A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 3, Bramber Rape (North-Eastern Part) Including Crawley New Town. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1987.
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'Shermanbury: Education', in A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 3, Bramber Rape (North-Eastern Part) Including Crawley New Town, (London, 1987) pp. 198. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt3/p198 [accessed 8 May 2024]
EDUCATION.
The rectors Richard Ward and John Bear kept a small boarding school for the sons of local gentry in the 1690s, 1730s, and 1740s. (fn. 1) In 1819 there was no school in the parish; many of the children went to Henfield or Cowfold, (fn. 2) as they did in 1835 and 1846, though in 1835 two infant schools in Shermanbury had c. 30 children and in 1846 a Sunday school held in the church and supported by subscription taught 65 children. (fn. 3) In 1855 the older boys went to school in Henfield and Cowfold, (fn. 4) and a girls' school in 1867 was supported by Mrs. Hoper of Shermanbury Grange. A National school for 64 boys and girls, north of the rectory house in Buckhatch Lane, was built in 1874-5, and in 1886 it had an average attendance of 78. (fn. 5) It was receiving an annual grant by 1880. (fn. 6) Attendance fell to 40 in 1910 and 19 in 1927, and in 1929 the school closed. (fn. 7) The building was retained in 1984 under a charitable Scheme of 1929 and was used occasionally for meetings. The younger children then went to school in Cowfold, the older ones in Steyning. (fn. 8)