EDUCATION.
A schoolmaster was recorded at
Painswick in 1576. Schoolmasters were again recorded in 1671 and 1695 (fn. 18) and a school-house in
1692, (fn. 19) and, although the parish was said to lack a
school c. 1708, (fn. 20) John Parker was headmaster at
Painswick in 1711. (fn. 21) The parish school was placed on
a sound basis by Giles Smith who in 1707 ordered
£200 to be raised from the sale of lands within 5
years of the decease of himself and his wife to teach
10 poor boys to read, write, and cast accounts. The
number of boys was increased to 20 by a further sum
of £250 raised by subscription which with Smith's
bequest was used in 1725 to buy an estate in Haresfield and a gallery in the church for the use of the
boys. The school was held in the town hall where in
the 1820s 26 boys were instructed freely alongside
some paying pupils. John Hillman (d. 1814) left
£450 to the school and the sum was allowed to
accumulate until 1826 when £625 of stock was held
and £169 in cash remained unapplied. The interest
was used to apprentice one boy annually and to
supplement the income of the schoolmaster. (fn. 22) In
1833 25 boys were taught at the school, known as the
Endowed school. (fn. 23)
In 1828 two cottages at Butt Green in the north
part of the town were fitted out by W. H. Hyett as a
boys' school, known as the Edge and Spoonbed
school in 1833 when it had 134 pupils; it continued
there until 1836. In 1833 a girls' National school
with 88 pupils was housed in former industrial
buildings at Ham Butts, and a girls' benevolent
school, with 46 pupils, was carried on as a nonsectarian school in a house near Fairview at the
south end of New Street. In 1837 the benevolent
school moved to the cottages at Butt Green which
had been vacated by the boys' school, and it later
moved to premises in Bisley Street before uniting
with the girls' National school c. 1844. Later the
girls' school and an infants' school, which had been
started in the cottages at Butt Green, (fn. 24) became part
of a new National school where boys also were
taught. In 1847 new buildings, designed by George
Basevi, were opened south of the churchyard. (fn. 25)
In 1853 the National school and the Endowed
school were amalgamated to form the Painswick
United National and Free schools. The Endowed
school had been held since the demolition of the old
town hall in an upper storey of the new town hall,
which became the home of the boys' section of the
united schools. The schools, which catered for pupils
up to the age of 15, followed the advice of W. H.
Hyett and laid stress on practical training, including
carpentry and printing for boys, and sewing classes
for girls. The average attendance at the United
schools was 140 in 1857 (fn. 26) but in 1861 the union was
dissolved (fn. 27) and the Endowed school, with 26 free
and other fee-paying pupils, continued its independent existence until its closure in 1867. (fn. 28)
A classroom was added to the Painswick National
school building in 1855 (fn. 29) but the money derived
from subscriptions was no longer a sufficient income
for the school and the other National schools already
established in the parish, at Sheepscombe, where a
voluntary rate of 3d. helped to meet expenses, Slad,
and Stroudend. In 1877 a school board was formed
for the parish to which the Painswick boys', girls',
and infants' sections, and the Sheepscombe, Slad,
and Stroudend schools were affiliated. (fn. 30) Two other
parochial schools, the Edge Church of England
school and the Beeches Green Roman Catholic
school remained aloof from the school board. The
board continued to administer the other schools in
the parish and formed a united school district for
Painswick and Uplands after the latter was made
a separate parish in 1894. (fn. 31) From 1897 until 1899 the
expense of building a new school at Uplands led to
friction between the two parish councils, finally
resolved by the levying of a differential rate. (fn. 32) Under
the Act of 1902 the responsibilities of the school
district were taken over by the county council.
After the formation of the school board the three
sections of the Painswick school, known as the
Painswick Board school, were held in the town hall
and the National school building, which was enlarged
in 1881. A gallery was erected in the school in 1887
and a new schoolroom built for the infants' section
in 1897. (fn. 33) Known as the Painswick County Primary
school, it had an average attendance of 246 in 1910
and 196 in 1932. The boys' and girls' sections were
amalgamated soon afterwards. (fn. 34) New premises for
the infants' section were opened in 1970 at the Croft,
near Gloucester Street, but the juniors remained in
the old school building in 1972 when there was a
total of 160 children on the school roll. (fn. 35)
A school had probably been founded at Sheepscombe in 1822 (fn. 36) and certainly by 1833 when it had
40 pupils. (fn. 37) A new building was built at the west end
of the village in 1873 (fn. 38) but it was unsatisfactory and
the school was transferred in 1880 to a former
Sunday school building on the lane to Far End,
which was enlarged. (fn. 39) In 1910 the school had 62
pupils, but the average attendance had declined to
18 by 1936. (fn. 40) In 1972 there were 33 children on the
roll. (fn. 41)
A National school was built at Slad in 1838 (fn. 42) and
had an average attendance of 44 in 1847. (fn. 43) Financial
difficulties led to a temporary closure before the
formation of the board in 1877. (fn. 44) In 1910 there were
56 pupils, and it had 20 in 1936 (fn. 45) by which date it
had become an infants' school. (fn. 46) In 1966 the school
was transferred to a terrapin classroom in the
grounds of Uplands County Primary school and it
was absorbed by the Uplands school in 1968. (fn. 47)
An infant school with 45 pupils was recorded in
Stroudend in 1833. (fn. 48) New school buildings near the
site later chosen for the church at Uplands were
opened in 1872 when the average attendance at the
school was 27. (fn. 49) The school closed temporarily in
1877 (fn. 50) but subsequently expanded rapidly and two
new classrooms were added in 1880; (fn. 51) it had an
average attendance of 186 in 1889. (fn. 52) A new school,
called the Uplands school, on a site north of the
earlier buildings, was opened in 1899. (fn. 53) It had an
average attendance of 267 in 1910 and of 175 in
1936. (fn. 54) In 1972 there were 198 children on the roll. (fn. 55)
A Church of England school was opened at Edge
in 1872 and was financed by voluntary contributions
and pence. (fn. 56) In 1890 there were 49 children on the
roll (fn. 57) and in 1910 the average attendance was 50,
increasing to 58 by 1936. (fn. 58) A terrapin classroom was
added in 1963 and 54 children attended the school
in 1972. (fn. 59)
A Roman Catholic school was established in a
house at Beeches Green in 1859 and had a fitful
career until placed under government inspection in
1874. It was reorganized and reopened with 41
pupils in 1875. In 1883 new buildings for the school,
called the Rosary school, were built on a site formerly reserved for the chancel of the Catholic
church. (fn. 60) The school, which had 92 on the roll in
1890, (fn. 61) was closed temporarily from 1891 until
1893, (fn. 62) and had an average attendance of 80 in 1910
and of 59 in 1936. (fn. 63) It continued as an all-age school
and grew rapidly after the Second World War,
having 230 pupils in 1957. (fn. 64) In 1964 it became a
primary school for children up to 11 years and in
1967 it was transferred to new buildings (fn. 65) west of
the convent. In 1972 there were 296 children on the
roll drawn from Stroud town and a wide area north
and west. There was a Catholic secondary school for
girls attached to St. Rose's convent for some years
before it closed in 1970, and Catholic children of
secondary age attended school at Gloucester in 1972.
The convent also ran St. Rose's Special school for
physically handicapped girls, founded in 1912 and
housed at Stratford Lawn, Beeches Green, in 1972;
it catered for boarding and day students up to the
age of 16 years. There were 64 pupils on the roll in
1972 when the school was beginning to extend its
facilities to handicapped boys. (fn. 66)
A classroom at the Painswick National school was
used for an adult evening class in 1855, (fn. 67) and in 1864
a regular night-school, which included a science
class, was held there with an average attendance of
20. (fn. 68) In 1892 the former Endowed school foundation
was used to establish an evening-school at Painswick for boys aged 12-20, of whom 26 would be
taught freely. In 1901 the coffee tavern premises
were acquired for the school, (fn. 69) but the estate at
Haresfield was sold in 1922 (fn. 70) and the school had
ceased to function by 1972 when children attending
the parochial primary schools usually progressed
to secondary schools in Stroud.
A charity founded by William Baylis (d. 1826) (fn. 71)
provided money for apprenticing one boy each
year to the teaching profession, and in 1898 it was
used to provide an annual exhibition of £7 for any
male resident of Painswick attending a teachertraining college. (fn. 72) Elizabeth Cox (d. 1845) bequeathed £350 towards the cost of founding a school
for domestic servants. In 1856 the income was used
to train at the Painswick National school two girls
who boarded with the schoolmistress (fn. 73) but in 1898
it was being used to assist any girls from the parish
attending domestic science college. (fn. 74)
A British school, built next to the Congregational
chapel in Gloucester Street in 1844, had apparently
closed by the 1870s. (fn. 75) Sunday schools flourished at
Painswick, Sheepscombe, and Slad in the late 18th
century and the early 19th, and the Sheepscombe
school was claimed to be one of the earliest in the
country. (fn. 76) There have been a number of small private
schools recorded at various times since 1850. (fn. 77)