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Before the growth of elementary schools, especially the establishment of National and British schools, in the 19th century, education was mainly through private schools of varying quality or through the church. At Alford in the 1660s the rector was licensed to teach a grammar school and John Gregory, a surgeon, taught reading, writing, casting accounts and ciphering and he was licensed to practice surgery in 1676.
1 Ansford and Castle Cary also had short-lived grammar schools and dame schools in the later 17th century and there was a school at Lovington.
2
A subscription Sunday school for the poor was established in 1785 to teach 40 boys and 40 girls to read and write, the boys in a schoolroom and the girls at home. The school was held between 8 and 12 a.m. and 2 and 7.30 p.m. and the children were taken to school twice. Any child over 7 found on the street could be put in the round house. The subscribers paid for gifts of prayer books and clothing for the children. In 1786 there were 79 boys and 59 girls but the schoolroom, a former public house in
South Cary, was sold in 1794.
3 In 1818 the only recorded school 4 was a church Sunday school with 50 boys and 60 girls 5 but a schoolroom was mentioned in 1820.
6 The Sunday school had 72 boys and 80 girls in 1825, 7 possibly including Ansford children, but in 1833 only 95 children attended. The
Wesleyan Methodist Sunday school taught 29 boys and 21 girls in 1833, 6 boys and 18 girls attended
1 Somerset Record Office (SRO), D/D/Bs 39, 42; D/D/WLS, box 2.
2 Ibid. D/D/Ca 140, 150; D/D/Bs 42; DD/SAS PR 159.
3 Som. Co. Herald, 11 June 1927; 16, 30 Dec. 1933; Castle Cary Visitor Sep. 1897.
4 In 1833, however, only 5 of 11 day schools were said to have begun after 1818.
5 Digest of Returns to the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224) ix(2)), p.
777.
6 SRO, D/P/cas 4/1/3.
7 Ann. Rep. Bath & Wells Dioc. Assoc. SPCK. (1826).
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the Independent Sunday school and 11 day schools taught 59 boys and 75 girls at their parents’ expense. One school had 50 children and another 10 infants.
8 There was a British day school for boys at Zion Chapel from the late 1830s, originally kept by the minister, which closed c.1856.
9
In 1840 Sunday school girls were taught in church between services, 10 but the boys were taught by
James Edwards at his house in Florida to which he added a large schoolroom where he kept a boys’ commercial boarding and day school. In 1842 the Sunday school moved to the new National School premises.
11 A second school was built in Florida before 1850 by Richard John Meade, vicar 1845—80, to prepare infants for the National School, where they moved temporarily in 1868—9 during the illness of their mistress.
12 In 1869 it was placed under government inspection and in 1872 it was said the schoolroom, 30 ft. by 15 ft., should have no more than 57 occupants, including infants under 3. In
1874—5 the school closed because of an outbreak of scarlet fever and was used as a cottage hospital.
The infant school reopened in 1875 in the Zion Sunday schoolroom before moving to the National
School site in July 1876.
13 The old school was used as an armoury by the 1890s, for cookery classes in the 1920s, and later became an institute, probably for adult classes. Known as Florida Hall, it was taken over by Pithers as a furniture store from 1942 until 1951.
14 It was used as changing rooms by the
Rugby Club until 1982 and later converted into a dwelling.
15
National and Board Schools
8 Abstract of Educational Returns (Parl. Papers 1835 (62) xlii), p. 798.
9 Castle Cary Visitor Aug. 1909, Nov. 1910.
10 SRO, D/D/Va 1/4.
11 Castle Cary Visitor Feb. 1898; Bragg, Dir. Som. (1840); Hunt, Dir. Som. (1850).
12 Hunt, Dir. Som. (1850); Castle Cary Visitor April, June, July, Sep. 1903, March 1906.
13 Castle Cary Visitor Sep. 1902, May, June 1909.
14 Ibid. Jan. 1903; Smith & Co. Dir. Som. (1865—6); Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1894); Living History Group,
Memories of Castle Cary and Ansford, 97.
OS Map 1:2500, Som. LXV.5 (1930 edn); SRO, DD/X/WI 22.
15 SRO, D/P/cas 5/5/7.
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Two of the ten teachers recorded in 1841 apparently taught at the new National school, which had separate classrooms for boys and girls.
16 In 1844 teacher’s accommodation designed by Abraham
Bryant was built above the school.
17 In 1846 the boy’s school had 50 pupils who attended daily and on
Sundays, a further 29 who did not attend on Sundays, and 54 who attended on Sundays only. In the girl’s school the figures were 45, 24, and 77 respectively. During the winter an evening school taught
15 boys and 5 girls.
18 From 1853 until 1891 the National School received money given by Mary
Woodforde for the infant school but during the 20 th century the money was used for the Sunday school and had been exhausted by 1998. Another charity, later the Old National School foundation, was established in 1874 to ensure the continuation of the Sunday school and the instruction of the poor.
19
The evening school continued and 40 children attended in 1865.
20 Numbers dropped when new dame schools opened in the early 1860s but the 1867 Factory Act led to an influx of child workers who attended school for half the day and were said to be very backward. By 1870 there were 151 children of whom 33 were half-timers but in 1872 there were 295 children on the books including 129 infants.
21
The school was enlarged in 1876 to accommodate 250 children and 150 infants from Castle Cary and
Ansford, but average attendance in 1883 was 170 and 80 respectively. In 1886 there were only 96 girls on the books compared with 164 boys and 146 infants. The teacher removed the names of girls who worked in the factories and ceased to attend and complained that school attendance was not enforced as only half the girls remaining on the register attended regularly. By 1888 the authorities had taken action and attendance improved.
22
16 TNA, HO 107/937.
17 SRO, DD/EDS C. Cary; J.B.B. Clarke, An account of the church education among the poor in the diocese of
Bath and Wells, in the year 1846 (1847), 36; Castle Cary Visitor April 1909.
18 Nat. Soc. Inquiry 1846-7, Som. 4—5.
19 SRO, D/P/ans 18/3/1; Char. Com. Reg.
20 Report of the Royal Commission on Children, Young Persons, and Women in Agriculture (Parl. Papers
1868—9 (4202), xiii), p. 495; Castle Cary Visitor May 1903.
21 Castle Cary Visitor July, Sep. 1902.
22 Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1883, 1894); Castle Cary Visitor Feb. 1896; Dec. 1902; July 1909.
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In 1889, following financial difficulties, a school board, with five members, was formed and took over the National school. Evening continuation classes including art, nursing, and cookery were held in the
1890s and the Sunday school and temperance society also used the buildings.
23 In 1903 average attendance was 275, falling to 204 in 1925. From 1941 the school took juniors only and in 1955 there were 169 children. Numbers fluctuated thereafter rising to a peak of 245 in 1975. There were an estimated 198 on the register in 2001.
24
There was no day school at Alford in 1818 but 10—14 children attended a Sunday school, said to provide all the education the poor required, but parents did not enforce regular attendance.
25 The
Sunday school had 21 pupils in 1825 26 and 38 in 1835, paid for mainly by the rector 27 although for several years from 1836 the churchwarden contributed 10s. a year.
28 There was no school at Alford thereafter children being taught probably at Hornblotton c.1847
29 and later at Lovington school.
30
In the early 18th century James Woodforde was said to have attended a school in Ansford kept by
Martha Morris, later wife and victim of Reginald Tucker. There was a school in 1775 31 but none in
1819.
32 By 1835 two Sunday schools taught 15 girls and 8 boys and two dame schools taught 15 girls
23 Castle Cary Visitor March 1896; SRO, C/E 4/380/66.
24 SRO, C/E 4/64, 4/380/66.
25 Digest of Returns to the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224) ix(2)), p.
771.
26 Ann. Rep. Bath & Wells Dioc. Assoc. SPCK 1825—6. (1826).
27 Abstract of Educational Returns (Parl. Papers 1835 (62) xlii), p. 790.
28 SRO, D/P/alf 4/1/1.
29 Nat. Soc. Schs. Inquiry, 1846—7, Som. 2—3.
30 Morris & Co. Dir. Som. (1872).
31 Parson Woodforde Soc. Jnl. VI (4), 13, 61.
32 Digest of Returns to the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224) ix(2)), p.
771; Ann. Rep. Bath & Wells Dioc. Assoc. SPCK. (1826).
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and 15 boys.
33 One Sunday school applied for union with the National Society in 1837 34 and was the only school recorded in 1847, with 33 pupils.
35 In 1843 the children were taught reading and the catechism in church at the rector’s expense.
36 In 1851 Maria Coleman, a labourer’s wife, was the schoolmistress and was still teaching in 1881.
37
A National school with one classroom opened in 1890 north of the church 38 and c. 40 children transferred from Castle Cary.
39 From 1891 the school received half the income of Mary Woodforde’s education charity.
40 In 1903 there were two teachers and 51 children. The infants learnt embroidery and mat weaving and an evening school was kept. Average attendance was 39, falling to 26 in 1925, and 16 in 1935. From 1930 only juniors attended. It closed in 1967 and the 36 children transferred to
Castle Cary.
41 The building became a dwelling called Old School House.
42
A secondary modern school at Ansford to serve the Castle Cary area was planned in 1931.
43 It was built in 1940 in Maggs Lane and had 109 pupils in 1941, rising to 335 in 1951, 456 in 1965, 598 in
1985, and 610 in 1998 when there were 34 teachers and 33 other staff. By 2002 there were c. 700 pupils. In 1994 Ansford Community School began exchanges with Mufulira school, Zambia.
44
33 Abstract of Educational Returns (Parl. Papers 1835 (62) xlii), p. 790.
34 SRO, D/P/ans 18/9/1.
35 Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846—7, Som. 2—3.
36 SRO, D/D/Va 2/4.
37 TNA, HO 107/1931; ibid. RG 9/1646; RG 10/2421; RG 11/2395.
38 Said to be the site of Reginald Tucker’s house: Parson Woodforde Soc. Jnl. VI (4), 31, where the date is given in error as 1850.
39 Castle Cary Visitor July 1901; SRO, D/P/ans 18/11/1.
40 SRO, D/P/ans 18/3/1.
41 Ibid. C/E 4/380/5; 4/64.
42 Ibid. A/AGH 1/5.
43 Ibid. D/PC/k.man 1/2/1.
44 Ibid. C/E 4/64; C/EDSA 4/1; D/PC/cas 2/2/24; Mid Somerset Series 12 March 1998.
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John Whitehead, who died in 1715, gave land in Foddington in Babcary to provide an income to school poor children. James Clark gave a house for a school house, which was used until c.1823. From
1757 seven or eight children were taught to read and sew on weekdays. In 1798 it was said that numbers of children were declining leaving only infants ‘uncapable of learning’. Coats were offered as an inducement to attend. In 1811 children were still being sent too young so it was decided to have school only on Sundays and clothing was given to the mistress and the children. About 1823 the school house was let to the overseers as a poorhouse, thus providing an increased salary for a mistress to teach both on weekdays and Sundays. About 1824 ten or twelve children attended regularly and were taught to read, say prayers, and repeat the Church catechism; girls were taught to knit and sew.
45
In 1835 there were 19 children attending on weekdays and 18 on Sundays.
46 A school house was built in 1840 47 or 1845 48 for what was described as a medial or union school to serve Lovington, Alford, and Hornblotton. By 1846 pupils paid either 6 d. or 1½ d. and were taught by a master of questionable attainments and a female monitor who was intelligent and informed. The children paying the smaller fee were neglected. The school was united with the National Society and taught 44 children who attended on Sundays only and 32 who went on weekdays and Sundays.
49 The charity capital was vested in the Charity Commissioners before 1870.
50
45 Digest of Returns to the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224) ix(2)), p.
788; 11 th Rep. Com. Char. 399—400; Collinson, Hist. Som. II, 83.
46 Abstract of Educational Returns (Parl. Papers 1835 (62) xlii), p. 812.
47 Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1894).
48 SRO, C/E 4/380/237.
49 J.B.B. Clarke, Account of Church Education among Poor (1847); Nat. Soc. Inquiry, 1846—7, Som. 10—
11.
50 Bd. in ch.
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A night school was opened in 1872 but attendance was poor because of farming demands and children were described as ‘extremely dull and very backward’.
51 In 1903 there were 53 children on the books and two teachers shared a single classroom.
52 Numbers fell over the next three decades and from 1939 only infants and juniors were taken. By 1965 the school had adopted Voluntary Controlled status and after 1985 its numbers expanded.
53 In 1997, with 84 pupils, four teachers and four classroom assistants, it was adjudged excellent.
54 The school occupied the 1840s building and additional temporary buildings.
These were mostly in Castle Cary where farmers and townspeople with the means could have their children educated. The early school in particular were mainly for boys. A day school was held in a room over the market house in the 1740s and a boarding school was kept between 1763 and 1775 by
John Tidcombe who took boys for £10 a year.
55 William Paul, a Congregational minister, kept his boys’ boarding school in South Cary, described as an English, Classical, and Mathematical Academy, from the 1790s probably until 1836 when he died. In 1791 he charged twelve guineas a year and for a further two guineas a clergyman would teach Latin and Greek. Mathematics, shorthand
(‘brachygraphy’), merchants’ accounts, music, and dancing were also extra. In 1794 he advertised for a second-hand printing press for his Academy. Frederick Smith continued the school until 1843 or later, possibly assisted by William Paige, retired Congregational minister. The school had 18 boys in
1833 when three other boarding schools taught 31 boys and 11 girls.
56 Thomas Lamb failed to agree
51 SRO, A/ACT 1 (log bk).
52 Ibid. C/E 4/380/237.
53 Ibid. C/E 4/64.
54 Western Gazette 19 June 1997.
55 Memoirs of Robert Clarke (1829), 8; Castle Cary Visitor Jan. 1914; 11 th Report of the Charity
Commissioners for England and Wales (Parl Papers 1824), 399.
56 SRO, D/N/scu 7/2/4; ibid. DD/SAS (C/212), survey 1810; Univ. Brit. Dir. (1793—8); Pigot, Nat. & Com.
Dir. (1830, 1842); TNA, HO 107/937; Castle Cary Visitor, July 1897, June 1904, Jan. 1912, June 1914, March
1915; Hants. RO 30M73/F1, pp. 55, 58; F2; Educ. Enq. Abstract (1835), p. 798.
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terms to take over from Smith and opened a school opposite the Methodist chapel whose schoolroom he rented in 1844, probably in succession to James Stockman who held day and evening schools there in 1841.
57 Lamb closed his school in 1845 and the Revd. Robert Sharman opened a replacement only to give it up in 1846 to sell potions.
58
The Misses Armitage kept a ladies boarding school in 1806, possibly in succession to Miss Mogg’s school recorded in 1796, and offered lessons in English grammar, French, drawing, music and dancing. They moved to Langport in 1810.
59 In the 1840s there were short-lived boarding and day schools in Bailey Hill, High Street, Fore Street, and Chapel Yard, South Cary. James Edwards kept a boys’ school at Florida but had to leave the country and in 1849—50 John Aaron Lander kept a medial school there.
60 In 1851 John Webb 61 taught English, Latin, Greek, and mathematics and his wife Mary taught English, French, Italian, and music.
Mary Anne and Charlotte Burge kept a school in High Street and Mary Longman (d. 1866) and her daughter taught English, French, and music and had three girls boarding.
62 Anne Longman continued the girls’ school at Park Villa until the 1880s and her brother Stephen (d. 1885), a retired Catholic priest, taught boys.
63 Emily Bishop’s ladies seminary was open by 1859, although the boarders included young boys in 1861.
64 It was probably continued in South Cary by Frances Read who was
57 Castle Cary Visitor March 1897, Aug. 1909; Som. Co. Herald 19 May 1939; TNA, HO 107/937; Hants. RO
30M73/ F2.
58 Castle Cary Visitor Jan. 1912; Hants RO 30M73/ F2.
59 Castle Cary Visitor Feb. 1906, Jan. 1910, March 1915.
60 Ibid. June 1904, June 1909, Jan. 1912; Bragg, Dir. Som. (1840); Pigot, Nat. & Com. Dir. (1842); Hunt, Dir.
Som. (1850); Hants. RO 30M73/ F2.
61 Probably a Congregational minister: SRO, D/N/scu 7/2/4.
62 TNA, HO 107/1931; Castle Cary Visitor Jan. 1912.
63 PO Dir. Som. (1859); Smith &Co. Dir. Som. (1865—6); Morris & Co. Dir. Som. (1872); TNA, RG
11/2395; Castle Cary Visitor Jan. 1902.
64 PO Dir. Som. (1859); Smith & Co. Dir. Som. (1865—6); TNA, RG 9/1646.
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succeeded by the Beake family. The school moved from South Cary House to Weymouth before
1891.
65
Between 1858 and 1865 James Grosvenor, a Congregational minister, kept a boys' boarding school at
South Cary, possibly a revival of William Paul’s academy.
66 After closing for a while it was re-opened before 1881 for both sexes and by 1891 in addition to female boarders taught nearly 100 day boys.
67
The school was given up c.1893 because of competition from Sexey’s school in Bruton and the
Grosvenors emigrated to California but returned in 1895 68 and revived the school for girls. By 1901 the Grosvenors occupied one house with a French and German teacher and two female pupils while their daughter occupied the house next door with a music teacher and two more female boarders.
69 In
1905, when they also taught small boys, there were c. 20 pupils.
70 Mrs Grosvenor, followed by her daughter Marianne with Ethel Roberts, continued the girls’ school at Southend house and later at
Scotland House, former home of the Mackies, until 1948 or later.
71 Known in the 1890s as the Girls
School Home, it prepared pupils for Trinity College and London College of music and offered lessons in painting in oils and watercolours, arithmetic, bookkeeping, and Latin. A vicar choral of Wells gave singing and violin lessons.
72 In the late 1920s young boys were again taught and the school had c. 30 pupils.
73
65 Castle Cary Visitor April 1900; Morris & Co. Dir. Som. (1872); TNA, RG 10/2422; RG 11/2395; RG
12/1901.
66 Castle Cary Visitor March 1900; PO Dir. Som. (1859); Smith & Co. Dir. Som. (1865—6); TNA, RG
9/1646.
67 TNA, RG 11/2395; RG 12/1901.
68 Castle Cary Visitor May 1912.
69 TNA, RG 13/2303.
70 Living History Group, Time to Reflect, 91.
71 Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1894—1939); SRO A/AGH 1/63; Living History Group, Memories of Ansford and
Castle Cary, 35, 113.
72 Castle Cary Visitor Feb 1896.
73 Miller & Laver, Castle Cary, North Cadbury, and Wincanton, 70.
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A private infant school was recorded between 1851 and 1872, 74 a day school in Fore Street and a boys’ school at Bailey Hill between 1871 and 1881, and a dame school in Knights Yard off Market Place in
1881.
75
Private education continued into the 20th century. Between 1894 and 1905 a ladies boarding collegiate school was kept by Emma Maidment in the Old Bank House, High Street.
76 In 1906 there was a preparatory school at Cumnock Terrace, possibly in succession to one kept there in the 1880s by the
Congregational minister.
77 Hillcrest school started in a flat in the former Ansford inn c.1953 with 16 children aged 4 to 8. In 1958 the Rectory and its outbuildings were acquired. A swimming pool was opened in 1966 and an octagonal hall in 1973. In 1974 Hillcrest taught 125 children up to 12. It was part of King’s School, Bruton in the late 1980s but closed c.1991.
78
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74 TNA, HO 107/1931; ibid. RG 9/1646; RG 10/2422; PO Dir. Som. (1866); Morris & Co. Dir. Som. (1872).
Kept by Martha Minifie (d. 1897): Castle Cary Visitor July 1909.
75 TNA, RG 10/2422; RG 11/2395; Castle Cary Visitor Sep. 1909.
76 Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1894); TNA, RG 13/2303; Castle Cary Visitor July 1909.
77 Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1906); Castle Cary Visitor June 1903.
78 Castle Cary Past and Present (1974), unpaginated; The Independent Schools of Som. and Gloucs. (after
1967, c. 1986); SRO, D/PC/cas 2/2/11, 23; ibid. A/AGH 1/5; Char. Com. Reg.
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