Creech St. Michael: Education

A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes). Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1992.

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'Creech St. Michael: Education', in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes), (London, 1992) pp. 29. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol6/p29 [accessed 25 April 2024]

EDUCATION.

There was a school in the parish in 1609. (fn. 1) Henry Masters, the deprived vicar, was said to have kept a school during the Interregnum. (fn. 2) Henry Stodgell, by will of 1701, gave a rent charge to teach 4 poor children but the endowment had been lost by 1776. Ann Seager's bequest in 1714 of a £2 rent charge to teach poor children maintained a small school with 8 pupils in 1776, (fn. 3) and one with 5 pupils in 1819. (fn. 4) The endowment presumably supported a day school with 47 pupils in 1825, (fn. 5) and it supported 5 out of the 41 boys at a day school in 1835. (fn. 6) It was transferred to the National school, but was lost between 1903 and 1962. (fn. 7) In 1819 there were two other day schools teaching 30 children; four schools were started in 1829 and 1830, and in 1835 there were 5 day schools besides the endowed school. (fn. 8) There was also a Baptist Sunday school, opened in 1824 and closed soon after. A Sunday school was held at the Baptist chapel between 1827 and 1856 jointly by the Baptist and parish churches; it had 60 pupils in 1835. (fn. 9) The Baptists took it over in 1856 and built a new schoolroom in the chapel in 1858. It was removed in 1875 and another new room was built in 1884. (fn. 10)

By 1846 a National school had been established with 30 children but the premises, a cottage on the glebe, were inadequate. (fn. 11) A new school was built north of Zion Baptist chapel between 1871 and 1873. (fn. 12) In 1903 there were 99 children on the books with two classrooms and four teachers. Subjects taught included basket making and poultry keeping and the school received the Seager endowment. (fn. 13) Numbers fluctuated but rose to 127 in 1945 and fell to 72 in 1955 after the removal of senior pupils. By 1975 numbers had risen to 307 and there were 260 children on the register in 1981. (fn. 14) A new building was opened in Hyde Lane c. 1972 but the old one remained in use until 1983. (fn. 15)

There was a girls' boarding school at Creech Heathfield between 1861 and 1881 and a private elementary school in 1882. (fn. 16)

Footnotes

  • 1. S.R.O., D/D/Ca 160.
  • 2. A Compleat Hist. of Som. (1742), 10.
  • 3. S.R.O., D/D/Vc 88; Char. Don. pp. 1044-5.
  • 4. Educ. of Poor Digest, p. 781.
  • 5. Ann. Rep. B. & W. Dioc. Assoc. S.P.C.K. (1825-6), 80.
  • 6. Educ. Enq. Abstract, p. 802.
  • 7. Char. Com. files.
  • 8. Educ. of Poor Digest, p. 781; Educ. Enq. Abstract, p. 802.
  • 9. W. M. Wigfield, Bapt. Ch. at Hatch Beauchamp, 18; Educ. Enq. Abstract, p. 802.
  • 10. Zion Bapt. Ch., newsletter, Oct. 1974, 7.
  • 11. Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846-7, Som. 6-7; S.R.O., D/D (S/2340), sale partic. 1870.
  • 12. S.R.O., DD/EDS 5753; P.O. Dir. Som. (1875).
  • 13. S.R.O., C/E 4/380/123.
  • 14. Ibid. 4/64.
  • 15. Local inf.
  • 16. P.O. Dir. Som. (1861, 1875); P.R.O., RG 10/2368; RG 11/2365; Our Village, 40.
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