A great insight into the life of the village school can be found in a series of Log Books diligently written by Trustees to the charity and former head teachers who have recorded, in beautiful copper-plate handwriting, details of learning and the social influences in their time. Sadly, the earliest Log Books prior to 1835 were inadvertently destroyed in a bonfire following the death of a Charity Trustee who had them in his custody. However, later Books are still available and in 1835, we can read that the school was provided ‘rent free to the schoolmaster,’ part being used as a garden, part as a close, and a small portion as a playground. The schoolmaster received £30 a year plus a clear third of the rents due to the charity generated from land it owned. From this sum the master was to educate all the 59 children, boys and girls, of Sibford Gower and Burdrop between the ages of five and eleven years of age. The schoolmaster and mistress were expected to be ‘good and acknowledged members of the Church of England’ and the Trustees noted that almost half of the £500 needed to rebuild the school in 1866 was collected by the Vicar. The school, although ‘endowed’ by the charity, never became a Church of England School despite attempts in 1891 by the Vicar to make it so.

The children of Sibford Gower and Burdrop were taught free but had to provide their own books and writing materials. However, children from the adjoining parish of Sibford Ferris did not benefit from the Town Estate Charity and they had to pay – one penny a week for the poorest and tuppence a week for the better off. By 1876 these rates had risen to six pence a week for the children of farmers and master tradesmen, and three pence a week for shop-keepers and journeymen. Objections to these increases were noted in the Log Book. The pauper children were paid for by the Relieving Officer until the managers accepted the ‘Fee Grant’ in 1897.

In 1885 the school had been provided with a ‘good new gallery’ for the infants. This apparently, was a raised area in the corner of the main schoolroom unscreened from the rest of the older children. The school was placed under Government Inspection and in 1896 the Inspector threatened to close the school due to overcrowding. The managers provided a new and separate classroom for the infants. There were now about 100 children in school and the main schoolroom could be divided by a wooden partition ensuring that each child had the required 80 cubic feet of air space. There were two small cloakrooms and a range of bucket lavatories outside, which, it was recommended, should be subdivided! The staff consisted of the headmaster, his wife and a monitor and once again the fee was withheld until the new infant room was finished and an additional adult teacher had been appointed. By October 1900 these conditions had been met and school life continued into the new century.

Maureen Hicks