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History of Schools in Ottery St Mary

Parochial or National Schools

In 1813 the Feoffees converted former dwelling houses in Yonder Street into a school with one schoolroom on each of the two floors, the upper one for boys and the lower for girls. The school is described as a tall, thatched building with an inscription on the front “Train up a child in the way it should go”. It stood on the site of the present school in yonder Street. According to Lysons in Magna Britannica published in 1822, the school was conducted on Bell’s system and there were at that time 170 children in the school.

On 25th May 1866 at about 12.30pm a fire broke out in the cottage adjoining the school on the east, and destroyed not only the school but a considerable number of houses from the seat of the fire to the bottom of the town. The school was closed for the dinner break but the few country children taking their meal in the school unattended were evacuated and a few books were saved including the log books which record something of the disaster.

The school was reopened on 11th June in temporary premises not identified at the back of a house in Broad Street, which was hastily adapted to provide two schoolrooms.

On 13th March 1867 the Girls and Infants moved into the new school built by Sir John Coleridge in Sandhill Street consisting of a schoolroom and a classroom, the Boys continuing in Broad Street in both schoolrooms. On 24th June 1868 the Boys occupied the new school built for them by the Church Authorities on the site of the old school. This, though somewhat larger than the Girls School, also consisted of a schoolroom and classroom, the latter as also at the Girls School being fitted with a gallery.

From before 1866 the Girls School took the Infants of both sexes from 3 years old and the Boys transferred to the Boys School at 6 years old. This arrangement continued until the new Infants School was built and occupied in 1877.

After the 1902 Act both schools became Voluntary Church Schools maintained, so far as it was their responsibility, by the LEA, and remained so until the Girls, in 1940, and the Boys, in 1941, became Council schools, the LEA leasing the premises from Lord Coleridge and the Church Authorities, respectively. Both schools became Junior schools from January 1948, when the senior pupils were transferred to Sidmouth. They remained separate Boys and Girls schools until 1966 when they were amalgamated as one mixed Junior school and Boys and Girls in both buildings.

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Board/County Infants School

A School Board for Ottery Parish was formed in 1874 who set about the provision of two new schools, one at West Hill and the other in the town for Infants. The Infants School was built on a site facing Tip Hill and consisted of a schoolroom and classroom, and was opened on 22nd January 1877 with 79 children on the first day.

This school continued in this building which remained structurally unchanged until the end of December 1968.

A new school for four classes of Infants and designed as the nucleus of a new County Primary School was built by the education authority towards the east end of Longdogs Lane and opened on 13th January 1969.

British School

The Directory of 1857 states “The British School is a neat brick building erected in 1845” and that there were then 80 pupils. Earlier Directories mention the school as being in Bass or Batts Lane, but by 1870 the school is no longer mentioned and would appear to have ceased in the 1860s. A deed of 1878 conveying the site for the Baptist Chapel (now the First Station) comprised also a building started to have been a schoolroom. Just before 1870 the Baptists established a school in Batts Lane, and in 1878 built a new one beside the one already in use. It is evident therefore that the chapel established before 1870 was held in the former schoolroom which, when the chapel was occupied, became the Sunday schoolrooms.

The establishment of a Baptist Chapel in Batts Lane in a former schoolroom coincident with the demise of the British School is evidence for the probability that the building adjoining the Chapel built in 1878 was the British School. The Chapel bears the date 1878 on the foundation stones, but no inscription appears on the front of the schoolrooms, and it is evident that the schoolrooms were provided with a new façade to match the style of the new Chapel.

The location of the former school building should be described as fronting on to the west side of Batts Lane, north of the former Chapel and separated from it be (sic) a narrow passage, the old Chapel of 1878 construction itself being separated from Brook Lane by what was once the yard of the Chapel and is now an open space.

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St Andrew’s Infant School

This school is said to have been built and supported by the Reverend Richard Podmore who was Curate at Ottery from just before 1850 and who lived at St Andrew’s Cottage, Butts Hill. The school he built in 1850 is the small stone building attached to the house on its south end, and which was later in this century used by the Roman Catholics as a Chapel when they occupied the house and renamed it St Anthony’s. A tablet in the wall is inscribed “St Mary Ottery Infant School AD 1850”.

The school seems not to have survived the departure of the Curate for, by 1866, there was a Ladies School at St Andrew’s Cottage.

Church Union Infants School, Mill Street

An Infants school, described as a Church Union school, is recorded in the Directories from 1850 to 1870 inclusive, in the last of which its location is given as Mill Street. It would undoubtedly have closed after the School Board was formed or at the latest when the Board opened the new Infants school in 1877.

The designation “Church Union” so far as Devon is concerned is found only in the parish of Ottery. Three schools were so-called, the one in Mill Street, and the Infants Schools at West Hill and Wiggaton. At West Hill the school was built on to a cottage, and on a site owned by Sir John Kennaway, therefore no doubt provided at his expense, and at Wiggaton the school was provided by him. The inference is that all three schools were provided by him, and that the designation has a significance associated with his known Low-Church tendencies, and perhaps represents an early attempt to bridge the gap between Church and Chapel which had such a harmful effect on public education in its early days.

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Alfington

A Church school was built at the same time as, and adjoining, the Church at Alfington in 1849, both provided at the expense of the Hon. Mr Justice Coleridge, and designed by Butterfield.

After the 1902 Act, under the LEA the school continued as a Voluntary Church school until it was closed in 1942.

Tipton St John

A National or Church school was built adjoining the Chapel of Ease, as it was then, in 1843. It was originally a two-storey building with the Infants occupying the upstairs room. In 1890 the upper flower was removed and an Infants classroom built on to the main building.

Under the LEA, after the 1902 Act, the school continued as a Voluntary Church school. It became a Junior or Primary school in 1946 when the seniors were transferred elsewhere.

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Taleford (or Escot)

The precise date of establishment of the school at Taleford is not known but references in the Escot Estate account books to provision of bricks, timber and windows with various dates in 1832 indicate that considerable work on the building was done in that year. The Directory of 1857 states that the school was erected by the late Sir John Kennaway which must refer to the first baronet who died in 1836. The date of establishment of the school is probably 1832 and from the appearance of the building s it is now, it is likely that an existing building was converted for the p
purpose.

An infants classroom was added in 1902. The school, sometimes in the last century referred to as a National School (rather because of its association with the Church, than for any legal significance in the term) continued as a Voluntary school under the LEA after the Act of 1902. In 1946 the school was officially closed though the actual transfer of the pupils to the Ottery school took place in 1944.

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Wiggaton

The Kennaway papers in the County Record Office include an account book which contains the following items:

March, 1832                Paid Ware for house, Wiggaton                                    £30
September, 1832          On account for Clapp for Wiggaton School                   £20
                                    Mr W Cornish for deal £15 . 7 . 0) used for fridge
                                    Paid for donkey                        £1 . 10. 0) and window school
April, 1833                   Clapp’s balance for Wiggaton School               £27.3.5

This gives an interesting picture of how a school and accommodation for the teacher, could be provided in the early part of the 19th Century, and it is clear that an existing building was purchased by the first Sir John Kennaway, who adapted it for the purpose of a school, as he had done at Taleford in the same year. The reference to the bridge is significant as it gives more certainty in the identification of the school building which existed within living memory.

In 1969 an old school building stood on the right of the lane from Wiggaton to East hill and just 175 yards from the main road. It was a white rendered, two-storeyed building of about 20’ by 12’, lying between the vehicular entrance and the road end of Higher Barnes Farm. In the west wall was a small pointed floor and there were two pointed windows on the lane or north side, evident from inside, but now blocked up. A pleasant feature of the hamlet is the stream which runs beside the lane up to this point, but where once was a ford and a footbridge, the steam has been taken under the road by culvert. By 1970 the old school building had been demolished and what was originally Higher Barnes Farm is now Gaywood Nurseries.

The first reference in Directories to this school by name is that in the Directory of 1870 where it is called a Church Union School, but the Directory of 1857 mentions Church Union schools collectively in the town and parish for children up to the age of 6 or 7. It is only in the parish of Ottery where the term Church Union is applied to schools, and its significance is not clear. After 1870 the term is no longer used for the Wiggaton School and thereafter it is termed a National school, rather from its association with the Church, than for any legal significance, as there is no evidence, and indeed it is extremely unlikely, that it was associated with the National Society.

The registers of the Ottery Schools record admissions from this school from 1874 up to 1900. Kelly’s Directory of 1902 mentions it, and it is fairly safe to assume that it was closed in 1902 when responsibility for maintaining schools devolved upon the County Authority as a result of the Education Act of 1902. Such a small school in such premises (there was an average of 16 attending the school at the time) would hardly be recognised by the Authority and it was not, in fact, taken over.

Mrs Northcott still lived in Wiggaton in 19780 (sic) and as the daughter of the farmer, was brought up at Higher Barnes Farm, went to school here before moving on to a school in the town at the age of 9. From her description, the schoolroom occupied the ground floor and the mistress had the use of the two rooms upstairs, and the Schoolroom when not otherwise occupied. Until the brick built Chapel of Ease was opened in 1893 the schoolroom was also used for church services. She confirmed that there were two windows on the north side but none on the south, and that when the school closed it was sold to become part of the farm buildings.

Towards the end of its career the school was intended for Infants only, and it is likely that in the beginning the tendency was for older children to transfer to the larger schools at Ottery as certainly was the case by the 1870s.

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West Hill

A small school, probably for Infants only, was provided at West Hill in a small room built on to an existing cottage on the left of the road between the village and Foxenhole Mills. It has not been possible to determine just when this school was established except that the building had not been erected in 1843, the date of the Tithe map, and that the school was probably there by 1857. It was described as a Church Union school, a designation found only, so far as the County is concerned, in the parish of Ottery and the Directory of 1857 refers to “Church Union Schools in town and parish” which would include Wiggaton and an Infants school in the town, as already noted.

In this case, as that of Wiggaton, the school was almost certainly provided by Sir John Kennaway. Sir John owned the land and the cottage and the school building remained his property.

The cottage, now known as Breaches, shown on the Tithe map as No. 3331 was then occupied by John Clay and it was Mrs Clay who taught at the school. The schoolroom was built on to the east side of the cottage in stone and cob with a thatched roof. The schoolroom was demolished about 50 years ago according to the present owners but internal dimensions, from the foundations which are still visible, were about 18’ by 16’. From information from local residents it seems the school continued until a new school was provided by the Board in 1876.

The School Board purchased a site opposite the church and a school consisting of schoolroom and classroom with a teacher’s house attached was built and occupied in July 1876. The school was for all ages. It became a Council School after the 1902 Act and in 1934 the senior boys were transferred to Ottery. The school continued as a school for all ages for girls and a Junior and Infants school for boys until January 1948 when the senior girls transferred to Sidmouth. Since that date the school has provided for Juniors and Infants.

Copied from pp. 238-243 in “HISTORICAL NOTES ON DEVON SCHOOLS”
Published by Devon County Books in 1989.

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