Brandon Schools

Brandon's Free Grammar School, Market Hill

In 1844 White's Suffolk Directory has this to say about the schools in Brandon:-

In 1646, Robert Wright [of Downham Hall] devised his real estates to John Wright, for six years after his decease, upon trust to employ the rents, after payment of testator's debts, and the legacies, &c., named in his will, in the purchase of lands, to be vested in trust with six or more of the most substantial inhabitants of Brandon, that the rents thereof might be employed, in the first place, in the payment of £30 a year to an able schoolmaster, to instruct the youth of Brandon, Santon-Downham, Wangford, and Weeting, in grammar and other literature; and that the residue of the rents might be employed towards building and repairing a school-room, and a house for the master...

In 1664, the sum of £767. 16s. 3d., derived from this bequest... [of which] £167. 16s. 3d. [was laid out] in the purchase of a large house, with out-buildings, yards, and a garden, which have ever since been occupied by the schoolmaster and are worth £20 a year. The school-room is in the house, near which is an allotment of 3A. 2R. 11P., awarded to the school at an enclosure, and now let for £2. 17s. a year. An allotment of 8A., awarded to the school under the Bedford Level Act, is let for about £8 per annum. The estates, &c., belonging to this charity were conveyed to new trustees, in 1825, after an expensive suit in Chancery. They pay the master a yearly salary of £40, for teaching 40 free scholars in the ordinary branches of education taught in English schools, few, if any of them, ever requiring to be taught Latin. Thirty of them are boys of Brandon, four are chosen from Weeting, and the other six from Downham and Wangford. E. Bliss, Esq., F. K. Eagle, Esq;, and others, are trustees. The old workhouse was converted into a National School in 1843.

In 1818 only 20 children attended the Free Grammar School but this had risen to 40 poor and 40 day and boarders by 1833.

The 1874 edition of White's Suffolk Directory tells us that "The SCHOOL BOARD, elected under the provisions of the 'Elementary Education Act, 1870,' was formed here in 1873, and consists of the Rev. W. F. Crocker (chairman); and Mssrs. C. W. Goodson (vice-chairman); Edward Balding, Wm. Owles, and John Wood; Mr. W. R. Rolfe is clerk. The National School premises have been let for three years from October 1873, to the Board, by the rector, churchwardens and overseers, who have reserved to themselves the use of the buildings on Sundays."

The Free Grammar School was subsequently transferred to the above mentioned School Board for administration and was demolished in 1877 to make way for the new buildings built in 1878.

This is what Kelly's Suffolk Directory of 1883 has to say on the matter:-

"[B]y a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, in 1876, the land, school & teacher's house & other buildings were vested in the Brandon School Board: the foundation & endowments are administered by seven governors, five representatives & two co-optative, under the name of the Brandon Exhibition Foundation: the income of the foundation to be applied in advancing the education of boys residing in Brandon, Wangford, Weeting & Santon Downham, by exhibitions of £20 each yearly, tenable at any place of higher education two of such exhibitions in the first instance to be competed for by boys of Wangford, Weeting & Santon Downham: the other exhibition, in default of fit candidates from the three parishes, to be competed for by boys residing in Brandon: the governors decide respecting the age of candidates, & no boy to be excluded from religious scruples.

The same directory gives further details about the new school that had been built:-

"[The] Board School, facing High street (mixed & infants), erected in 1878, for 300 children; average attendance, 250; at a cost of £3,350, is a handsome red brick building with stone dressings, partly in the Elizabethan style having in the tower an illuminated clock; William Pelling, master; Mrs. Louisa Pelling, mistress; Miss Isabelle Beer, infants' mistress" The infants school to the rear was for ages 5-7 and the junior school was for ages 8-14 (or 16).

Meanwhile the National School premises had been let for three years from October 1873, "to the Board, by the rector, churchwardens and overseers, who have reserved to themselves the use of the buildings on Sundays." [White's 1874]. Kelly's Directory of Suffolk, 1883 says that though the National School had been intended for 120 children, at that time the average attendance was 91 under Miss Edgington, mistress.

Some extracts from the Board School Log Book give some idea of school life in those days:-

1891    Prize-giving in an attempt to increase attendance. Presentation
             by Mssrs. Rought, Crocker, Lingwood and Rolfe
1893    H.M. notices a great fault amongst the boys - they open their mouths but
             do not speak out
1894    Truanting - boys on errands in the town. Can be seen by H.M.
1898    Large scale absences - 2 circuses, 1 menagerie

Page 2 - Brandon Board School (Continued)