Warnham: 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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'Warnham: Education', in A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2, Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham, (London, 1986) pp. 218. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt2/p218 [accessed 18 March 2024]

EDUCATION.

The vicar of Warnham was licensed to teach in 1608, (fn. 1) and a successor in 1662 kept a private school. (fn. 2) In the 1790s or early 1800s the poet Shelley is said to have had the rudiments of education from the then vicar. (fn. 3) Two men were presented for teaching in the parish without licence in 1611 and 1613, (fn. 4) and in 1773 there was a dame school with c. 30 children, of whom the readers paid 2d. a week. (fn. 5) A parish school was kept in the poorhouse c. 1628, (fn. 6) and tuition was also given to paupers in the 18th and early 19th centuries. (fn. 7)

Warnham National school, later Warnham C.E. school, was begun in 1832 with separate classes for boys and girls; in the following year, when it was supported by subscriptions and fees, 76 boys and 79 girls attended, while 39 infants were also taught in that school or another. (fn. 8) Land north of the village was given for a new school in 1845 by J. W. Commerell, lord of Denne manor, (fn. 9) and the school was built in 1850, money having been provided by J. S. Broadwood, the vicar, and others. (fn. 10) In 1846-7 there were two paid mistresses; 31 boys and 50 girls then attended, besides 14 boys and 2 girls on Sundays. At the same date there were also two dame schools in the parish with 18 boys and 25 girls. (fn. 11) There were 120 on the roll of the National school in 1852; (fn. 12) by 1865 the school was receiving an annual grant. (fn. 13) On the return day in 1871 the National school was attended by 41 boys and 38 girls; on the same day two other Anglican schools in the parish were attended by 11 boys and 10 girls. (fn. 14)

The old National school building was demolished, the site reverting to the landowner, in 1873, when a new red brick and tilehung building was opened on a nearby site; the striking asymmetrical design was by J. Livock. (fn. 15) By 1893 average attendance had risen to 150 (fn. 16) and by 1914 to 180, including infants. (fn. 17) Thereafter it fell, to 147 in 1922 and 124 in 1938. (fn. 18) In 1974 both juniors and infants moved to a new school building beyond the cricket ground west of Church Street, the old school building being converted into a house. (fn. 19) There were 125 children on the roll in 1982. (fn. 20)

A night school held before 1867, with a master from Horsham, succumbed to apathy, (fn. 21) but in the 1870s classes were held again on two nights a week in winter. (fn. 22) In 1982 most of the older children of the parish went to school in Horsham. (fn. 23)

Footnotes

  • 1. B.L. Add. MS. 39349, f. 73.
  • 2. W.S.R.O., Ep. I/22/1 (1662).
  • 3. Hurst, Horsham (1868), 190, naming Evan Edwards, vicar from 1805, but evidently intending a predecessor: B.L. Add. MS. 39349, f. 76.
  • 4. W.S.R.O., Ep. I/17/13, f. 155; Ep. I/17/15, f. 33v.
  • 5. S.A.C. lii. 62.
  • 6. P.R.O., E 134/4 Jas. II East./30, rot. 2v.
  • 7. W.S.R.O., Par. 203/37/6; above, local govt.
  • 8. Educ. Enq. Abstract, 983.
  • 9. W.S.R.O., Par. 203/25/1.
  • 10. Ibid. Par. 203/25/2.
  • 11. Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846-7, Suss. 14-15.
  • 12. P.R.O., ED 7/123.
  • 13. Rep. of Educ. Cttee. of Council, 1865-6 [3666], p. 590, H.C. (1866), xxvii.
  • 14. Returns relating to Elem. Educ. H.C. 201, pp. 396-7 (1871), lv.
  • 15. W.S.R.O., Par. 203/25/2, 7; the architect is wrongly given as A. W. Blomfield by Nairn & Pevsner, Suss. 364.
  • 16. Return of Schs. 1893 [C. 7529], p. 606, H.C. (1894), lxv.
  • 17. Bd. of Educ., List 21, 1914 (H.M.S.O.), 525.
  • 18. Ibid. 1922, 343; 1938, 404.
  • 19. W. Suss. Gaz. 24 Oct. 1974; W. Suss. Co. Times, 1 Feb. 1980.
  • 20. Inf. from the headmaster.
  • 21. Rep. Com. on Children and Women in Agric. 77.
  • 22. W.S.R.O., Par. 203/7/10.
  • 23. Inf. from the headmaster.