Sutton Benger and Draycot Cerne Schools

There have been a number of schools and related buildings across Draycot Cerne and Sutton Benger over the last 250 years.

The Victoria County History notes that there was a school for girls in Sutton Benger in 1783, and that in 1808 there was a school 'attended by 24 pupils'. A school apparently had about 90 children in 1818, and that there were four schools in 1833. One of the four was the National School, which moved to 'The Old Schoolhouse' on Seagry Road in the mid-1800s, and stayed there through to the late 1900s. Little else is known about the other schools, and the National School became the only one in the village.

There had previously been a 'Parish House' or 'Home for the Poor' on the site of the Old Schoolhouse. One of the cottages on Park Lane, behind the school, was the home of the teachers for about 50 years.

Sutton Benger School moved to its present site in about 1965; that 'new school' was replaced by the present school, on the same site, in 1996.

The Grey House in Draycot Cerne was the schoolhouse, and teacher's home, from the late 1700s throughout the 1800s.

Harding’s Farm in Seagry (originally in Sutton Benger parish) became a Preparatory School known as Hardinge for a few years in the 1930s.