Marsh Baldon School 1906
Most of the information we hold about Marsh Baldon School comes from the School Log Book, covering 1924-1975, short histories by a former Head Teacher, Mrs Tame, and oral accounts from previous pupils. You can find extracts from the School Log Book as follows;
Below are some extracts from Mrs Tame’s accounts.
“By the early 1700s many thoughtful people were greatly concerned over the state of the poor; they wanted children to grow up to be good Christians and to learn to read and write. Such a person was Elizabeth Lane (of Baldon House, descended from the Pollard family) and in January 1771 she made her will providing free education for ‘Six Poor Boys and Six Poor Girls of March Baldon’. She appointed her old friend Christopher Willoughby, to see that her wishes were carried out.
After the Education Act was passed in 1870 the school became too small so in 1873 a new school room was built. Children marched from the old school into the new schoolroom carrying their slates and slate pencils and singing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’.
Logbooks from the 1880s (now sadly lost) show that the Head, Mrs Gooding, was not able to get all her planned work done owing to the large number of children working in the harvest fields. In those days a teacher’s pay was assessed on the performance of the children at the Inspection. At one Inspection the Inspector was most insistent that the gate between the girls’ and boys’ playgrounds be kept locked. Mrs Gooding left in 1891; she was followed by Mr and Mrs White and then Miss Louisa Cooper in 1894 who was a certificated teacher, her pay was £80 a year.
In May 1895 the Inspectors stated that the infants could not be taught without interfering with the older scholars and if this defect were not remedied the grant would be withheld. In October 1896 “the noise of workmen interferes with oral lessons”. On 3 May of the next year the new classroom was ready for use. Its building cost £175 3s 6d.
During the next 20 years the school prospered; nevertheless, we hear of epidemics of measles and scarlet fever and of the deaths of some children. Two young men received the cane for playing truant to follow the hounds. The pupils were given a half day’s holiday to see King Edward VII in Nuneham.
Mr Williams and his wife followed Miss Cooper in 1916 and from him we hear how the war was affecting the school. They had very few exercise books, the lawn was dug up to grow potatoes, 4½ bushels (or 270lbs), and the children gathered blackberries, 7 cwt (or 784 lbs) at 1½d (about 40p) a pound. Also at one time they had no coal. The children of the school gave the brass cross in the Church as a memorial to those who died.”
Acknowledgements: Marsh Baldon CE Primary School, Oxfordshire History Centre, Arthur and Janet Cullen