Stanway: Education

A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (Part) Including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2001.

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'Stanway: Education', in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (Part) Including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe, (London, 2001) pp. 273-274. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp273-274 [accessed 25 March 2024]

EDUCATION.

A Sunday school closed in 1809 when subscriptions were withdrawn, but another taught c. 40 children in 1818. (fn. 1) In 1835 Sunday schools for 22 boys and 55 girls were held in the church, and by 1839 numbers had apparently risen to 50 boys and 62 girls, all of whom were given clothing. The schools, which were maintained almost entirely by the rector, continued in 1846. (fn. 2)

In 1835 there were four day schools, presumably dame schools, one of which seems to have started c. 1818; they were supported by subscriptions and pence and educated 63 children. (fn. 3) Only two were reported in 1839, when they were maintained largely by the rector. In 1846 two small dame schools continued, and other chil- dren attended Colchester schools. (fn. 4)

A girls' National School was built in 1855 on land next to the church, given by the rector. (fn. 5) It was maintained by subscriptions, including those from the rector and from the patrons, Magdalen College, Oxford; from 1862 it received regular parliamentary grants. (fn. 6) In 1861 average attendance at the 'very excellent school' was 59. (fn. 7) Boys over 8 then attended Lexden school at the rector's expense, but by 1867 the National school was mixed. (fn. 8) Between 1877 and 1880 the school was extended, increasing the accommodation from 96 to 122 children, (fn. 9) but in the 1880s and 1890s average attendance was only 88. In 1911 the school was transferred to county council control and in the same year it and a temporary school for 80 infants, which had opened in the Beacon End mission room in 1910, were closed. They were replaced by Stanway Council school, built in Villa Road for 168 children and 92 infants. (fn. 10) In 1946 the school was reorganized for juniors and infants as Stanway County Primary school. It was en- larged in 1952 and 1985. (fn. 11)

All Saints' Voluntary Church school, which opened in 1860 in Straight Road, Lexden, served part of the ancient Stanway parish. It received yearly government grants from 1872, and was enlarged in 1882 and 1910. (fn. 12) In 1930 it was transferred to the control of Colchester Borough Council and renamed Shrub End Council school. Before 1952 it was reorganized as a County Primary school. It closed in 1969. (fn. 13)

Fiveways County Primary school opened in 1971 in Straight (later Winstree) Road, and was renamed Stanway Fiveways in the same year. It was enlarged in 1985. (fn. 14) Stanway school opened in 1956 as a secondary modern school and was reorganized on comprehensive lines in 1973. (fn. 15)

A private girls' boarding school was reported at Stanway Villa in 1856 and 1866. (fn. 16) Another, opened in Chitts Hill House before 1865, survived until c. 1886. (fn. 17) The Cedars, a girls' school in 1888, was a preparatory school for boys in 1907 and 1917. (fn. 18) Holmwood House, a boys' pre- paratory school, opened in 1922, was enlarged in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued in 1995. (fn. 19) By 1987 St. Mary's girls' school, Lexden Road, Colchester, had acquired the former Stanway rectory house. (fn. 20)

Footnotes

  • 1. Lamb. Pal. Libr., Randolph Papers 12; Returns Educ. Poor, H.C. 224, p. 271 (1819), ix (1).
  • 2. Educ. Enq. Abstract, p. 290; E.R.O., D/P 30/28/19; Nat. Soc., Ch. Schs. Inquiry 1846-7, Essex, pp. 18-19.
  • 3. Educ. Enq. Abstract, p. 290.
  • 4. Nat. Soc., Ch. Schs. Inquiry 1846-7, pp. 18-19; E.R.O., D/P 30/28/19.
  • 5. Magdalen Coll. Oxf. Mun., CP 1/14; White's Dir. Essex (1863), 142.
  • 6. E.R.O., D/P 43/3/32; Magdalen Coll. Oxf. Mun., CP 1/14; Rep. Educ. Cttee. of Council, 1861-2 [3007], p. 512, H.C. (1862), xlii.
  • 7. Magdalen Coll. Oxf. Mun., DD 31, loose paper at f. 36.
  • 8. E.R.O., D/P 43/3/32; Rep. Educ. Cttee. of Council 1866-7 [3882], p. 86, H.C. (1867), xxii.
  • 9. Returns Public Elem. Schs. 1875-6 [C. 1882], p. 73, H.C. (1877), lxvii; Rep. Educ. Cttee. of Council 1879-80 [C. 2562-1], p. 593, H.C. (1880), xxii.
  • 10. P.R.O., ED 21/5361-2.
  • 11. E.R.O., C/ME 40, p. 508; C/ME 46, p. 549; Eve. Gaz. 21 Nov. 1985.
  • 12. Nat. Soc. file; P.R.O., ED 2/173.
  • 13. E.R.O., C/ME 26, p. 126; C/ME 46, p. 19; C/ME 51, p. 414.
  • 14. Essex Educ. Dept., 'List of Schs.' (1971); Eve. Gaz. 21 Nov. 1985.
  • 15. Educ. in Essex 1956-60 (Rep. Essex Educ. Cttee.), 24; Essex Educ. Dept., 'List of Schs.' (1973).
  • 16. E.C.S. 18 Jan. 1856; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1866).
  • 17. E.C.S. 6 Jan. 1865; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1870, 1886).
  • 18. E.C.S. 7 Jan. 1888, 3 Aug. 1907; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1917).
  • 19. Essex Countryside, xx. 82; inf. from the school.
  • 20. V.C.H. Essex, ix. 366.