The Church Of St Giles School, Imber
St Gile's School in the foreground with the church in the background
There had been a Sunday school in the village from 1814 but a day school was first established in 1836, receiving a government grant of £34 in 1837. In a report in 1859 the schoolhouse is described as thatched with a porch and two rooms, each measuring 18 feet by 10 feet. The rooms had brick floors and long desks facing each other. Only one room was used for the day school with between 20 and 30 boys and girls, presumably the other was used for the Sunday school. They were taught by a mistress who is described as having a kind and gentle manner. It was noted that about 75% of the population were non-conformists and in fact the British School had more than twice the number of scholars that attended the National School.
In 1876 the school was enlarged to take 60 pupils and the dimensions of the new schoolrooms were 35 feet by 15 feet 9 inches by 14 feet 6 inches high. Despite this the attendances in the 1870s and 1880s were little different to those of the 1850s. There were only 23 children on the register in January 1877 and until 1885 no weekly attendance seems to have been greater than 30. By 1889 the average annual attendance was 32 and in the 1890s there were over 40 children at the school in some weeks.
The school logbooks from October 1876, held in the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office, show some aspects of daily life at the school. During the period 1876 to 1895 there seems to have been one schoolmistress, possibly assisted by a monitor for the infants. The isolated situation on the Plain appears to have deterred most schoolmistresses from staying here very long; in the 11 years from 1876 to 1886 there were eight occupants of the schoolhouse. In 1878 one teacher only lasted for five months and the newly appointed one had to resign before she even taught at the school because of sickness. The vicar, as school manager, took the classes for six weeks, with his wife teaching sewing to the girls. Another mistress was appointed on a salary of £40 a year with a furnished house and a ton of coal for heating and cooking. From 1886 most schoolmistresses stayed for four or five years and in April 1895 an additional teacher was employed, probably for the infants.
All the usual elementary subjects, reading, writing, arithmetic and religious knowledge, were taught along with singing and needlework. Geography and drill were also taught but history was not introduced as a separate subject until 1901. Children also had object lessons on aspects of one topic and these included, earth, lightening, a giraffe, a sailor, liquids and a butcher's shop.
Teaching at the school was fairly good judging by the comments in the H.M.I. reports. In 1876 the inspector wrote, 'The present teacher keeps her few scholars in good order, and is careful in her instruction. The reading and spelling are satisfactory but the arithmetic needs a good deal of attention. Geography and grammar satisfactory.' In 1877, 'The school is in good order and considerable pains seem to have been taken with instruction with fair success in reading and writing and very fair results in grammar and needlework. The arithmetic is very weak throughout, though the failure of the standard in this subject as well as their writing is probably die to their having been raised two standards in the course of a year.' Some later reports mention physical conditions at the school. In 1880 the warming of the room was defective owing to insufficient draught for the fire, while in 1893 it was noted that ventilation was needed in the roof. It was also stated in that year that the boys' toilets needed to be kept in a cleaner state as it appeared that they were used for storing coal. All toilets needed repair in 1897 when it was also said that the teacher should have a desk. In 1899 a new clock was placed in the school and new desks for the infants provided much more comfortable accommodation.
Annual school holidays were two weeks at Christmas, two weeks at Easter after 1880 (before that it was just Good Friday and Easter Monday), one day at Whitsun and six weeks Harvest Holiday in the summer. From 1892 there was a half-day holiday on 1 August - the bank holiday. Half-day holidays were given for the Imber feast and the school treat while holidays were also given when the school was needed as a venue for concerts, as a polling station and other purposes. The children had a day off on 10 March 1892 when a new stove was fitted, a half-day to celebrate a royal wedding on 6 July 1893 and two days in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in June 1897.
Older children were absent when they were needed for work on the farms. Seasonal jobs included potato planting, haymaking and potato picking. Bad weather, which could be quite severe on Salisbury Plain, caused low attendance, or closure of the school itself. Snowstorms seem to have been the chief problem and in January 1881 the school was only open 1 1/2 days in one week and with very poor attendance. It was closed for a week in January 1887 and few attended when it re-opened, as the snow lay deep, while in March that year it was closed for 2 1/2 days because of a severe snowstorm. The school was also closed for one week in February 1900. Illness also caused problems and the school closed for seven weeks in January - March 1890 owing to a whooping cough epidemic. An extra week was added to the Harvest Holiday in 1889 because of an outbreak of measles. Other diseases greatly affecting the children were, scarletina in November 1876, mumps in November 1880 and July 1892, whooping cough in November 1881 and March 1897, and chicken pox in May 1885.
From 28 September 1890 the school fees were abolished when the school managers accepted the terms of the Free Education Act. 1895 saw the closure of the British School and 23 children were transferred from it to the National School on 1 March. Numbers were roughly equal at that time as there were 24 at the National School. The non-conformists left the school at 3.00 p.m. twice a week when the Church of England catechism was taught.
In 1876 the school was enlarged to take 60 pupils and the dimensions of the new schoolrooms were 35 feet by 15 feet 9 inches by 14 feet 6 inches high. Despite this the attendances in the 1870s and 1880s were little different to those of the 1850s. There were only 23 children on the register in January 1877 and until 1885 no weekly attendance seems to have been greater than 30. By 1889 the average annual attendance was 32 and in the 1890s there were over 40 children at the school in some weeks.
The school logbooks from October 1876, held in the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office, show some aspects of daily life at the school. During the period 1876 to 1895 there seems to have been one schoolmistress, possibly assisted by a monitor for the infants. The isolated situation on the Plain appears to have deterred most schoolmistresses from staying here very long; in the 11 years from 1876 to 1886 there were eight occupants of the schoolhouse. In 1878 one teacher only lasted for five months and the newly appointed one had to resign before she even taught at the school because of sickness. The vicar, as school manager, took the classes for six weeks, with his wife teaching sewing to the girls. Another mistress was appointed on a salary of £40 a year with a furnished house and a ton of coal for heating and cooking. From 1886 most schoolmistresses stayed for four or five years and in April 1895 an additional teacher was employed, probably for the infants.
All the usual elementary subjects, reading, writing, arithmetic and religious knowledge, were taught along with singing and needlework. Geography and drill were also taught but history was not introduced as a separate subject until 1901. Children also had object lessons on aspects of one topic and these included, earth, lightening, a giraffe, a sailor, liquids and a butcher's shop.
Teaching at the school was fairly good judging by the comments in the H.M.I. reports. In 1876 the inspector wrote, 'The present teacher keeps her few scholars in good order, and is careful in her instruction. The reading and spelling are satisfactory but the arithmetic needs a good deal of attention. Geography and grammar satisfactory.' In 1877, 'The school is in good order and considerable pains seem to have been taken with instruction with fair success in reading and writing and very fair results in grammar and needlework. The arithmetic is very weak throughout, though the failure of the standard in this subject as well as their writing is probably die to their having been raised two standards in the course of a year.' Some later reports mention physical conditions at the school. In 1880 the warming of the room was defective owing to insufficient draught for the fire, while in 1893 it was noted that ventilation was needed in the roof. It was also stated in that year that the boys' toilets needed to be kept in a cleaner state as it appeared that they were used for storing coal. All toilets needed repair in 1897 when it was also said that the teacher should have a desk. In 1899 a new clock was placed in the school and new desks for the infants provided much more comfortable accommodation.
Annual school holidays were two weeks at Christmas, two weeks at Easter after 1880 (before that it was just Good Friday and Easter Monday), one day at Whitsun and six weeks Harvest Holiday in the summer. From 1892 there was a half-day holiday on 1 August - the bank holiday. Half-day holidays were given for the Imber feast and the school treat while holidays were also given when the school was needed as a venue for concerts, as a polling station and other purposes. The children had a day off on 10 March 1892 when a new stove was fitted, a half-day to celebrate a royal wedding on 6 July 1893 and two days in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in June 1897.
Older children were absent when they were needed for work on the farms. Seasonal jobs included potato planting, haymaking and potato picking. Bad weather, which could be quite severe on Salisbury Plain, caused low attendance, or closure of the school itself. Snowstorms seem to have been the chief problem and in January 1881 the school was only open 1 1/2 days in one week and with very poor attendance. It was closed for a week in January 1887 and few attended when it re-opened, as the snow lay deep, while in March that year it was closed for 2 1/2 days because of a severe snowstorm. The school was also closed for one week in February 1900. Illness also caused problems and the school closed for seven weeks in January - March 1890 owing to a whooping cough epidemic. An extra week was added to the Harvest Holiday in 1889 because of an outbreak of measles. Other diseases greatly affecting the children were, scarletina in November 1876, mumps in November 1880 and July 1892, whooping cough in November 1881 and March 1897, and chicken pox in May 1885.
From 28 September 1890 the school fees were abolished when the school managers accepted the terms of the Free Education Act. 1895 saw the closure of the British School and 23 children were transferred from it to the National School on 1 March. Numbers were roughly equal at that time as there were 24 at the National School. The non-conformists left the school at 3.00 p.m. twice a week when the Church of England catechism was taught.
In March 1896 the schoolmistress, Alice Smith, who had only been at the school for three months, resigned, complaining of the 'miserably uncomfortable rooms' provided for her to live in. She said they were very damp, the paper and paint extremely dirty the walls and ceilings crumbling and falling, with the bedroom ceiling quite unsafe. The school managers said that her statement was much exaggerated and that the rooms had been whitewashed and cleaned before her arrival. Later in that year, in June, papers were distributed to the children stating that the Public Vaccinator would attend in three local schools for six consecutive Saturdays.
The school continued into the first part of the 20th century but with a decreasing village population, from 292 in 1891 to 152 in 1931, the numbers at the school also decreased. Until 1927 the school was elementary, all age, but at Easter that year it was reorganised as a junior school, with the older village children (over 11 years) going to Sambourne School in Warminster. When notice to quit the village was given to all tenants on 1 November 1943 the school had to close at Christmas, with its equipment and desks being sent to the Minster School at Warminster. In fact it closed on 2nd December as the headmistress left the school suffering from nervous debility.
(information supplied courtesy of Wiltshire Council records)
The school continued into the first part of the 20th century but with a decreasing village population, from 292 in 1891 to 152 in 1931, the numbers at the school also decreased. Until 1927 the school was elementary, all age, but at Easter that year it was reorganised as a junior school, with the older village children (over 11 years) going to Sambourne School in Warminster. When notice to quit the village was given to all tenants on 1 November 1943 the school had to close at Christmas, with its equipment and desks being sent to the Minster School at Warminster. In fact it closed on 2nd December as the headmistress left the school suffering from nervous debility.
(information supplied courtesy of Wiltshire Council records)
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