SCHOOL
ASHWELLTHORPE SCHOOLING – 19TH CENTURY
BEFORE THE 1841 SCHOOL WAS BUILT
The question "is there any free school or voluntary charity school" was always asked of the local Minister or Curate among queries posed prior to any Bishop of the Church of England's Visitation to a parish to check up on the morality of the clergy and parishioners, the teaching of the Catechism to children and the state of the church building etc. Visitations to Ashwellthorpe took place in 1777, 1784, 1801 when the answer given to this question by the Churchwardens was always "No".
This was not really surprising as the belief in education for all did not gain any ground until the 19th Century and was not put into practice until late in that Century. But the Norfolk and Norwich National School Society (which had been set up in 1812) resolved at its meeting on 26 May 1813 that the school at Ashwellthorpe "be admitted into Union" and at Bishop Henry Bathurst's Visitation on 23 June 1813, the presence of a school was confirmed by the answer from the Rector, the Rev Henry Wilson, 10th Lord Berners. He was the patron of the living in Ashwellthorpe but was also Rector of Kirby Cane in Norfolk and lived at Kirby Cane Hall, Norfolk.
"We have a Sunday School supported by the Rector, Curate, Churchwardens and other parishioners' voluntary contributions. There are about 46 girls and boys taught on the principles of the Established Church", wrote Rev. Henry Wilson. In 1818, the schoolmaster received £5 per year but books were supplied by the Curate, the Rev. James Carter, although the Norfolk and Norwich National Society had already protested to the Rev. Henry Wilson at a meeting on 31 July 1816 about "irregularities in the school at Ashwellthorpe occasioned by Mr Carver, the Curate, introducing books not on the Society's list and insufficient attention being paid to reading and learning the Catechism"
The Rev. Robert Wilson, younger son of the above Rev. Henry Wilson, became Rector in Ashwellthorpe in 1826 and lived in Ashwellthorpe Hall with his wife Emma Pigott.
He set up a daily school three years later which, by 1833, had 17 boys and 27 girls on the roll and which, although the children paid a fee, was supported mainly by the Rector, Rev. Robert Wilson. It is believed that this early school building was on land east of the church, quite close to Hall Farm and the Hall itself.
Sources: Bishop's Visitation Returns - VIS series of documents at Norfolk Record Office; Minute Book of the Norfolk and Norwich National Society NDS/137 at Norfolk Record Office; Correspondence with the National Society (Church of England) for Promoting Religious Education
SCHOOL
ASHWELLTHORPE SCHOOL – 19TH CENTURY
Ashwellthorpe's school building of 1841 was built solely at the expense of the Rev. Robert Wilson and by 1847, there were 70 pupils attending on Sundays and weekdays with the schoolmaster receiving £52 a year. This school was financed until almost the end of the 19th Century by support from the Berners' family as Patrons, voluntary subscriptions, "school pence" from the parents of each child and then Government grants based at various times on good reports following inspection, the attendance ("payment by numbers") and attainment of the pupils ("payment by results").
The School had two rooms: the Schoolroom, measuring 29ft (8.8m) in length and 20ft (6.09m) in width - and the Classroom for the Infants, 18ft (5.4m) in length and 9ft (2.7m) in width. The height of the rooms was 11ft. (3.35m) to the top of the side walls.
The 1870 Education Act led to compulsory attendance at school, although take-up in rural schools was very slow – children at Ashwellthorpe School often being absent if there were shooting parties at the Hall, when they would be "brushing|"; or if they were acorn gathering for pig feed, or scaring the crows away from the newly sown fields of corn in the Spring, or haymaking, or in other busy agricultural times of the year when their help in the fields was vital to the family economy.
By 1893, 76 children attended and the Government Inspector commented in his Report of August 1894 that "the infants are taught in a very small and inconvenient room and as the main room is now full, it would appear best to ….the infants room into the main room and build a class room for the infants". The Inspector also went on to say that the existing classroom can no longer be recognised as forming a separate part of the accommodation". The following September, HM Inspector reported that the school was still in a crowded condition but plans for enlargement had been sanctioned by the Education Department though the work had not yet started.
The school closed for four weeks in October/November 1895 for the extension to be built and by August 1896, the Inspector reported "The School has been improved very much by the alterations and additions". The height of the new/rearranged rooms was still 11ft to 11ft. 6ins. (3.35m to 3.51m) but the classroom for the infants was now 18ft (5.48m) by 16ft (4.87m) with the schoolroom for the older children being 29ft. square (8.84m).
For the last few years of the century, continuing improvements were made as required by the Government Inspector – to make the school premises warmer in winter; to keep the "offices" (toilets) clean and the partition between boys and girls toilets more effective and to provide a urinal in the boys' toilets. These alterations were completed by 1899.
Source: Ashwellthorpe School Log Book originally in private hands; now deposited at Norfolk Record Office
SCHOOL
ASHWELLTHORPE SCHOOL DAYS - 19TH CENTURY
Epidemics were frequent: in February 1876, the school closed and did not re-open until April because of sickness raging in the parish – nine children under the age of 10 died in Ashwellthorpe in those three months. Other outbreaks of illness amongst the children in the last two decades of the 19th Century either led to the school being closed for a period of time or in very low attendance: measles, scarlet fever/scarletina, whooping cough, mumps being the most frequent. "Water Pox" was also a problem – WHAT WAS THIS? If cases of ringworm appeared in children during the 1880s, a doctor was called in who "blistered some children's heads to prevent ringworm spreading".
The weather played a most important part in the school year too. The summer holiday, or "harvest holiday" varied each year depending on when harvest was imminent. In 1876, the holiday started on 10 August and Autumn term on 11 September; in 1879, school did not end until 29 August, returning on 29 September although attendance was still very low as harvest had not yet finished. August 1879 had unprecedented rainy and windy weather in Norfolk which delayed corn and hay crops all over the county.
Norfolk Chronicle 9 August 1879
In winter, school finished earlier in the afternoons to allow the children to get home before dark. When it was very cold, many infants did not come to school but if they did, they had their lessons in the main schoolroom with all the other children as their classroom was just too cold. School did continue in an intensely cold winter in 1888, when snow and frost started on 30 January and did not clear until the end of March. With children walking across fields to get to school, and with the roads not being made up and full of puddles, heavy rain also took its toll on attendance figures.
Source: Ashwellthorpe School Log Book originally in private hands; now deposited at the Norfolk Record Office
SCHOOL
ASHWELLTHORPE SCHOOL LESSONS - 19TH CENTURY
As well as reading, writing and arithmetic which went on throughout the whole school, the infants had several "Object Lessons" each week when they were taught as much as possible about, for example, ivy, the foot, carthorse, acorns, etc. Other subjects taught and learned in the 1890s to augment knowledge of the Three Rs, were poetry, recitation, spelling, singing, geography, scripture - daily, and mostly by the Vicar or Rector - drawing, sewing and knitting (for boys too). The children undertook Drill exercises to the music of the school harmonium which had been purchased in 1884. Dictation was given to the higher classes as an exercise in spelling and writing, either on slates or in exercise books. In July of each year examinations were given on religious instruction by the Diocesan Inspector and the Government Inspector visited the school and then reported on progress in all subjects.
On 4 July 1893, the Mistress read out a paragraph for dictation to children who had only moved up from Standard III to IV on that day, all aged about 10. It was:
"A river begins at its source. The year begins on the 1st January and ends on the last of December. We initiate a student in a certain study, but he must perfect himself."
Every child who took that dictation test made a mistake, and for each mistake, the Mistress administered one stroke of the cane, one of the children receiving five strokes.
The vicar thought that although the children appeared to have been careless "a milder form of correction must be employed". He also gave the Mistress a verbal notice of one week to leave the school, and the next morning he sent her a written notice to be gone by 4 August!
There were lighter moments. The annual School treat, Sunday school and Chapel treats, the choir treat - all these resulted in a half holiday from school. And in October 1892, a travelling menagerie visited the school paid for by the Curate.
By the middle of the 1890s attendance regularly reached the mid-seventies and extension work was completed by the summer of 1896.
Source: Ashwellthorpe School Log Book originally in private hands; now deposited in Norfolk Record Office
SCHOOL
ASHWELLTHORPE SCHOOL DURING SECOND WORLD WAR (see WARTIME)
SCHOOL
ASHWELLTHORPE SCHOOL 1949 - 1952
There had been schooling in Ashwellthorpe from 1813 but this school was financed and built by the Rector as a Church school in 1840 and extended in 1895 to a size of 8.8m square for the main room and 5.4 x 4.8m for the Infants' room. These rooms could hold 72 and 32 children respectively. It had not changed much since.
Although change was brewing following the 1948 Education Actand the County Council's adoption of a new development plan for Primary and Secondary education in March 1950, Ashwellthorpe School started January 1950 with 20 on the roll, a permanent teacher (Mrs Barber) for the seniors, and a supply teacher (Mrs Gladwell) for the infant class (who said in a letter to me "some of my happiest teaching days were at Ashwellthorpe School. The children were good, the parents very helpful").
During Spring Term 1950, electrical and drainage systems were altered to install additional lighting, a kitchen and hot cupboard for the introduction of "canteen" dinners which would be delivered from Silfield School from 6 June. A new fence was erected around the playground and the exterior walls repaired and repainted, but classroom lighting and the state of the playground surface all still needed attention with the Buildings Inspector promising urgent action. Surely an air of permanence?
Scholarship exams – for entrance into the grammar school system - were taken by some children in February each year, usually held at Wreningham School and Youth Employment Officers came to speak to those children who had reached school leaving age. Gardening was on the curriculum with tools provided by the County Council; swimming lessons with transport; PT; police visits on road safety and bike inspections; film shows in the main room with windows covered with blankets provided by the parents to block out the light. Depending on age, children had trips to the Theatre Royal to see the Anton Dolan ballet, the National Exhibition of Children's Art in Norwich Museum and to more local events like the Meet of the local Hunt. The school closed each year for The Royal Norfolk Show at the end of June, and for the (then) Princess Elizabeth's visit to open the Norwich Festival on 18 June 1951, part of the Festival of Britain. In the winter of 1951/1952, the School room temperature often did not rise above 4C and more supplies of coal were often asked for.
Mrs Gladwell had left the school in July 1950 and Mrs Barber in May 1951 to be replaced by a temporary Head, Mrs Saunders, who wrote this message in the Log Book at the Christmas 1951 end of term "Perhaps it will re-open on January 8 1952"!
Sources: Ashwellthorpe School Log Book in private hands; now at Norfolk Record Office; private correspondence
SCHOOL
ITS CLOSURE - 1952
THE SCHOOL WAS NOT TO BE SAVED. Norfolk County Council's Development Plan stated "the existing small country school has many disadvantages which….may in some cases even outweigh its advantages". Ashwellthorpe School fitted into the negative situations outlined by the NCC: "the average one- or two-teacher country school is usually housed in a very old building"; "the minimum number of children for whom the Ministry will authorise 3 teachers is 51"; therefore, "one-teacher schools would be eliminated"; and if the number of junior and infant children in a particular village was too low for a three-teacher school, one school should be provided to serve two or more villages". The Development Plan envisaged closing down Ashwellthorpe, Fundenhall, Tacolneston and Wreningham Schools (all Voluntary Aided or Controlled) by 1952/53 to be replaced with one new County School for infants and juniors of all four villages. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN
After Mrs Barber's May 1951 resignation as Head, NCC's School Management Sub-Committee decided not to advertise this vacancy, but to investigate the possibility of closing the school with infants and juniors going to Wreningham and seniors to Wymondham Secondary Modern School. The Managers of Ashwellthorpe School submitted a resolution to the Education Committee on 21 July 1951 that the school should be kept open for children under 11 – this was vetoed by the NCC who asked the Minister of Education to issue a Public Notice for Closure.
Ashwellthorpe's population had fallen and parents, knowing of this possible closure, were already moving their children to other schools – Silfield School where children could take advantage of transport service to Wymondham at 11 years old. It is not known whether the PTA, which had been very active in past years, mounted protests.
The Parish Council reported at its meeting on 16 January 1952 that two letters had been sent to the NCC protesting against the closure of Ashwellthorpe School, which were simply acknowledged. At the Annual Parish Meeting of 29 May 1952, a further letter from the Education Committee stated it would cease to maintain Ashwellthorpe School and it would close at the end of Summer Term 1952. It was unanimously agreed that the PC Clerk should write to the Education Committee asking if the school could be kept open for children up to the age of 7 years. If this could not be done, transport should be provided for these children.
In the last week of the Summer Term 1952 there were 17 children on the roll; the canteen equipment was packed up prior to removal; cupboards were tidied and school books put in order; and the cesspool was emptied. THE SCHOOL CLOSED.
Sources: Ashwellthorpe School Log Book; Norfolk County Council Education Committee Minutes; Ashwellthorpe Parish Council Minutes