Lower Beeding: Education

EDUCATION.

Four day schools begun in the parish after 1818 accommodated 55 children of both sexes at their parents' expense in 1835. (fn. 1) A stone school and schoolhouse were built in 1842 near the vicarage. (fn. 2) In 1846-7, when it was a National school, there was a paid mistress, and 23 boys and 50 girls attended on weekdays and 7 boys and 2 girls on Sundays only. (fn. 3) The school was enlarged in 1861 at the expense of W. E. Hubbard of Leonardslee, who also helped defray running expenses. (fn. 4) An annual grant was being received by 1861, when a thriceweekly evening school was held in the building during the winter. (fn. 5) Average attendance was 72 in 1870-1, (fn. 6) and rose to 113 in 1903-4, (fn. 7) afterwards falling to 72 in 1919 and 51 in 1938. (fn. 8) An infant department had been opened in 1884. (fn. 9) About 1966 a new school was built in Lower Beeding village, the old building being converted into a house. (fn. 10) In 1981, when the school was called Holy Trinity C.E. school, there were 50 on the roll. (fn. 11)

Other schools in 1846-7 were a dame school with 4 boys and 8 girls, and a school belonging to Robert Aldridge of St. Leonard's house, attended by 5 boys and 15 girls. (fn. 12) The latter was presumably a forerunner of St. Leonard's mixed National school, established in 1856. A new building was built in 1870, when there were 28 boys and 34 girls on the roll, but no annual grant was being received. (fn. 13)

Colgate county primary school, originally Colgate C.E. school and later Colgate council school, was established in 1859, a schoolroom being built in 1863 by Robert Aldridge. (fn. 14) In 1870-1, when an annual grant was being received, there was an average attendance of 76. (fn. 15) By 1876 it had risen to 99, (fn. 16) and in 1910 it was 105. (fn. 17) In 1915 the building, which stood south-west of the church, (fn. 18) was closed, being later converted into the village hall. (fn. 19) A new building was opened south-east of the church in the same year. (fn. 20) In the 1920s and 1930s average attendance was between 49 and 57, (fn. 21) but the increase of population necessitated the enlargement of the school building in 1975. In 1979 there were 100 pupils, including some from Faygate and Roffey as well as from Colgate. (fn. 22)

A school was opened in the mission room at Ashfold crossways in 1879; it was not receiving an annual grant in the following year. (fn. 23) Average attendance was 32 in 1886, falling to 24 in 1901. (fn. 24) No more is heard of it.

There was another evening school in the parish in 1867 besides that held at Lower Beeding National school, the two together having the high total of 54 pupils, despite the scattered settlement pattern of the parish. (fn. 25) An evening school still flourished in winter at Colgate in 1875, with results described as 'very fair', (fn. 26) and another was being held occasionally in the Ashfold crossways mission room in 1880. (fn. 27) In 1981 most older children from the parish went to school in Horsham. (fn. 28)