Education
William Blake, by will proved
1695, (fn. 11) left a £12 rent-charge on his estates at
Alvescot, to pay two schoolmistresses to teach in
the schools which he had built at High Cogges
and Newland. There was a rent-free house and
garden for each mistress, who was to be a
protestant and who was to teach reading, the
catechism, sewing, and knitting. Each school
was to have 12 boys and 12 girls aged 6-9 years.
Blake also left £1 10s. a year for the upkeep of
the schools, and £5 a year for boys leaving
school to be taught writing by a master at
Witney; £20 a year was left for buying books
and clothing for the schoolchildren. (fn. 12) If there
were not enough poor children in Cogges and
Newland, places could be given to children from
neighbouring parishes, but in 1824 the provision
was ignored: neither school had its full quota,
with an average of 12-15 pupils at High Cogges,
and slightly more at Newland. Children under
six were admitted but paid a fee. The upkeep of
the schools was costing more than the allowance,
but there was a surplus in the books and clothing
account. (fn. 13)
In 1833 there were said to be four day schools
containing 80 children in the parish, including
Blake's two schools. (fn. 14) The following year there
were just the two endowed schools with 24
children in each, and no infant school. (fn. 15) In 1854
the school houses were also being used as Sunday schools, partly supported by subscription.
Children over nine went to the National school
or the Wesleyan day school at Witney. (fn. 16)
In 1857 the Blake schools trust, which also
included a school at Witney, was reorganized.
The Witney school was sold and the proceeds
devoted to enlarging and improving the school
at Newland, which became the main school in
the parish, although the High Cogges school
continued. (fn. 17) In 1860 the Blake schools were
vested in the official trustee of charity lands, but
the former trustees remained governors; (fn. 18) the
Newland school received its first government
grant in 1862. (fn. 19) The salaries of the Witney
schoolmistress and of the master who taught the
older boys writing were added to the Newland
school endowment. There were no more free
pupils; children of labourers paid 4s. a year and those of farmers and tradesmen 8s. Clothing was
henceforth given only as a reward for good work
and conduct. (fn. 20) The school was taught by one
certificated teacher and had an average attendance of 40. (fn. 21)
An infant school, held in a cottage, had been
started at Newland by 1862; (fn. 22) it was not under
the Blake school management and had to support itself from pence and other means. (fn. 23) In
1862 the Charity Commissioners ordered that
£3 18s. a year, left by William Wright in 1786
for bread or schooling and hitherto distributed
in bread, should be given to Blake's or any other
school selected by the trustees. (fn. 24) In 1875 it was
used to support the Sunday school and choir,
and £1 12s. was added to the salary of the infant
teacher from 1878 to 1897; the charity then
reverted to non-educational purposes. (fn. 25) A night
school, started in 1863, had only two pupils by
1866; the Sunday school, however, had an attendance of 103. (fn. 26) In 1871 there was accommodation for 76 in the two Blake schools. An independent school, presumably the infant school at
Newland, had accommodation for 14 and an
attendance of 29. (fn. 27)
In 1874 a small amount of glebe land with a
large Sunday schoolroom, formerly a barn, between Cogges church and the vicarage garden
was granted to the Blake trustees and this eventually superseded the Newland schoolroom. (fn. 28) In
1876 the school received £15 10s.. yearly from
the Blake endowment. (fn. 29) The old Newland
school site was sold in 1880 and the proceeds
were used to extend the new school. (fn. 30) A classroom was added in 1886-7 (fn. 31) so that accommodation was 240 in 1890, though the average
attendance was only 102. The government grant
was £74, fees amounted to £22, and the endowment was £30. (fn. 32)
In 1933 Blake's school at Cogges was reorganized as a junior school with 63 pupils; senior
children went to Witney. In 1955 there were 80
children, divided into three classes by screens in
the one large room; there was only one other
small room and bucket sanitation. A new school
was built on the new housing estate south of
Cogges village in 1983, when there were 175
children on the register. (fn. 33)
By 1873 the High Cogges school was an infant
school for children too young to go to the main
school; it received £9 from the Blake endowment, (fn. 34) and in 1889 children both there and at
the main school were said to be well taught. (fn. 35)
The High Cogges school closed in 1921. (fn. 36)
In the 1750s and 1760s J. Morland, then
renting the manor house, ran a boarding school
in which writing, arithmetic, accounts, Greek,
Latin, French, dancing, and drawing were
taught. The school closed in 1766, when equipment sold included mathematical instruments, a
telescope, a magic lantern, and theatrical
props. (fn. 37)