A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes). Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1992.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
'Durston: Education', in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes), (London, 1992) pp. 267. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol6/p267 [accessed 26 April 2024]
EDUCATION.
A schoolmaster left Buckland in 1554, and a teacher at Durston in 1612 was reported as unlicensed. (fn. 1) Part of the church house was used as a day school before 1644. (fn. 2) There was a dame school for 6 to 10 children in 1819. (fn. 3) By 1835 there were two day schools with a total of 12 children and a Sunday school, begun in 1823, for 30 children. (fn. 4) In 1846 there was a dame school with 14 pupils and the Sunday school, then teaching 60 children, provided clothing for poor pupils. (fn. 5) A church school was built in 1853 in Higher Durston (fn. 6) and it had 45 on the books in 1905. Numbers fell to 23 in 1925 and to 13 in 1945. The school closed in 1946, (fn. 7) and in 1985 the building was a private house.