Rodmarton: Education

A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11, Bisley and Longtree Hundreds. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1976.

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'Rodmarton: Education', in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11, Bisley and Longtree Hundreds, (London, 1976) pp. 246-247. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol11/pp246-247 [accessed 19 March 2024]

EDUCATION.

John Coxe by will dated 1690 gave £30 for educating and apprenticing poor children of Rodmarton and Tarlton. The gift, with £50 under the will of Charles Coxe (d. 1728) and £25 under the will of John Coxe (d. 1783), both given for the poor and for apprenticing, (fn. 1) was used c. 1790 to establish a school in which 12 children were taught to read. (fn. 2) Some of the funds may, however, have continued to be used for apprenticing up to 1803. (fn. 3) In 1818 the interest provided part of the salary of the mistress who was teaching 12 girls; the rector, Daniel Lysons, provided the balance and also the clothes of the pupils. (fn. 4) In 1847 the school was attended by 12 boys and 14 girls and the endowment was supplemented by subscriptions and pence. (fn. 5) The endowments later passed to the National school. (fn. 6)

In 1818 40 boys attended Sunday schools supported by Daniel Lysons. (fn. 7) Aided by a bequest of £20 made by a Mrs. Waldo in 1814 he erected a Sunday school next to the churchyard in 1828. (fn. 8) The building accommodated the separate Sunday schools that he maintained in 1833 for 32 boys and 20 girls. (fn. 9) The school, which survives as an L-shaped building of two storeys, was intended for use as a school-house after the building of the National school in 1854, but by 1861 it had become a granary. (fn. 10) In 1818 there was also a day-school, attended by 34 poor children aged between five and eight, (fn. 11) and in 1833 the parish contained three schools in which 40 children were instructed at their parents' expense. (fn. 12) They probably included small schools in Tarlton and Culkerton.

Rodmarton National school, a mixed school, was built in 1854 east of the village on glebe land given by Samuel Lysons, who financed the work aided by a grant of £15 from the Revd. Samuel Wilson Warneforde's charity. (fn. 13) The school was conveyed in 1868 to trustees but remained under the management of the incumbent. (fn. 14) Its income in 1872 was derived from voluntary contributions, supplemented by the Coxe endowments and school pence; a deficit was supplied by private subscriptions. The average attendance was 34. (fn. 15) The school was enlarged in 1892 and rebuilt in 1906. (fn. 16) The average attendance rose from 69 in 1910 (fn. 17) to 89 in 1936. (fn. 18) In 1974 56 children from Rodmarton and neighbouring villages attended. (fn. 19)

A small school at Tarlton, attended by 9 children, was recorded in 1847; its income was provided by subscriptions and pence. (fn. 20) It was evidently in existence in 1867 (fn. 21) and was possibly the infants' school which acquired a new building in 1884. (fn. 22) The average attendance of the infants' school was 16 in 1902, (fn. 23) but there is no later record of it. A day-school at Culkerton was attended by 20 children in 1847. (fn. 24)

The three Coxe charities were used for gifts to old people in 1970, (fn. 25) but by 1973 the £1.35 a year from the charity of the earlier John Coxe was being given, in the absence of apprentices, to the Rodmarton primary school and to a Sunday school held at Tarlton. (fn. 26)

Footnotes

  • 1. 18th Rep. Com. Char. 348-9; cf. Glos. R.O., D 213/T 5.
  • 2. Glos. Colln. RX 252.1.
  • 3. Cf. Poor Law Abstract, 1804, 181.
  • 4. Educ. of Poor Digest, 307.
  • 5. Church School Inquiry, 1846-7, pp. 15-16.
  • 6. See below.
  • 7. Educ. of Poor Digest, 307.
  • 8. Par. reg. 1605-1833; 21st Rep. Com. Char. H.C. 349, p. 166 (1829), viii.
  • 9. Educ. Enquiry Abstract, 325.
  • 10. Glos. R.O., D 1348, Kemble est., Rodmarton man. fm., note 1876.
  • 11. Educ. of Poor Digest, 307.
  • 12. Educ. Enquiry Abstract, 325.
  • 13. Par. reg. 1605-1833; Kelly's Dir. Glos. (1885), 556; Warneford (1763-1855), rector of Bourton-on-the-Hill, was a noted philanthropist: cf. Glos. R.O., D 209.
  • 14. G.D.R., S 2/5.
  • 15. Ed. 7/35/273.
  • 16. Kelly's Dir. Glos. (1910), 288.
  • 17. Bd. of Educ., List 21, 1912 (H.M.S.O.), 167.
  • 18. Ibid. 1936, 123.
  • 19. Ex inf. Mr. Simpson.
  • 20. Church School Inquiry, 1846-7, pp. 15-16.
  • 21. Cf. Glos. R.O., D 1332/M 2, letter 22 Oct. 1867.
  • 22. Kelly's Dir. Glos. (1885), 556.
  • 23. Ibid. (1902), 279.
  • 24. Church School Inquiry, 1846-7, pp. 15-16.
  • 25. Glos. R.O., CH 21.
  • 26. Ibid. CH 22.