South Cave Schools

This photograph of the Market Place, South Cave, c.1965 is reproduced by kind permission of

Francis Frith: www.francisfrith.com

1796: A "commodious and well-fitted schoolroom" was built over the market cross, erected by public subscription. “Endowment, 9a.1r.6p. of land which, in 1797, were demised for thirty years on a nominal rent in consideration of £300 which was applied in building a market-house, with a schoolroom above, and a house for the master. The school, at the time of the report, was conducted on the National plan; about fifty scholars. The master’s salary arises from voluntary subscription, and 1s.6d. from each child per quarter.” (Commissioner’s 10^th Report)

The Cross School continued in the upper room of the market hall throughout the 19th century. The building is now the Town Hall.

1816: Wesleyan Chapel built, 'with schoolroom', at a cost of £600. The Chapel closed in 1943.

1817: Opening of South Cave National School.

1841: Girls' school established and maintained by Mrs Elizabeth Mary Barnard (died 16th February 1872).

1862: Girls' school and schoolmistress's house built and maintained by Mrs Barnard. The school was under Government Inspection.

1895: Boys' school opened.

In 1731 the parish registers record the death of Richard Smith who had been parish clerk and schoolmaster for 36 years. The school at which he taught was unendowed, as is stated by the vicar in 1743 (Archbishop Herring’s Visitations), who wrote “There is no Charity School endowed or otherwise maintained in this parish, but as everyone pays for their own Childer”. This school was held in a cottage at West End which in 1752 was in the possession of the schoolmaster Thomas Ellerton. It was said of his successor Theophilus Dalwin in 1764 that “He teachers English, writing, arithmetic and instructs the children in principles of Xtian religion, according to the Church of England”.

The schoolhouse was owned by the parish and at the enclosures of Wallingfen and South Cave it was allotted 10 acres of land in lieu of common rights. Income from this was used by the churchwardens at first to repair the old buildings (accounts for 1784 and 1796). Then in 1796 the land was mortgaged for 30 years and the money raised with the help of public subscriptions, was applied to the building of the market hall with a schoolroom above and a master’s house behind. For the use of the house the master was to educate two boys free. This was the school to which diarist, Robert Sharp, came in 1804.

Will of Robert Sharp

Robert Sharp

This is the last will and testament of me Robert Sharp of South Cave in the East Riding of Yorkshire. I wish and will that my dear wife Ann Sharp should be possessed at my decease of all my money, securities for money goods chattels household furniture plate china effects of what nature and kind whatsoever and as such appoint her my executor well knowing that she will do all that is proper and requisite in every respect. I leave her thus unlimited in any way whatsoever. In witness whereof I the said Robert Sharp the testator have to this my last will and testament set my hand and seal this tenth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty two. Witnessed by James Levett and William Martin.

Will of Ann Sharp

Ann Sharp

This is the last will and testament of me Ann Sharp of South Cave in the East Riding of the County of York widow made this fourteenth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty nine. I bequeath all my household goods and furniture plate linen china books pictures and prints and also all my garden produce whatsoever unto my grand-daughter Ann Conder absolutely. I bequeath to my grand-daughters Mary Bark Sharp and the said Ann Conder the legacy or sum of one hundred pounds apiece. And I give and devise and bequeath all my real estate (except mortgage and trust estates) and all the rest residue and remainder of my personal estate unto my son William Sharp of Paternoster Row in the City of London gentleman his heirs executors administrators and assigns according to the nature thereof respectively for his and their absolute use. Subject nevertheless to the payment of my just debts funeral and testamentary expenses. I devise all estates vested in me as mortgagee or trustee to my friend Thomas Blanchard Burland sole executor of this my will. And I authorise and direct him immediately after my death to cancel and destroy any note of hand or other security I may then hold from my son in law John Conder from whom I expressly say it is not my wish that my said executor should make any claim whatever. I revoke all former wills by me at any time heretofore made.

The Cross School

In 1817 a new vicar, Edward Barnard, the brother of Henry Gee Barnard, decided that the school should be attached to the National Society. (See Regulations) The school provided free education for ten boys and in 1819 was said to have over 80 pupils, whilst in 1823 it had about 50. By 1835 the master’s income had fallen to about £7, and there were said to be only 30 boys attending.

In 1840 the then vicar, Rev Hotham, proposed the forming of a new school because the Cross school had become “the wreck of what it once was”, the master’s stipend having dwindled to £7.10s. This was presumably still Robert Sharp, who would have been 65 then. Robert Sharp presumably served until his death in 1843, when he was succeeded by William Thomas Bruce (1815-1891, bn Grantham), who in turn was succeeded by his assistant James Johnson (bn.c.1848, Market Weighton) in about 1871.

The Cross school had an average attendance of 40 in 1861 (VCH). Accommodation in the century-old school was far from adequate and in 1893 the Infant’s Dept of the Boys’ school was condemned as unfit. This threw the vicar and churchgoers into a state of panic as they feared the “catastrophe of a School Board” which could lead to the “invertebrate jelly-fish sort of religion taught in some London Board Schools”.

However, the church retained control. Mr Barnard provided a school site (further south in Market Place) and a new Boys’ School was opened on March 6^th 1895 at a cost of £600. The new school was administered by a body of managers and was under the headship of James Johnson.

In 1899 the school was at the centre of controversy. The vicar Rev. Miller, chairman of the managers, had a dispute with George Moverley, the people’s representative on the managing body, and he removed Moverley from the committee. This led a number of people to curtail their subscriptions. The vicar refused the usual church collections for the school and also withheld the £3-4 which went to it from church land. This seriously affected the headmaster’s salary. In February the vicar, as chairman, closed the school down and opened it anew with a new master, Mr Dennis, in charge. Only 4 pupils turned up, whilst the rest (79 and Mr Johnson, fully supported by Mrs Barnard) went back to the old Cross School, the National Union of Teachers paying his salary.

The question arose as to who owned the Boys’ School. It was decided that Mrs Barnard should bring a case against the vicar and churchwardens. The case was settled in her favour before reaching court. She took possession of the school, reinstated the managers and leased them the premises for one shilling per annum. On January 7^th 1901 James Johnson returned to the new school after an absence of almost two years.

DDBA 4/82

Henry Bolders Barnard being owner of the Tolls, both of Fairs and Market, it is very clear that he built the Market Cross for his own advantage and that Mr Ths. Waudby’s statement at the Enquiry of 27^th July last as to its having belonged to the Parish previous to the Enclosure is as erroneous as his statement as to the Market having been a Parish one. The Enclosure Award is dated 21^st Sept. 1787, the Market House or Cross was not erected until 1796. I have had an accurate Plan of the building in its present condition made by Mr. J. Goodwill, builder here, also an enlarged Copy of the original plan, kindly made for me by Mr Wm Richardson, both of which I send as well as the Original Plan, drawn by Mr H.B. Barnard. They will show the first and the present condition of the building. The separate flight of stairs in the place of 1796 I have been told by the late Mr Thomas Goodwill, builder, who made all the alterations, of which the Diaries speak, led to the Front Room, which as you will notice on the 2^nd Plan is 3 steps higher than the back or School part. This Front Room, the “Rentroom” of H.B. Barnard, as in a little notebook which unfortunately I have mislaid, was no doubt used for other purposes connected with the Estate, possibly for the Bailiwick Courts, etc. A room of this kind would be very necessary at that time, H.B. Barnard did not take the personal interest in his Estate as his Father had done. In 1784 he must have appointed the firm of Spofforth of Howden, in the East Riding as his Solicitors and Agents, as the Court Rolls testify and they continued to act for his son, Mr Henry Gee Barnard until 1832, when he placed his affairs in the hand of Mr Burland, the elder, who living on the spot would not require anything beyond his own office and consequently as the Diary proves Mr Gee Barnard converted it into the Schoolroom in 1841. It would be absurd to say that Mr B. Barnard built the Market Cross for the Parish, who had no interest whatever in the front part of it. The Building stands on what I think I have proved was his own property; the bricks he used were the same as those he employed in enlarging this house of which the note from Mr J. Goodwill, builder, attached to his plan of the building is a proof. They are of a peculiar size and colour. I had often seen the brick he speaks of, as having the date “July 11^th, 1796” and name “James Garnett” written on it on the South wall. Strange to say a similar brick, marked “J. Garnett 1796” is to be seen on the front of the Market Cross, both evidently by the same hand. (a large Scribble as if written with a nail before the Bricks were burnt.) The Brick Ornament, which decorates the upper part of the front of the Cross is exactly the same as round the Stable yard here which was also built by H.B. Barnard and the Gates which are not shown in the place are from a design of his, copied from an “Iron Gate at Bristol” as per his Design book and one of the same design now stands at our private door into the Churchyard. Where the Cross was built, no encroachments on the Soil of the Market were allowed without payment, yet the front of “the Cross” projects to the bottom of the steps no less than 12 feet 5 in. I may add that these steps went all round the front of the building; I made use of the best of them to form a safe staircase for the School boys last Spring, when I was asked by Mr Organ (on behalf of the Nat. Union of Teachers) to give the use of the old School to Mr Johnson.

That the back or original School part of the building was contributed to by the Mortgage or certain Churchlands I do not for a moment doubt, but to what extent is not as far as I am aware known; and the whole building, certainly up to the time of the passing of the Education Act and I believe beyond it, was maintained and repaired by my Husband’s family. The list of payments by the Vicar and Manager from 1869 up to 1887 does not say from whom the money came. I can truthfully allege that besides his yearly subscription of £10 towards the Boys’ School, Mr Barnard was often asked, more especially by his cousin, the Rev. Digby Wraugham, for money for the various School needs and I am confident that not one penny recorded in the list was spent on the structure or fabric itself, I mean Walls, etc. The last application Mr Barnard received was from Mr McDougall, I believe in 1892 to rebuild a bit of the old Wall between the School Yard and Mr Wm Richardson’s garden.

As Mr Wm Richardson has not only made extracts from his old Deeds but has also sent them to be forwarded with the other Papers, I need not enter largely upon the subject of the Property formerly Mathew Frankish, Mrs S. Gockman, Rt. Holborn and Cousins, at the East Corner of the Market Place, but may say that the property is frequently mentioned as joining to the Toll House in the Mss book, both before and after the date of the old Field Map of 1759, wherein no Toll House in Poulterers Hole is marked. Mr Bolders at Page 143 gives what he calls a Particular of the Estate he purchased form Mr Idell in 1748 and there enumerates “The Tolls, Toll House and a Gate on the Sands in right of the Tolls”, so that it would appear that there was a Toll House standing in 1748 and must have been in the Market Place if it joined Goakman’s property and therefore occupied the site of the present Market house.

It seems certain that the old Map did not mention all the Houses, or rather cottages in South Cave, perhaps merely mentioned the names of the occupiers. Mr Bolders mentions at Page 36 having 22 messuages or cottages in South Cave and yet his name does not appear on the Map!

From beginning to end there is no mention in the old Book of a School in the Market Place. On Pages 11-54, 259 and 409, giving lists of the Free Hold Rents in the Manor of Flax fleet, there are Entries of Rent of 2/- paid by the Overseeers and Churchwardens of which a list if given, No.6 among the Papers sent.

By these Entries it is plain that the School for which Allotments were made to the Overseers and Churchwardens and for which they still pay 2/- yearly Freehold Rent was under the same roof as the Poor House and was therefore situated at the West End of South Cave. This house which stands Gable on towards the Street is now in possession of a Mr Ths. Moate.

These Entries all relate to the same house and lands, that on Page 159 clearly proves that byt one of a house called the School House and Poor House existed and that the Poor House was not distinct from the School House. I may add that my Husband was well aware of the fact that the School house and Poor house were one and the same building and wondered how the house had passed out of the hands or possession of the Overseers and Churchwardens.

Signed: Sophia L. Bernard.

Girls’ School

It was not until 1841 that the village girls were provided with formal education; in that year Mrs Elizabeth Barnard established a girls’ school in a room in Market Place. A schoolroom was built in Market Place in 1844, with a parochial reading room attached by 1845. The room was replaced by a new building in 1866. The school was conducted on the National School plan and was generally known as Mrs Barnard’s Girls’ School. Average attendances were around 60. In 1865 35 girls, “Mrs Barnard’s scholars” paid one penny each whilst 35 others paid 3d. From 1867 the school received an annual government grant. Infants were also taught there in the 1870s.

Extract from the Will of Elizabeth Mary Barnard

Extract from the Will of Elizabeth Mary Barnard of Cave Castle, dated 17^th December 1871

Nevertheless, it is my particular wish that the “Girls School” (which I have erected on land purchased of John Waudby) shall always be devoted to the purposes of a Girls and Infants School exclusively and on no pretext whatever shall boys above the age of four years be taught therein and I earnestly request the said Charles Edward Gee Barnard to take such steps as he may find necessary to secure the fulfilment of my wishes in this respect otherwise I should rpefer this part of my real estate being sold by my Trustees and the proceeds divided amongst the deserving poor of South Cave aforesaid and I further specially commend this School to the supervision and care of my Niece Mrs Sophia Letitia Barnard the wife of the said Charles Edward Gee Barnard.

Private Schools

One kept by George Windus and the other in Market Place under Francis Jackson. (Baines, early 1800s)

Thomas Holberry – Market Place, recorded in directoris between 1831 and 1851.

Rev. John Allen, the Congregationalist Minister, 1839-46, ran an Academy for Young Ladies at West End.

Sunday Schools

C of E – est 1834 by Rev. Hotham; Congregationalists by Rev John Allen in 1839.

Extracts from the (No.10) Report of the Charity Commissioners dated 28^th June 1823.

Parish of South Cave

The School

Before the inclosure of the open and waste lands in South Cave, a parish School was kept in a cottage anciently used for that purpose the master being appointed by the parishioners. On the inclosure of South Cave lands and of Walling Fen, the following allotments were awarded:

In South Cave:

To the churchwardens, in lieu of School Stray 1a.38p.

In 1797 the several allotments were demised in consideration of £300 to Jonathan Scutt, for 30 years, at a yearly rent, reserved to the overseers of the poor of 1/- a year, and the money thus raised (which was a very large consideration for the lease) was applied, with other funds raised by a parish rate, in building a market house in South Cave, with a school room above and a house for the schoolmaster behind it. The schoolmaster was required, before 1817, to teach two poor boys free, but in that year the school was put upon the national system, through the exertions of the vicar, and the master has since received a yearly salary from voluntary subscriptions, for which, and a payment of 1/6 a quarter from each child, he engages to instruct all the poor children of the parish, above seven years of age, and he has at present about 50 scholars under his tuition.

South Cave National School Regulations, 1817, (DDX 1409/3/14)
Printed Regulations for the Management of the National School, South Cave (dated 1817)
At a General Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Township of South Cave, held in the Vestry, on Thursday, the Seventh day of August 1817 It was moved and unanimously Resolved,
1. That the Parish School, raised upon the Mortgage of certain Church Lands, shall be opened to all Inhabitants of the Township, (who are subscribers of not less than Four Shillings per annum for each Child) for the purpose of educating their children in the principles of the Established Church, in Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, free of all expense. No Children to be admitted into the School under seven years of age.
2. That the school shall be conducted on the system of Dr. Bell; that it shall be placed in Union with the East Riding District Society for National Education; that the mode of Instruction shall be in strict conformity with that adapted in the District School at Beverley, and the same books shall be made use of.
3. That the expenses thereof shall be defrayed by voluntary Subscriptions, to be paid quarterly on the first day of October, January, April and July respectively, and that the first quarter’s Subscription, due in October, be paid in advance.
4. That the direction and regulation of the school, and the disposal of the Funds, be given to a committee of seven persons, to be chosen from the subscribers.
5. That Two Visitors, one Male and the other Female, be chosen from the Subscribers whose office shall be to overlook the School, once a month at least, and report any abuses to the Committee.
6. That Mr. Robert Sharp, be the School-Master, with a yearly salary of Fifty Guineas, and liberty to take into the School, Children from other places, provided that he does not depart in any instance, from the Rules laid down by the Committee.
7. That Parents who refuse to pay their Subscriptions, when they become due, or to make their children comply with the Rules laid down by the Committee shall be deprived of all benefit of the School.
By virtue of the power committed to us by the Fourth Resolution above written, We the undersigned, constituting the Committee for the management and regulation of the National School of South Cave, and of the Funds thereto belonging, do institute the twelve following Rules and Regulations, and do order, that, after printed copies of them are distributed, they be duly enforced and the fines appointed therein, strictly levied.
Witness our hands this fifth day of October 1817: Edward W. Barnard, Vicar;
Barnard Cook and Wilkinson Ayre, Churchwardens;
Teavil Leeson; Francis Day; Robert Leeson; George McTurk
1.  The Year shall commence on the first of October and there shall be a month’s holiday at the end of it, from the first of September to the first of October, inclusive.
2. No Children shall be admitted for less than one quarter of a Year.
3. The sum of Four Pounds shall be allowed to the Master, to provide a Fire for the School-Room.
4. The Committee shall meet in the School-Room, at the expiration of every quarter, for the purpose of inspecting the progress of the Children, rewarding the best scholars, hearing complaints, receiving donations, etc.
5. There shall be a Public General Examination, at the expiration of the year; at which all the Township shall be requested to attend; notice of the appointed day shall be published a week before, and every scholar who is absent, shall be expelled from the school, unless he produces to the Committee, a proper Certificate of Sickness, or some sufficient cause of absence.
6. A Box to be called the Reward Box, shall be hung up at the entrance of the School-Room for the purpose of receiving the Fines and Charitable Donations, which shall be distributed among the best children, at the quarterly Meeting of the Committee.
7. A Sum not exceeding three Guineas, shall be set apart yearly, as a fund, in aid of the Reward Box.
8. The School shall be opened every day, (Saturday and Sunday excepted) and Prayers begin at Nine o’Clock in the Morning, and at Four in the Afternoon.
9. All the Children shall assemble in the Church, on Sundays, morning and evening, a quarter of an hour before the service begins; to have their names called over, and shall sit together in some convenient place, under the eye of their Master: but if a Parent be present, he may take his children into his own pew, if he chooses, after they have answered to their names. And if any Parents dissent from the Church, and wish to take their children to their respective places of worship, they may do so, upon giving satisfactory testimony to the Committee, when required, that the children are really thus employed, and not suffered to neglect and mis-use the Lord’s Day.
10. Every child, who is absent without leave from the Master, shall forfeit one Halfpenny for every half day’s absence from School, and one Penny for every half day’s absence from Church. These fines to be put into the Reward Box. See Rule 6^th.
11. A Reward Ticket shall be given to the head of every Class, every day; six of which shall entitle him to a Reward out of the Box or Fund, at the quarterly Meeting of the Committee.
12. Every Monitor shall receive a Reward of one Penny per week, from the Fund, and the Usher, if one be necessary, two Pence per week.
On the back of the last page of this pamphlet, which is blank in the original printed version, a report is written in manuscript of a second meeting on the same topic which was held the following year. It confirms the resolutions and regulations approved at the first meeting, with some minor amendments, and adds an additional resolution:
“That an 8^th Resolution be added to those already printed as follows.  Resolved, that it being principally the object of the Parish to afford the means of education to the Poor, their children shall be received at a less Subscription than the children of the richer class.
The rate shall be as follows –
The poor shall send one child for 6s.0d.   Two children for 10s.0d.   Three or more for 4s each
The richer class shall send one child for 16/-   Two for £1.4 Three or more for 10/- each
If there be any dispute as to which class a person belongs, it shall be decided at a special meeting of not less than five of the committee.

Grateful thanks to The Treasure House, Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, for permitting the transcription of these documents: http://www2.eastriding.gov.uk/treasurehouse/

Subpages (1): 1861 Census Scholars at South Cave School .