Papworth St. Agnes: Education

Education

Some curates possibly taught in the early 17th century. (fn. 1) A Sunday school started by the rector had 6 pupils in 1807, (fn. 2) 19 in 1818, when it was supported mainly by subscriptions, and, after lapsing briefly c. 1825, 28 by 1833. Weekly evening classes were also held. (fn. 3) In 1836 the rector H. J. Sperling was building on his own land a brick schoolhouse, (fn. 4) which by 1857 also included a teacher's dwelling. By 1846 it held also a church day school, managed on the National system by 1857, when Sperling covered most of its costs. The young master was not certificated. An evening school was also held from the 1850s (fn. 5) to the 1880s. The Sperlings still met over half the cost of the church school in the 1870s. (fn. 6) Although it could hold 65 children, attendance declined from c. 30, a third of them infants, before 1890 (fn. 7) to below 20 by the 1930s. (fn. 8) From 1951 the older children went to Gamlingay. The school was closed in 1954, the few remaining pupils going to Elsworth or Gamlingay. (fn. 9) The building, northeast of the church, was a private house by 1982.