EDUCATION.
There was a school at Stroud in
1576 but the schoolmaster, who did not have a
licence and failed to teach the catechism, was then
dismissed. (fn. 72) Unlicensed schoolmasters were again
reported at Stroud in 1613 and 1619. (fn. 73) Thomas
Webb of the Hill, in Painswick, by his will dated
1642 left a rent-charge of £40, on an estate in
Hucclecote, and a house in Stroud for the establishment of a school in the town: £20 of the rent-charge
was assigned to the maintenance of four poor boys,
£6 to their clothing and repairs to the house, £4 and
two rooms in the house to two poor widows who
were to care for the boys, and £10 to pay a schoolmaster. (fn. 74) A schoolmaster of Stroud subscribed in
accordance with the Act of Uniformity in 1662, and
in 1677 a headmaster and another master, who was
to teach English and accounting, were licensed to
teach in the 'public school' in Stroud. (fn. 75) Richard
Bond, appointed curate of Rodborough in 1685, was
also to educate the children in the 'free school' of
Stroud. (fn. 76) Webb's school was enlarged by a gift of
Henry Windowe who by his will dated 1734 left lands
in Stroud for a payment of £5 to the schoolmaster
and £4 to the widows for the education and maintenance of two additional boys. (fn. 77) In 1750 the
endowment was augmented with £200 stock bought
with an accumulation of the funds of Webb's
charity. (fn. 78) In the late 18th and early 19th centuries
the boys, who were known as the Red Boys from the
uniform clothing with which they were provided,
appear to have usually been schooled for three years
and were afterwards apprenticed at the expense of
the charity. (fn. 79) At that period they were taught in the
market-house, and the master also took fee-paying
pupils. The school was discontinued in 1865 and the
boys were supported instead at the National
school, (fn. 80) and in 1887 the charity was assigned as part
of the endowment of the Marling School. (fn. 81)
A society for providing charity schools at Stroud
was founded by the curate William Johns c. 1700, (fn. 82)
and in 1712 60 poor children were being taught and
12 clothed. (fn. 83) In the early 18th century the society
supported six schools - in the town, and at
Quarhouse, Thrupp, Paganhill, Whiteshill, and
Ruscombe; but by the beginning of the 19th century
there were only three - a school for the town at
Stroud Hill, one at Whiteshill, and one at Thrupp.
The schools were supported by church collections
and subscriptions and run by managers and a
treasurer. Regulations made in 1732 laid down that
children from 4 to 7 years should be taught, being
admitted and discharged at quarterly meetings;
that the children should be given religious instruction and be regularly examined; and that the boys
should wear caps and bands and the girls coifs and
ruffs provided by the society. In 1813 the schools
were reorganized. A new schoolroom was fitted up at
the workhouse for the Stroud Hill school, and the
Whiteshill school was rebuilt; new masters for the
two schools were appointed and sent to London
and Bristol to study the Bell system. That system
was never fully introduced, however, because of the
lack of suitable monitors, many of the children
having to leave at 7 years old to work in the woollen
industry. The new system was not adopted at all
for the third school, at Thrupp, which remained
under a mistress, but it was given a new building
in 1818; it was partly maintained for many years by
the Wathens of New House. In 1816 the three
schools were teaching a total of 167 pupils, 73 at
Stroud Hill, 76 at Whiteshill, and 18 at Thrupp. In
1784 the assistant curate William Ellis started
Sunday schools at the market-house, Whiteshill,
Stroud Hill, and Thrupp, and in 1788 he started
one at Paganhill, which was, however, defunct
between 1803 and 1823. The Sunday schools were
separately financed until 1804 after which date they
were supported out of the same fund as the dayschools. In 1816 the Sunday schools had a total of
512 pupils and 54 teachers. (fn. 84) In 1822 the annual
income of day and Sunday schools was £117; with
the exception of £1 from the charity left by William
Johns in 1720, £4 10s. from stock bought in 1799
with various legacies, and £1 10s. from stock given
by Thomas Hughes in 1813, the sum was raised by
subscriptions and church collections. (fn. 85)
In 1835 the Stroud charity school society opened
a new girls' school on the National plan on the west
side of Brick Row, (fn. 86) and in 1840 a National school
for infants was started at Holy Trinity church. (fn. 87) In
1844 a new National school was built in Castle
Street and the girls transferred to it, the Brick Row
building becoming the boys' National school. (fn. 88)
During the reorganization the old school at Stroud
Hill and an infants' school started at Paganhill
c. 1830 were discontinued. (fn. 89) In 1836 the National
and church schools were teaching 312 day pupils
and 495 Sunday pupils, (fn. 90) and by 1856 the number of
day pupils had risen to 421 but only 243 then
attended the Sunday schools; at the latter date the
society's day-schools were the boys', girls, and
infants' National schools in the town, a boys'
school and a girls' school at Whiteshill (probably
sharing the same building), and the school at
Thrupp which was mixed. (fn. 91) The payment of
weekly pence had been introduced at some of the
schools by 1836 and at all of them by 1845, but for
some years the bulk of their income still came from
subscriptions and collections. (fn. 92) Government grants
were applied for by the boys' and girls' National
schools in 1848 and for the Thrupp school in 1867. (fn. 93)
A new building was provided for the Whiteshill
school in 1858 (fn. 94) and for the Thrupp school in 1875. (fn. 95)
The various dissenting communities in the parish
ran Sunday schools from the early 19th century;
by 1833 there were six dissenting Sunday schools
with a total of 787 pupils. (fn. 96) The Wesleyan
Methodists had started a Sunday school by 1818. (fn. 97)
The new Congregational chapel opened in 1837 had
large Sunday schoolrooms, and a new Sunday
schoolroom was built next to the Old Meeting in
1854. In 1858 a Sunday schoolroom was built
adjoining the Primitive Methodist chapel in
Parliament Street. (fn. 98) The earliest day-school supported by the dissenters appears to have been an
infant school in Summer Street established by the
Congregationalists in 1832. (fn. 99) In 1839 a British school
was built at Badbrook and in 1854, when it applied
for a government grant, its income came in about
equal proportions from voluntary contributions and
pence. (fn. 1) A British day-school was established before
1847 at Ruscombe in the former Independent chapel
and had an attendance of 90-100 c. 1870. (fn. 2) An
unsectarian school at a building called the People's
Hall in Silver Street was opened in 1874. (fn. 3)
In 1881 a school board for Stroud was formed and
took over the church and British schools of the
parish. (fn. 4) In the subsequent reorganization two new
schools were built and opened in 1884: they were a
boys' school in Church Street which replaced the
Brick Row National school (fn. 5) and a mixed school in
Parliament Street, to which were transferred the
infants from Summer Street and the boys from
Badbrook British, which became a girls' and
infants' school. (fn. 6) The former British school at
Ruscombe was closed by the board in 1887 when a
new school building was opened at Whiteshill; it
was higher up the village than the original Whiteshill school, which was opposite the church. The
two Whiteshill buildings were thereafter used for
boys and for girls and infants respectively. (fn. 7) The
board also enlarged the buildings at Castle Street
in 1881 and at Thrupp in 1887. In 1889 the four
board schools in the town - Castle Street girls' and
infants', Church Street boys', Parliament Street
mixed, and Badbrook girls' and infants' - had a
total average attendance of 660, the Thrupp mixed
school had an average attendance of 192, and the two
schools at Whiteshill had a total average attendance
of 256. Three schools then remained independent
of the board: Summer Street had reopened as an
unsectarian infants' school and had an average
attendance of 100, the People's Hall school
survived, also with an average attendance of 100, (fn. 8)
and Brick Row had reopened in 1888 as a church
school and had an average attendance of 70. (fn. 9)
The board schools were taken over by the county
council under the Act of 1902. A new infants'
building for the Castle Street school was added in
1903 (fn. 10) and in 1907 the Badbrook school was closed. (fn. 11)
In 1922 the four council schools in the town had a
total average attendance of 670, falling to 559 by
1936. (fn. 12) The Castle Street girls' school was closed in
1964 and from 1969 the building, popularly known
as the Black Boy from a chiming clock set up on it in
1844, was used as a teachers' centre. (fn. 13) In 1971 the
three remaining schools, Castle Street infants,
Church Street, which took juniors, and Parliament
Street, which took juniors and infants, had a total
attendance of 477. (fn. 14) At Whiteshill there was an
average attendance of 182 in 1922, but a decline in
the attendance to c. 130 led to the abandonment of
the building opposite the church in 1932 or 1933 and
all the children were subsequently taught in the other
building; the average attendance at the school had
risen to 162 by 1936 and had fallen to 85 by 1971. (fn. 15)
The Thrupp council school had an average attendance of 160 in 1922 (fn. 16) and 140 in 1971 when it took
both juniors and infants. (fn. 17)
Plans for a school to provide secondary education
at Stroud were under discussion between Sir
Samuel Marling and the Stroud feoffees in 1882, and
after Sir Samuel's death the following year his
children Sir William Marling, Walter Marling, and
Mrs. Annie Robertson agreed to give £10,000
formerly offered by Sir Samuel. In 1887 the Marling
family's endowment and a large part of the income
of the Stroud charities were applied to the foundation and maintenance of a boys' secondary school,
to be called the Marling School. The pupils, who
included some boarders, were to pay fees, but
£1,000 given by Frances, the widow of S. S.
Dickinson, and other sums were applied to scholarships for boys from elementary schools in Stroud and
district. The governing body was to include
representatives of the Marling family, the Stroud
feoffees, and the Stroud, Rodborough, and Painswick school boards. The new school was opened in
1889 in Tudor-style stone buildings in Cainscross
Road designed by W. H. Seth-Smith. (fn. 18) By a new
scheme in 1909 the school became a public
secondary school and its endowments, with those of
the Stroud School of Science and Art and the girls'
High school, were placed under the administration
of a body called the Stroud Educational Foundation. (fn. 19) In 1971 the Marling School had c. 750
pupils. (fn. 20)
The Stroud High school for girls originated as the
Girls' Endowed school, which was opened in 1904
in a room at the School of Science and Art in
Lansdown and in 1907 had an attendance of 70-80
pupils; the first headmistress was Miss D. M.
Beale, a niece of the celebrated principal of
Cheltenham Ladies' College. (fn. 21) In 1912 the school
moved to new buildings, built of brick in the Queen
Anne style, in Beard's Lane not far from the
Marling School. (fn. 22) It had an attendance of c. 800 in
1971. (fn. 23) Two schools for providing secondary
technical education were subsequently added to the
complex of school buildings in the Beard's Lane and
Downfield area: the Craft School (later called the
Boys' Secondary Technical school) was opened in
1910, (fn. 24) and the Girls' Central school (later the Girls'
Secondary Technical school) was started in the old
Badbrook British school during the First World War
and moved to its new premises c. 1924. (fn. 25) A large new
secondary school, the Archway School, was opened
on the north side of Paganhill village in 1961 (fn. 26) and
in 1971 had an attendance of c. 520. (fn. 27)
The Stroud School of Science and Art was
opened in premises in High Street in 1860 with
c. 120 pupils. New premises, an ornate Gothic stone
building in Lansdown designed by J. P. Seddon and
a local architect W. H. C. Fisher, (fn. 28) were begun in
1892 but not completed until 1900. (fn. 29) Under the
scheme of 1909 the school became the Stroud
Technical school. (fn. 30) The classes in technical
instruction were moved to the large new Mid
Gloucestershire Technical College opened in
Stratford Road in 1954, (fn. 31) the school of art remaining
at Lansdown. The Brimscombe Polytechnic was
established c. 1890 in the old canal company
building at Brimscombe Port and in 1899 was
providing a variety of technical instruction to a total
of 453 students. (fn. 32) It was succeeded in the building
in 1949 by the Brimscombe County Secondary
school which moved to Eastcombe in Bisley in 1962
to become the Manor School. (fn. 33)