Ashurst: Education

A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2, Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1986.

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'Ashurst: Education', in A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2, Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham, (London, 1986) pp. 82. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt2/p82a [accessed 18 March 2024]

EDUCATION.

There was a dame school at Ashurst in 1762. (fn. 1) One day school with c. 30 pupils existed in 1819, (fn. 2) and two schools with 38 children, educated at their parents' expense, in 1835. (fn. 3) In 1846-7 two dame schools in the parish had 47 pupils in all; one was supported partly by an endowment, apparently the £200 left by Mary Gratwicke, lady of Eatons manor (d. 1809), of which the income was still being received in 1863. Some Ashurst children in 1846-7 went to the National schools in Henfield and Steyning. (fn. 4) One dame school remained in 1868. (fn. 5)

The site of the former parish workhouse in School Lane was conveyed for use by a National school in 1872. (fn. 6) A new school building was built, but the attached master's house on the west side had existed before; it is 18th-century in style and may have been part of the workhouse. (fn. 7) An annual grant was being received in 1873 (fn. 8) and 64 children attended in 1874. (fn. 9) Average attendance fluctuated between 44 and 61 in the later 19th century and earlier 20th, (fn. 10) and between 21 and 37 in the 1920s and 1930s. (fn. 11) About 1970, when there were 38 pupils, the school was saved from closure, (fn. 12) and by 1983 the school building had been enlarged by the incorporation of the master's house. In 1982, when it was called Ashurst C.E. (Aided) primary school, it had 37 pupils; at that date the older children went to school in Steyning. (fn. 13)

Footnotes

  • 1. W.S.R.O., Ep. I/22/1 (1762).
  • 2. Educ. of Poor Digest, 952.
  • 3. Educ. Enq. Abstract, 962; cf. E.S.R.O., DAN 1033.
  • 4. Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846-7, Suss. 2-3; E.S.R.O., DAN 961; W.S.R.O., Par. 11/1/2/1.
  • 5. W.S.R.O., Ep. I/22A/2 (1868).
  • 6. Ibid. Par. 11/25/1.
  • 7. Above, local govt.
  • 8. P.R.O., ED 7/123.
  • 9. Chich. Dioc. Kal. (1874), 127.
  • 10. Rep. of Educ. Cttee. of Council, 1875-6 [C. 1513-1], p. 638, H.C. (1876), xxiii; 1885-6 [C. 4849-1], p. 599, H.C. (1886), xxiv; 1890-1 [C. 6438-1], p. 677, H.C. (1890-1), xxvii; Public Elem. Schs. 1906 [Cd. 3182], p. 637, H.C. (1906), lxxxvi.
  • 11. Bd. of Educ., List 21, 1927 (H.M.S.O.), 341; 1932, 386; 1938, 401.
  • 12. Brighton Evening Argus, 19 Feb. 1970; W. Suss. Gaz. 3 Oct. 1974.
  • 13. Local inf.