EDUCATION
A licensed schoolmaster was
recorded in Cottenham from 1579. (fn. 89) The master
in 1596 taught in a 'chapel' (fn. 90) apparently at
the west end of the parish church, since the
schoolroom is said to have been destroyed by
the fall of the church tower in 1617. (fn. 91) An
unlicensed teacher was at work in 1619 (fn. 92) and
some sort of regular school presumably continued, since by 1640 the ordermakers held
meetings in the school house. (fn. 93) By 1685, however, there was only a dame school, (fn. 94) and in 1697
the lady of the manor, Catherine Pepys, rebuilt
the schoolroom in the churchyard on the northwest side of the church. (fn. 95) She endowed the
school in her will, proved 1703, with £100 and
the reversion of a commonable house. (fn. 96) The
money was put with £45 given for the poor and
£5 from the churchwardens to buy land in
Bottisham in 1713. Two thirds of the income
was used to pay a master to teach 16 poor boys
free. (fn. 97) Mrs. Pepys had nominated the first master
in 1703 and stipulated that his successors were
to be born in Cottenham, a rule observed until
1828. (fn. 98)
Pepys's school was further endowed under the
will of her granddaughter Alice Rogers, proved
1728, who gave £10 to teach five additional poor
boys reading, writing, and accounts. (fn. 99) By 1742
the school had been moved to the vestry, probably in the north porch of the church, (fn. 1) and by
1783 to the master's house in Church End given
by Catherine Pepys. The front of the house was
rebuilt as a schoolroom in 1834 with money
provided by Moreton's charity. (fn. 2) In 1818 the
master received a salary of £50 for teaching 21
poor boys, (fn. 3) and by 1837 there were 49 other
pupils who paid fees. (fn. 4) In 1873 the school had
places for 80 boys and an average attendance of
64. It was reported as inefficient in 1878 and
closed in 1880, when the pupils transferred to
the board school; the master, possibly only
the fifth since 1703, was paid off, and the
endowments were applied to payments for good
attendance at the board school. (fn. 5)
A school for dissenters had 15 pupils in 1728. (fn. 6) Numerous unendowed schools flourished in the
19th century. By 1818 there were six, teaching
c. 150 children, and the rector thought that the
poorer classes were well provided for. (fn. 7) Ten day
schools, teaching 278 pupils, were recorded in
1833. (fn. 8) The proportion of boys aged 5-13 at
school rose from 58 per cent in 1851 to 80 per
cent in 1861, and of girls from 54 per cent to 91
per cent. (fn. 9) Their schools included several dame
schools for infants and two dissenting boys'
schools, one run by the sons of the minister of
Ebenezer Baptist chapel. (fn. 10)
A church school for girls, teaching mainly
needlework, was opened by the rector c. 1852 (fn. 11) and enlarged in 1860 in a purpose-built schoolroom opposite the church. (fn. 12) The building was
also used for a Sunday school established by the
curate in the early 1830s. (fn. 13) The day school,
which had 77 pupils in 1873, (fn. 14) closed in 1878
when the girls were transferred to the board
school. (fn. 15)
A British school was opened in 1865. (fn. 16) It
occupied a new building for 300 in Margett
Street, which also contained a hall for public
lectures and entertainments accommodating 500.
Building costs were met mostly by local subscriptions, running costs by fees. (fn. 17) Over 200
pupils, some from other villages, were enrolled
in the first year, and after an increase to over
250 in 1867 an infants' schoolroom was added.
A school board was formed in 1873 under
nonconformist control, and the British school
was immediately transferred to its management. (fn. 18) New buildings on the site increased the
school's capacity to over 600. After the closure
of the church girls' school in 1878 and the Pepys
school in 1880, average attendance was 329 in
1880 and 399 in 1890. (fn. 19)
The tradition of evening classes established
by the church school in the 1860s (fn. 20) continued
at the board school, and in 1890 Cottenham was
one of only 12 parishes in Cambridgeshire which
provided them. (fn. 21)
The former British school building was burnt
down in 1936 (fn. 22) and that part of the council
school was rebuilt in modern style. A new
infants' department was built in Lamb's Lane in
1968 (fn. 23) and extensions there allowed the Margett
Street building to be closed in 1981. (fn. 24) The older
pupils had in 1963 been transferred to the village
college opened that year east of the green, (fn. 25) which also served other villages in the area. In
the 1980s the village had exceptionally good
provision of pre-school play groups. (fn. 26)