under the company's direction and in 1818
was the largest day school in the parish with 123
pupils. (fn. 14) In 1840 a new two-storeyed building was
erected below Woodside. Later in the century the
school lost its primacy in numbers and by 1857
there were only 73 pupils. (fn. 15) Attendance averaged
126 in 1903-4, and there were 87 boys by 1928. (fn. 16)
From 1916, when the county council bought the
school from the company, it was known as Coalbrookdale Boys' Council School. (fn. 17) It closed in
1938, the year after Madeley Senior School
opened; the pupils then transferred to the church
school. (fn. 18)
Madeley Parochial Infant School, founded in
1829, was held in the Sunday school room in the
churchyard until 1844 when it moved to the
ground floor of the new National school. (fn. 19) In 1853
the infants moved to the former Wesleyan chapel,
Church Street. (fn. 20) There were 120 pupils in 1903-
4, 149 in 1928. (fn. 21) The school became controlled in
1948 and closed in 1965, over half of its 97 pupils
transferring to the junior (former National)
school. (fn. 22)
Ironbridge Parochial Infant School for the
'poorer classes' was built at the bottom of Madeley
Hill in 1831. In 1833 it and the Madeley infant
school together, maintained by fees, accommodated 147 children in roughly equal numbers. In
1858, financed largely by voluntary contributions
and church collections, it was attended by 60
infants and c. 30 girls. The mistress had furnished
lodgings rent-free. (fn. 23) The school first received a
National Society grant in 1875, and in 1885 it was
managed with the adjacent mixed Blue Schools. (fn. 24)
Then or soon afterwards the infants moved into
the Blue Schools, for by 1895 the old infant school
housed Ironbridge High School. (fn. 25) In 1903-4
attendance averaged 79 infants. There were 64
pupils in 1928, (fn. 26) when the school became the
mixed school's infant department. (fn. 27)
Coalbrookdale C.E. (Aided) School, (known as
Coalbrookdale Church School from 1854) for
girls and infants was founded by Mrs. Abraham
Darby in 1831. In 1840 it moved to new buildings
in Wellington Road near the works; a school
house was provided. There were 100 pupils in
1855. Connexions with the Darbys and the Coalbrookdale Co. persisted, and at the end of the
19th century the school was managed by company
officials and maintained by subscriptions and
voluntary rates. (fn. 28) In 1903-4 attendance averaged
94 girls and 78 infants, and by 1928 there were
149 pupils. In 1938 Coalbrookdale Boys' Council
School closed and the boys joined the girls and
infants in the church school, (fn. 29) which then became
a junior mixed and infant school. (fn. 30) In 1971 the
school moved to the former Coalbrookdale High
School premises at Dale End where, having
absorbed Ironbridge C.E. (Controlled) School, it
became Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge C.E.
(Aided) Primary School. (fn. 31) There were 150 pupils
in 1980. (fn. 32)
Madeley National (later C.E.) School was
built, with government and National Society
grants, opposite the vicarage in 1844 (fn. 33) on a small
piece of glebe without room for a playground; it
opened in 1845 and was supported by local
industrialists. (fn. 34) The two-storeyed school was built
in the Tudor style then becoming popular in the
county and later employed for other schools in the
parish. (fn. 35) There were 'neat' children of the 'right
spirit' but at first teaching was inefficient. Boys
and girls occupied the upper floor, infants the
room below, and attendance averaged 213 by
1850, 270 by 1851. Conditions improved after the
infants moved out in 1853. Boys and girls were
separated, and a playground, walled off from the
churchyard, was provided c. 1854. (fn. 36) Attendance
averaged 146 boys and 138 girls in 1903-4, (fn. 37) 141
boys and 110 girls in 1928. (fn. 38) Eleven-year-olds
went to the new senior school in 1937. (fn. 39) The
junior school became controlled in 1948, took 52
infants when their nearby school closed in 1965,
and closed in 1967, when there were 188 pupils. (fn. 40)
Ironbridge Ragged School, Milner's Lane, was
opened by Quakers and local industrialists in the
1840s (fn. 41) in an upper storey provided by the Maws.
In 1854, when there were 60 pupils, the government inspector called it 'missionary in character',
praising its appropriateness to the district. (fn. 42) The
withdrawal of ragged school grants caused it to
close in 1870, but from 1871 to 1874 it continued
under the Maws' patronage as Severnside Undenominational School, qualified for grants and
with an average attendance of over 50. After 1874
it lasted for a time as a Sunday school. (fn. 43)
The Lloyds Parochial (later Church) School
was established c. 1852 by the Madeley Wood Co.
in a former warehouse. In 1862, with the vicar's
concurrence, it was managed by John Anstice, a
partner in the company. School pence from some
60 mixed pupils then produced c. £12, the deficiency in cost being made up by the company's
partners. (fn. 44) In 1903-4 there were 68 boys and girls
and 49 infants. The school closed in 1926. (fn. 45)
Ironbridge Parochial School, from 1946 Ironbridge C.E. (Controlled) School, was the only
large church school in the parish founded without
government or National Society grants. Built
1859-60 in St. Luke's Road, it became known
from the colour of its brick as the Blue Schools.
There were houses for the master and mistress at
the east end. Financed largely by voluntary contributions and school pence, the school was
attended by 80 girls and 60 boys in 1860. (fn. 46) After
1885 it evidently took the girls from the adjoining
parochial infant school which then came under
the same management and then or soon afterwards moved into the same building. (fn. 47) In 1903-4
attendance averaged 125 mixed pupils. In 1928
there were 88 mixed pupils, (fn. 48) and in that year the
infant school became the infant department of the
school. From 1937, when 11-year-olds went to the
new senior school, the school became a junior
mixed and infant school with 118 pupils. (fn. 49) In
September 1939 St. Alban's R.C. School was
evacuated from Liverpool to share the school's
buildings, a shift system being introduced: local
children used the school in the mornings, St.
Alban's children and teachers in the afternoons;
children under 6 were excluded. Evacuee numbers soon dropped but in 1941 another evacuation
of Liverpool children raised St. Alban's numbers
to 97 and the church school's to 131. In 1943 St.
Alban's was merged in the church school (fn. 50) which
became controlled in 1946. In 1969, after the
playground subsided, the school, with 66 pupils,
moved to the former Coalbrookdale High School
premises at Dale End where, in 1971, it was
merged in the newly formed Coalbrookdale and
Ironbridge C.E. (Aided) Primary School. (fn. 51)
Madeley Wesleyan (later Methodist) School,
established in 1871, opened in Sunday school
buildings erected in 1853 behind the Fletcher
Memorial Chapel, Court Street. Attendance at
first averaged 52 mixed pupils. (fn. 52) In 1903-4 it
averaged 154 mixed pupils and 70 infants, and in
1928 there were 187 pupils. (fn. 53) The school became a
junior mixed and infant school in 1937, when the
senior school opened, and was controlled from
1947. (fn. 54) It closed in 1967, when there were 107
pupils. (fn. 55)
Coalbrookdale County High School (originally
Secondary School), Dale End, opened by the
county council in 1911 for 75 boys and 75 girls, at
first had only 46 boys and 24 girls. The first
headmaster, Maurice Jones, had formerly run the
private Ironbridge High School and latterly (c.
1909) a fee-paying class in Trinity Hall, Dale
End. Though small, the school drew pupils from
a wide surrounding area, at times from as far away
as Cound and Presthope. The foundation was a
dual one, the boys' and girls' schools being separate until 1932 when the girls' headmistress retired
and the schools were united. In 1965 the school
amalgamated with the modern school at Hill Top
to form the Abraham Darby Comprehensive
School. The Dale End premises were at first used
by the new school's first- and second-year pupils (fn. 56)
but in 1968, after extensions to the former modern school's premises, the comprehensive school
was concentrated at Hill Top. (fn. 57)
Madeley Senior Council School, Hill Top,
opened in 1937 with 400 mixed places. (fn. 58) Known
as Madeley Modern School from 1944, (fn. 59) it was
enlarged 1958-9 and had 619 pupils by the end of
1959. It amalgamated with Coalbrookdale High
School in 1965 to form the Abraham Darby
Comprehensive School. (fn. 60)
Madeley Nursery School, Victoria Road,
opened in 1946 in the prefabricated premises of a
war-time nursery. (fn. 61) It moved to a new building in
Bridle Road in 1976. (fn. 62) There were 60 pupils in
1980. (fn. 63)
Madeley County Infant School, Upper Road,
opened in 1952 (fn. 64) and had 161 pupils in 1980. (fn. 65)
Abraham Darby Comprehensive School,
formed in 1965 by amalgamation of Coalbrookdale High School and Madeley Modern School, (fn. 66)
was concentrated on the latter's site in 1968. (fn. 67)
There were 1,244 pupils in 1980. (fn. 68)
Madeley (Controlled) Junior School, Upper
Road, opened next to Madeley County Infant
School in 1967. (fn. 69) Long-planned, it was a joint
C.E. and Methodist school to replace the church
school closed in 1967 and the Methodist school
closed in 1969; within a few weeks it was named
John Fletcher (Controlled) Junior School. (fn. 70)
There were 291 pupils in 1980. (fn. 71)
Alexander Fleming County Infant School,
Southgate, Sutton Hill, opened in 1968 and had
150 pupils in 1980. (fn. 72)
Alexander Fleming County Junior School,
Southgate, Sutton Hill, opened in 1968 and had
303 pupils in 1980.
St. Mary's R.C. (Aided) Primary School,
Coronation Crescent, Madeley, opened in 1969
and had 284 pupils in 1980.
Woodside County Junior School, Wensley
Green, opened in 1969 and had 284 pupils in
1980.
Woodside County Infant School, Wensley
Green, opened in 1969 and had 154 pupils in
1980.
Hills Lane County Primary School opened in
1970. In 1976, when an infant school opened
alongside, it became John Randall County Junior
School. (fn. 73) In 1980 there were 254 pupils.
Madeley Court Comprehensive School, Court
Street, opened in 1971 and had 979 pupils in
1980. (fn. 74)
Thomas Parker Special School, Brookside,
opened in 1971 and had 59 pupils in 1980. (fn. 75)
William Reynolds County Junior School, Westbourne, Woodside, opened in 1972 and had 280
pupils in 1980.
William Reynolds County Infant School, Westbourne, Woodside, opened in 1972 and had 169
pupils in 1980. (fn. 76)
Holmer Lake County First School, Brookside,
opened in 1974 and had 277 pupils in 1980. (fn. 77)
Brindleyford County First School, Brookside,
opened in 1974 and had 313 pupils in 1980. (fn. 78)
John Randall County Infant School, Hills
Lane, opened in 1976 and took the infants of the
adjacent primary school, which then became a
junior school. In 1980 there were 134 pupils. (fn. 79)