Boxworth: Education

Education

Schoolmasters were often recorded between 1579 and the 1630s, (fn. 1) but Boxworth had no organized school in the 18th century. (fn. 2) By 1807 Robert Poynter's curate had started a Sunday school, held by 1818 at the parsonage house. It had at first c. 60 pupils, but in the 1820s and 1830s fewer than 45. By 1818 there were also two day schools, one being in 1825 a dame school. The other, then supported by subscriptions, (fn. 3) was perhaps the church day school. In the 1830s it had 30-40 pupils maintained by the squire, rector, and curate. (fn. 4) In 1851 the few pupils, mostly girls, were taught by a labourer's wife. (fn. 5) The school probably stood then as later on a site provided by the Thornhills in the angle between the two roads south of Church Farm. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1859. (fn. 6) From the 1860s it was called locally a National school. (fn. 7) In 1873 George Thornhill was collecting money to build a school and schoolhouse, (fn. 8) presumably the building with a single schoolroom and teacher's house existing by 1879. (fn. 9) It could hold 55 pupils then, (fn. 10) 70 from 1895 after a classroom had been added. (fn. 11) The church day school kept there, which the rector still taught twice a week in 1897, had c. 35 pupils in 1873. A night school was also held in the early 1880s. The school was entirely maintained by subscriptions and by the rector until government grants were obtained c. 1880. (fn. 12) Subjects taught by the frequently changed mistresses (fn. 13) included in the 1890s needlework, drawing, and musical drill. (fn. 14) After 1880 attendance averaged 30-40, though occasionally falling below 25, as after 1935. (fn. 15) The older children were sent to Elsworth church school from 1944, and after 1958 to Swavesey village college. The younger ones also went to Elsworth after Boxworth school was closed in 1954. (fn. 16) The site and building reverted to the landowner. (fn. 17)