EDUCATION
Earls Colne Grammer school,
which had been endowed c. 1519 and, after sev-
eral vicissitudes, closed in 1884, was re-opened
in new buildings in York Road in 1893. (fn. 35) Under
a Scheme of 1909 four of the eight governors
were appointed by the County Council, and 25
per cent of the pupils came from elementary
schools. Financial problems in the 1920s were
overcome by the sale of the school's estates
under a Scheme of 1926, and by gifts totalling
£2,000 from Reuben Hunt. Numbers rose
steadily to 131 pupils, in accommodation for
only 80, in 1926, but fell in the 1930s. The
school, by then classified as deficiency aided and
almost entirely funded by the County Council,
was adapted to specialize in agricultural sci-
ences. In 1947 it became Voluntarily Controlled.
In 1958 there were 258 pupils and the school
was very overcrowded. New buildings were
added in 1966, and the school flourished until
1975 when, despite local opposition, it closed as
a result of the introduction of comprehensive
secondary education. (fn. 36)
Between 1753 and 1939 several private day or
boarding schools, mainly for girls, were estab-
lished in the parish. They included one run by
members of the Mann family at Priory Farm,
Colne green, from the 1890s until 1917. (fn. 37)
A Quaker school was recorded in 1810 and
1818. (fn. 38) A Baptist Sunday school, started before
1816, had c. 90 pupils in 1829, 134 in 1833, and
80-90 in 1841, including children from neigh-
bouring parishes. (fn. 39) The British school recorded
in 1860 was probably that on Colneford hill, in
White Colne, which served all the Colne par-
ishes from 1850 to 1874. (fn. 40)
In 1813 the parish church opened a Sunday
and day school for 180, maintained by public
contributions; it was a National school in 1814.
The day school closed in 1817, but 50 boys and
40 girls attended the Sunday school in 1818. (fn. 41)
In 1837 the vicar's wife ran a school of industry
for 44 girls. In 1838 Mary Gee of Colne House
founded and maintained an infants' school for
100 children on the workhouse site; by 1844
some older girls also attended. (fn. 42) Those schools
were presumably the day school for 50 girls and
the infants' school for 72 boys and 48 girls
reported in 1841, when Mary Gee also sup-
ported an evening school for 40 men and boys. (fn. 43)
By deed poll of 1868 Mary Gee's executors con-
veyed her school house in trust to the vicar. It
may have been used as a girls' and infants'
department of the National school in Park Lane
until its sale in 1871. (fn. 44)
In 1843 the vicar, Robert Watkinson, built a
boys' day school in Park Lane which he and his
wife maintained until her death in 1870. It was
settled in trust in 1871. In 1872 another school,
with two classrooms for 157 girls and infants,
was built nearby with the proceeds of the sale
of Mary Gee's school house and donations from
the National Society, the Diocesan Board of
Education, and the vicar. (fn. 45) By the 1870s the
schools were being used in the evenings and on
Sundays as well as during the week. The boys'
school was enlarged in 1875, the girls' in 1893. (fn. 46)
By 1909 there was accommodation for c. 260
children, 40 from outside the parish, but the
schools were overcrowded and younger boys
were moved into the girls' school. The school
buildings were condemned by the local authority
in 1909, but the managers could not raise the
money for new ones, and in 1922 agreed to lease
them to the local authority as a temporary
Council school. From 1933 the school was leased
to Essex County Council for 5s. a year. (fn. 47) In 1930
the boys', girls', and infants' departments were
amalgamated into a Mixed school with infants,
which in 1938 was reorganized for juniors and
infants as a County Primary. A wooden building
was erected on the opposite side of Park Lane
in 1938; demountable and relocatable class-
rooms were added before 1974 to provide
accommodation for the younger children. A new
school was built on the north side of Park Lane
in 1983, and the buildings on the south side of
the road were sold. (fn. 48)
In 1860 another church school was established
in Coggeshall Road to cater for c. 80 infants who
lived too far away to attend the village school.
It received an annual government grant from
1878, and was recorded as a Mixed school from
1882. Numbers fluctuated between 35 and 44
during the 1880s and declined to 27 in 1901. (fn. 49)
In 1921 the school was taken over as a temporary
council school. It closed in 1931 and the children
were transferred to Park Lane school. (fn. 50)