A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes). Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1992.
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A P Baggs, M C Siraut, 'Spaxton: Education', in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes), ed. R W Dunning, C R Elrington( London, 1992), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol6/p124 [accessed 23 December 2024].
A P Baggs, M C Siraut, 'Spaxton: Education', in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes). Edited by R W Dunning, C R Elrington( London, 1992), British History Online, accessed December 23, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol6/p124.
A P Baggs, M C Siraut. "Spaxton: Education". A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes). Ed. R W Dunning, C R Elrington(London, 1992), , British History Online. Web. 23 December 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol6/p124.
EDUCATION.
Teachers at an English school were licensed in 1675 and 1676. (fn. 1) Joseph Cooke, the rector, by will of 1708 left a sum to provide 2s. 6d. a week to teach 15 poor children. (fn. 2) A charity school supported by the endowment had 25 children in 1825 and 15 in 1835. (fn. 3) Its income, augmented in 1879, was later enjoyed by the National school. (fn. 4) A Sunday school with between 40 and 50 children had been established by 1819 (fn. 5) and had 65 children in 1825. (fn. 6) By 1835 there were only 20 children. (fn. 7)
In 1835 there were also a day school with 10 children and another with 25 boys. Between that date and 1846 a single school was established which in that year had a total of 111 children, 36 of whom attended only on Sundays. (fn. 8) A new school was built in 1860 in association with the National Society. In 1903 there were 100 children with three teachers. (fn. 9) Numbers fell to 66 in 1925 and to 47 in 1945 but rose to 77 in 1965. In 1981 there were 44 children on the register but it was estimated that there would be 57 in 1988. In 1947 the school accepted voluntary controlled status. (fn. 10)
A school, described as at Courtway in 1871, was held in Merridge Baptist chapel in 1872. (fn. 11) Aisholt and Spaxton district school at Merridge opened in 1874. There were 48 children on the books in 1903 but numbers fell and it closed in 1938 when the remaining children were transferred to Spaxton. (fn. 12) In 1987 the building was used as the Aisholt and Merridge village hall.
A private school was kept in Spaxton village in 1851 and 1861 and in the same years a small boarding school was held at Four Forks, attended by children from the Agapemone. (fn. 13) There was a private school at the Mount, Courtway, primarily for foreign girls, by 1928 and until c. 1939. (fn. 14)