EDUCATION
Robert Veysey of Chimney, by
will proved 1635, left £200 to endow a free
school at Bampton, and another £100 to erect a
stone building 'with ashlar work'. (fn. 30) Nothing had
been done by 1650 when John Palmer, one of
the trustees, left a further £100 providing that
Veysey's will was performed, but by 1653, when
the first master was appointed, a single-storeyed
ashlar schoolhouse with attics and pitched stoneslated roofs had been built on former parish land
on Church View. (fn. 31) Henry Coxeter (d. 1654)
bequeathed £10 and Richard Dewe (d. 1684)
£50, (fn. 32) and in 1695 three closes near later Calais
Farm, estimated at c. 12 a., were bought and
vested in trustees. (fn. 33) A cottage and garden west
of the schoolhouse were bought with voluntary
contributions in 1783 for an incoming master. (fn. 34)
In 1784 Mary Frederick (d. 1785), Elizabeth
Snell (d. 1788), and Susannah Frederick (d.
1798) purchased annuities yielding £16 a year to
augment the master's salary, on condition that
he should teach English and arithmetic free to
10 boys chosen by them or their trustees; Susannah also invested £100 left by her aunt Mary
Croft (d. 1719) to teach 12 poor boys and girls
of Bampton to read the bible, which legacy
Mary's executors had evidently neglected. Since
the school took only boys, the Croft income, £5
8s. in 1824, was shared between the master and
a schoolmistress, who taught the girls elsewhere;
the girls and their endowment were transferred
to the National school in 1812, and the boys in
1824, the master's share having been unclaimed
and allowed to accrue since 1817. (fn. 35) In the early
19th century dividends from £300 bequeathed
by Susannah towards Bampton Sunday schools
were divided between the same master and
mistress with a small amount used for books, but
passed in 1824 to the National school. (fn. 36) In 1750
the master's total income exceeded £20; (fn. 37) by the
early 19th century it included c. £50 rent and c.
£17 from the Frederick endowments, the Croft
income being then received by an undermaster,
but by the 1860s it was only c. £36. (fn. 38)
The first master, William Jackson, was a 'noted
grammarian' formerly of Charlbury school. (fn. 39) A
successor in the later 17th century was a pauper
student of Queen's College, Oxford. (fn. 40) By the
early 18th century the school seems to have been
less exclusively concerned with classics teaching
than some local grammar schools: both the Croft
and Frederick endowments stipulated elementary education, and although in 1732 all boys 'fit
to be taught Latin' were to be admitted for fees
of 2s. 6d. entrance and 1s. a quarter and the
master was to be qualified to teach Greek, he
was also to teach English for fees of 5s. entrance
and 5s. a quarter. Pupils were to be catechized
and attend church on Wednesdays, Fridays, and
saints' days. (fn. 41) From 1732 to 1782 the master was
Thomas Middleton, non-resident vicar of Clanfield, who in 1750 was accused of making a
sinecure of the post and who in 1756, following
his temporary ejection, attempted to retain the
school closes; (fn. 42) there were no pupils in 1768 or
1771, and the master in 1774, apparently Middleton, taught in his own house. (fn. 43) On
Middleton's death the school was re-established
in the schoolhouse and fees were raised to 5s. a
quarter, (fn. 44) but in the early 19th century it was
again neglected, no classics being taught and
English teaching being left to an undermaster.
Ten boys were taught free, the rest paying fees
'on the master's terms'. (fn. 45)
Thirty pupils were recorded in 1815, but after
new fees of 21s. entrance and 21s. a quarter were
introduced in 1819 the average intake fell to 6,
and on the master's resignation in 1822 it proved
difficult to find a successor. Income was too little
for repairs, the buildings were inadequate, and
before the transfer of the Croft scholars to the
National school, grammar school boys and those
learning to read had to be taught in one room. (fn. 46)
The school, closed repeatedly during the earlier
19th century, (fn. 47) had only one pupil in 1852 when
it was 'not in accord with the wants of Bampton', (fn. 48) though in 1864 there were 13 day boys
mostly under the age of 12, and 11 boarders,
chiefly farmers' sons, paying between £20 and
£25 a year and accommodated in the schoolhouse. Subjects included Latin, Greek, English,
and arithmetic, and pupils were entered for
public schools; the master was then a layman. (fn. 49)
Funding remained difficult and the school had
again closed by 1898 when, under a Charity
Commission Scheme, its income was to provide
exhibitions in educational institutions for children from within the ancient parish; its land and
stock then comprised the schoolhouse and garden, c. 8 a., and c. £457 consols, together
producing c. £32 a year. (fn. 50) The Scheme was
renewed by the Board of Education in 1906, the
schoolhouse being used thenceforth for classes,
lectures, and meetings, and from 1964 as a public
library. (fn. 51)
Figure 6:
Bampton national school
c. 1840
A private school was reportedly held in the
court loft or court house in the earlier 18th
century. (fn. 52) In 1808 three small schools funded by
voluntary payments taught reading, arithmetic,
and needlework, and there was a Sunday school
for each sex, c. 150 children in all being taught.
Younger children in the 1830s still relied on 2
or 3 private schools as there was no public infant
school. (fn. 53) A National school run on the Bell
system was established in 1812 in a purposebuilt, free-standing stone-and-slated schoolhouse at the top of Bridge Street, with support
from the vicar George Richards. (fn. 54) Subjects included spelling, reading, and religious
instruction; some boys learned arithmetic and
writing, and some girls learned writing, needlework, and knitting. Church attendance was
compulsory. (fn. 55) The cost was met chiefly from
arrears from the parish's Shilton estate, rent
from which was diverted permanently to the
school. Income in 1815 comprised £36 from the
estate, £20 from pence, and £10 from fees of 10
other children, (fn. 56) and in 1819 the master received
£40 a year and the mistress £20. (fn. 57) In 1824 the
Charity Commissioners confirmed diversion of
the Shilton estate income and approved the
transfer to the school of Mary Croft's legacy (£5
8s. a year), of Mary Dewe's manufactory charity
(£20 a year), and of Susannah Frederick's Sunday school bequest (£9 a year), providing pupils
received religious instruction on Sundays; even
so salaries in 1848 were a 'miserable pittance'. (fn. 58)
Attendance rose from 65 boys and 75 girls in
1812 to 81 boys and 92 girls in 1815, and nearly
200 children attended an anniversary meeting in
1855. (fn. 59) The earl of Shrewsbury provided a site
for a larger school on Church View before 1860,
and building, financed by subscription, began in
1863; the new school was opened in 1864. (fn. 60) The
building, of local stone with Bath stone dressings
and stone-slated roofs, was designed in Gothic
style by William Wilkinson of Oxford, with
accommodation for 156 children in two rooms; (fn. 61)
its forerunner was demolished before 1876. (fn. 62)
The school was again short of accommodation
by 1871, when 172 children attended on the day
of the government inspection. (fn. 63) A voluntary rate
was sought to avoid imposition of a school
board, (fn. 64) and in 1873 an infant school was opened
in the newly enlarged National school building. (fn. 65)
By 1910 there were 124 juniors and 71 infants.
Reports in the late 19th century were mixed,
though scholarships were won regularly to Witney, Bampton, and Burford grammar schools. (fn. 66)
By 1927 the upper forms had become the
senior school for the surrounding villages. New
buildings were added on the west in 1947, and
the school acquired controlled status in 1949; in
1959 there were 294 pupils. In 1960 the senior
department became a Secondary Modern with
140 on the register, but in 1965, when the roll
was 96, all the pupils were transferred to Wood
Green Comprehensive in Witney, and the
Bampton school closed. A new Church of England primary school built on the town's northern
edge in 1961 had 260 children in 1970, when
buildings at the back of the former National
school, then a youth centre, were used as an
annexe. The roll was 142 in 1993. (fn. 67)
A young ladies' needlework school was mentioned in 1782, (fn. 68) and from the late 18th century
there were several private boarding schools with
pupils drawn chiefly from outside the parish. An
academy for young gentlemen mentioned in
1790 (fn. 69) was followed by John Beechey's Mansion
House Academy, established reportedly c. 1815
and moved in the 1820s to Weald Manor; in 1841
it had 17 boys aged from 9 to 14, but closed in
the later 1850s. (fn. 70) G. H. Drewe's St. Mary's
College, opened in Weald Manor in 1859 and
similarly modelled on public schools, had over
50 boys in 1861 aged from 5 to 18, but closed c.
1863. (fn. 71) A third gentlemen's boarding school,
Thomas Leforestier's Classical and Commercial
Academy, was established by 1841 apparently in
the Grange on High Street and closed c. 1864; (fn. 72)
a boys' boarding school on Lavender Square,
reportedly closed in 1880, is otherwise unrecorded. (fn. 73) A ladies' boarding school later in
Prospect House on Broad Street, established by
1830 and with 11 pupils in 1841, (fn. 74) was taken over
c. 1863 by Sarah and Rebecca Pembrey and
moved before 1871 to the Elms on Broad Street,
where before 1876 schoolrooms and extra accommodation (later South Elms) were added. It
moved before 1903 to Valetta (later Ampney)
Lodge on High Street and closed by 1915. (fn. 75) A
ladies' boarding school on High Street, apparently in Lime Tree House, was recorded from
the late 1840s to 1868. (fn. 76) John Bryant ran a small
day- and, for a time, boarding school on Weald
Lane by 1861, which moved later to the market
place and continued in the early 20th century. (fn. 77)
J. A. Giles, curate 1846-55, prepared private
pupils for Oxford university and the army. (fn. 78)