According to Kelly’s Directory ‘a National School was built in (or about) 1835 and enlarged in 1885’.

The building that is now The Old School House was certainly the National School from around 1850, and was used as a school until the 1960s. A ‘Parish House’ (or village Workhouse) stood on the site in the early 1800s; it ceased to be a Parish House in about 1834, but then appears to have been occupied by tenants for about 10-15 more years. There was a Free School in the village in the 1840s, but it was presumably elsewhere in the village, until the site of the Parish House was donated by the Earl of Mornington. The evidence from the 1839 Tithe and 1841 Census suggests that the original building was either demolished or renovated to become the National School after 1850.

1800-1850

The 'Village Workhouse'

The Victoria County History (VCH) records that the ‘parish apparently had a small workhouse 1808–34: it had six inmates in 1812–13 when the parish also provided continuous relief for 29 and occasional relief for seven.’

The 1808 Survey of the village shows that ‘The Overseer of the Poor’ was leasing a ‘Parish House etc’ from Lady Catherine Tylney-Long ‘at rack rent’. This was building # 250 (also described as ‘a small tenement’). This ties in with the end date of the Workhouse shown in the VCH (1834), and the date recorded in Kelly’s that the Schoolhouse was built (1835). The Workhouse was presumably demolished, or adapted, to be replaced by the School. However, this possibly did not happen until about 1850.

The relevant extract from the Survey and accompanying map are shown below. The map shows # 250 located on the site later to be occupied by the School. Note that the map is oriented with East at the top; that is, Seagry Road runs from right to left. Building # 260 is the old Corner Shop on the crossroads, and # 293 is the building that became The Vintage and La Flambé. The ‘Parish House’ at # 250 is shown with the alleyway passing it on both sides, then becoming one alleyway leading to Park Lane.

The National School

Kay Taylor, in Sutton Benger from Saxon Times to the Dawn of the 21st Century adds that the Rev George Thomas Marsh was the Rector of Sutton Benger from 1836 to 1862, and was instrumental in establishing the school.

‘In 1850 … the 4th Earl Of Mornington had provided the site at Seagry Road for the Rev Marsh and the churchwardens to build the National School, which was put up with the help of a building grant of £42.’

It was on the same site as the current Old School House, but about half the size. However, the VCH states: ‘There were four schools (in Sutton Benger) in 1833. One of the four was the National School in which 52 children were taught in 1846–7. Only the National school survived in 1858 and a single teacher had 40–50 pupils in it.’

The 1839 Tithe / 1841 Census

The findings from 1839 and 1841 are inconclusive / confusing.

The 1839 Tithe Map a small building at the end of the alleyway between Seagry Road and Park Lane was shown as #80. (Note that this is an entirely different numbering system from 1808.) The plot at #80 was two houses, occupied by Francis Ferris and Joseph Castle (or Caswell).

The 1841 Census records Ferris as a 75-year old agricultural labourer, while Castle was a 45-year old road surveyor. Unfortunately the 1841 Census does not provide specific location, and the two entries are not close together in 1841. However, Joseph Caswell (or Castle) is close to Richard Hull, the grocer (who was almost certainly on Seagry Road in the building that was to become The Vintage, etc: # 83 on the Tithe Map).

Unfortunately, there is no mention of the 'Poorhouse / workhouse' or of any school or schoolteacher in the 1841 Census.

1850 – 1900

It seems likely that, if there was a National School before 1850, then it was at a different location. It is certainly possible that a National School was founded between 1833 and 1850, and was elsewhere in the village; it then presumably moved into the ‘Schoolhouse’ in (about) 1850 when the site was provided by the Earl of Mornington. The school might have used the existing building, or a new purpose-built building might have been built on the same site.

Kay Taylor notes that the school was enlarged in 1875 ‘to accommodate 65 pupils, although the average attendance at that time was 53.’ Even allowing for 'things were diffferent back then' it seems inconceivable that there could have been 50 - 70 children being taught simultaneously in the building; it is possible that the numbers were an average weekly total, or some variation on that theme.

In 1861 it appears that Worthy Russ, an agricultural labourer, was living in the schoolhouse, together with his wife, who was the schoolmistress, and one scholar, who was boarding with them. By 1871 there were two schoolmistresses living (separately) as boarders on the High Street. But by 1881 the house behind the school was being provided for the one School Mistress (Catherine Jefferies). Extra room for students in the school was possibly created after 1861 by taking up the living accommodation that was formerly used by Worthy Russ and his wife.

Miss Jefferies was presumably the first to take up the post with the added incentive of accommodation in Park Lane; she is recorded as living in ‘School House, Park Lane’. However, she had been replaced by 1891; the Census that year shows that Marie Battell was being assisted by Helena Britton, the 15-year old daughter of the village baker, who lived next door to her in Park Lane. There seems to have been a new school mistress and new assistant teacher at least every 10 years, living in Park Lane and working next door in the school.

1900 - 1965

Until the early 1900s all children, irrespective of age, were being taught in one classroom. However, in 1910 the building was extended yet again to provide an additional classroom and improved toilets.

The freehold of the School building had been given by the Earl of Mornington, so was not affected by the 1920 Auction of the Draycot Estate. However, the schoolteacher's house on Park Lane had simply been provided at a peppercorn rent, so that arrangement ceased in 1920; the house was sold as part of Lot No. 79.

Chestnut Road; 1965

There were few changes to the School for the next 50 years or so; although by the 1940s the main ‘schoolroom’ had been divided into two classrooms using screens. But by the early 1960s, with the gradual growth of the village, the school had grown so big that infants were having to be taught in the Village Hall Annexe. By 1963 plans were in place to build a new school on a site in Back Lane (Chestnut Road); juniors were moved into temporary buildings (Pratten Huts) on the site in February 1965 and the school gradually moved from the old building to the new school over a period of several years.

The Old School House on Seagry Road was still being used to support the new school until as late as 1971, after which it was used by a village Youth Club. However, that Club ceased to function (in the 1980s?). The building was sold by the County Council in 1987, and eventually was converted to become a private house.

__Can you help? __
Do you have any memories of the old schools (pre1970)?
Do you have any photos of the Old Schoolhouse when it was a school?
Do you have any photos of the first school on Chestnut Road, from the 1990s?

If so, please contact us at:

hello@bengertrails.co.uk