Edgeworth: Education

EDUCATION.

Joan Ridler by will dated 1714 left £100 for teaching poor children at Edgeworth and her sister Mary by will of 1715 charged land at Haresfield with the sum of £5 to answer for it. The rent-charge was apparently being received in 1826, (fn. 1) and in 1833 was being devoted to the salary of the schoolmistress, (fn. 2) although in 1818 the school was said to be without any endowments. The dayschool had an attendance of 20 children in 1818 (fn. 3) and 23 in 1847 when it was supported by subscriptions. (fn. 4) The alterations made to the rectory in 1861 included the addition of a schoolroom, (fn. 5) but in 1872 Henry Sperling built a school for 60 children and a house for a schoolmistress on the road from the church to the village. The number of children attending declined from 40 in 1885 (fn. 6) to 24 in 1911, and 10 in 1922 (fn. 7) when the county council ceased to maintain the school. (fn. 8) Nevertheless it seems to have survived, probably supported by the James family, until 1927 when the children formed a pipe orchestra having made their own instruments. (fn. 9) The school appears to have closed by 1931 at which time the building housed a parish library. (fn. 10) In 1971 the younger children attended school at Miserden and the older children went to Stroud or Eastcombe. The Ridler charity was used to finance educational excursions for the children of the parish in 1971. (fn. 11) The school buildings had been converted to a pair of cottages, one of which was the post office.