|
Education
in our area has
a very early beginning. Oswestry
Free
School, independent of the church of England, was founded in 1407. This gives it
the distinction of being the
second-oldest 'free' school in the country, between Winchester College,
founded
in 1382, and Eton
College, in 1440. Shrewsbury
School was founded in 1552 and
the late comer, Ellesmere College, was opened in 1879.
In
1643, when Cromwell`s
army captured Shrewsbury, the Rev Thomas Challoner, headmaster of
Shrewsbury
School, was expelled from the town but took up residence, in Ruyton XI
Towns,
unfortunately we do not know where exactly but it was only for 7 months. After the Restoration Rev.
Challoner was
re-instated as headmaster of Shrewsbury School.
In
1851 there is a brief
mention in Kelly`s Directory of the Rev David Harris, pastor of the
Independent
Chapel, who ran a boarding school.
On
16th
January 1818, the two maiden ladies of Ruyton Hall, Miss Margaret and
Miss Anne
Kinaston, sold land for a token sum, at Park Gates
called Mill Green Scarow for the sole purpose
of the education of boys and girls under the umbrella of the “National Society for the Promotion of the
Poor in the Principles of the Established Church of England”. As well as Miss Margaret
and Miss Anne, the
other trustees, who were to oversee the building of the school, were
Hon.
Thomas Kenyon of Pradoe, Rowland Hunt of Boreatton Hall and the Rev.
David
Evans, vicar of Ruyton.
The
list of subscribers
to raise the funds to build the school and the Master`s house reads
like a
Who`s Who of Ruyton and district landowners and people of influence. The name which intrigued
me was the Earl of
Bridgewater, why should such a grand person put £100 into our little
school? It
seems that as a young man, Francis
Egerton, had been Rector of Myddle so would probably be known to the
Hunts,
Kenyons, Walfords and Kinastons.
Another
major donor was
the late Andrew Newton of Lichfield (home of our Bishop) who left a
trust which
subsidised many
worthy projects in the
diocese.
The
Master`s house was
completed in 1819-21 which is when the school actually opened for
business.
The
Kinaston sisters both
wrote their wills on 22nd June 1827, each
leaving £100 to the
trustees for the school. However,
it was
not until 1845, when Miss Margaret Kinaston`s will was proved, that the
legacies became available when their cousin and executrix, Anna Maria
Middleton,
passed the money to the trustees, plus another £100 because of the
delay.
One
of the earliest
teachers was James Cooper, or Cowper, who had more interest in local
history
than teaching the children in the school.
While Robert Lloyd Kenyon poured over dusty court rolls
and ancient
documents, James Cooper (as Kenyon always wrote his name) recorded
stories told
by his mother and other villagers, so bringing academic and social
history
together.
The
1870 Education Act
stands as the first legislation to deal with the provision of universal
education in Britain. Most
importantly,
it demonstrated a commitment to provision on a national scale. The children had to pay 1p
a week until 1991
when education became free.
The
Act was reflected two
years later with the appointment of Walter Burr, a 22 year old
bachelor, fresh
out of college, who arrived like a `new broom,` full of zeal and new
learning. The
children were no longer to be taught in a
haphazard way by anyone who could read and write and needed a job. Walter made so many
changes and improvements,
the villagers and their children must not have known what hit them!
YB
 |
||
