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Alexander Hosea was born in Wickwar in 1621, into an age that some say featured the most exciting events in the making of this England. Wickwar was described in Henry VIII’s reign as a "prayte clothinge townlet", a town whose inhabitants relied upon the clothing trade and the associated crafts for their income. Wickwar town had a market on Mondays and a fair which was held twice a year, and like many neighbouring towns, traded successfully in cloth.
For both young and old, the markets and fairs in the villages must have provided a source of interest. The traders with their strings of pack animals and horse-drawn vehicles journeyed between the villages, buying and selling goods at these markets and fairs.
These traders, and the news they carried with them, kept the local people informed of happenings and events outside their villages. Probably long after these visitors had left, their stories would be retold again and again in the cottages in the area.
Alexander Hosea was apprenticed to a weaver in Wickwar and as weaving is a trade that requires a considerable degree of expertise, Alexander and other apprentices like him would have been required to learn the skills involved in the making of the cloth.
These apprenticeships often began at an early age, so much of Alexander's early schooling would have been acquired through his apprenticeship.
Just as many apprentices lived within their master's house, so they were expected to assist with the chores of the house. It was whilst Alexander, in his early teens, was assisting with one of these domestic chores, that he dropped and broke a pot of whitebait, as he carried it from the bakehouse to his master's house. We are told he was so terrified of his master, that he durst not return to his master and so he set out for London, running away from Wickwar.
Why such an event as the accidental breaking of a pot should meet with this reaction, one can only conjecture, but like many others of that period, Alexander ran away to London, whereas, unlike one other famous absconder he did not take a cat with him.
Further details of Alexander's life in London are very few. He did have relatives in London, and his early training as a weaver enabled him to get jobs. Constant hard work and effort was rewarded by considerable success. He became a manufacturer of silken goods and a successful merchant. Records kept in the Weaver's Company show Alexander as a much respected member of the Guild of Weavers. He was Upper Warden in 1669, Renter Bailiff in 1671 and eventually Upper Bailiff in 1675-6. Such was his success, that he became very wealthy and much respected by his contempories.
Like them, Alexander must have witnessed the great events that centred around London at this time. The Plague in 1665 devastated the city and killed many, whilst the Great Fire in 1666 must have been witnessed by the survivors of the Plague and was recorded by many, including Samual Pepys, the diarist.
In an affidavit, sworn by William Hallier, a native of Wickwar, in 1734 and presented as part of one of the later petitions by the town of Wickwar to the Court of Chancery, Hallier states that Hosea visited Wickwar early in the year of 1683, when he, Hosea, was aged about 62 years old. Whilst Hosea was in the town he consulted the Mayor, a Mr.James Bayley, and the Aldermen about beginning a school for the poor of Wickwar.
This idea was met with approval and obviously Alexander Hosea had let slip the fact that in his will, he would endow such a school, thus ensuring that the upkeep of the School was not a burden on the town.
Hosea revisited Wickwar in the Spring of 1684 and took a house in the town for the School and engaged Mr. Charles Crew as the master. This School continued in the premises until it was housed more permanently later on.
When, in 1683, in the month of March, Alexander Hosea drew up his will amongst many other bequests and dispositions contained within, it gave and bequested to the Mayor, Aldermen and Borough of "Weekworth" £600 to be laid out and settled as his executor should be advised by counsel, for and towards the maintenance of a public school there,for such children only "whose parents were very poor, so they might be taught to write and read, no child to be less capable than of reading the New Testament or Psalter".
Further conditions laid down in the Will concerning the School, were that within every two years a schoolmaster should be chosen by the Mayor, Aldermen and Borough and as they were empowered to select a master they were also instructed "to dismiss him from his room and appoint another to his place upon any misdemeanour".
Before Alexander Hosea died, there was one alteration that benefitted the School's endowment and was added as a codicil to the Will. This gave a house situated in Holbourn, London at the corner of Gray's Inn Lane, to the town and corporation of Wickwar to maintain the School Hosea had founded in "Weekworthe".
In the Spring of 1686 Alexander Hosea was a very sick man and early in May he left London to stay with his cousin, Thomas Collins at Nind Farm, Kingswood. His stay here was short lived and he died three weeks after he arrived, despite the efforts of his servants, two doctors and the local apothecary as well as one Obadiah Williams who "fetched leeches to apply to him" were of no avail.
A request in his will, that he should be buried by his wife in the parish Church of St.Lawrence Jury, next to the Guildhall in London was carried out and his body was brought back to London for burial in the Little Vault of the Church. Before burial he lay in the Weaver's Hall whilst funeral arrangments were made in accordance with the customs for the funeral of such a highly respected Upper Bailiff and benefactor of the Weaver's Guild. Later accounts tell us that the cost of the Funeral came to £387.l2s 8d. The date of the internment given in the register is the 1st July 1686 but the Little Vault has been of late infilled with concrete to underpin the foundations of the Church.
Once the Will of Alexander Hosea was made known, the Mayor, Aldermen and Schoolmaster of Wickwar filed an Information in the Court of Chancery against the representatives of Alexander Hosea. This was done to establish the charity mentioned previously contained in Hosea's will. The Court decreed that the house in Gray's Inn Lane should be subjected and applied to the maintenance of the School and that £600 out of the Hosea Estate and the rents accrued by the houses since Hosea's death be paid into Court.
Subsequently this was done and the Trustees of the Charity were directed to buy so much ground in Wickwar as might be convenient to build a house, for a School, and a dwelling for the two masters to live in. The cost of the ground was not to exceed £400.
What was to be taught in the School was decreed by court order, in accordance with Hosea's will, and the subjects were the Latin tongue; reading and writing.
Two masters were to be employed; one to teach Latin and one to be the "reading and writing master". Together, these two began to teach in Wickwar's new school. Interest must have been considerable in the progress of the pupils at the school. Visits by the Trustees to the school would have been frequent and it seems that after the formative years of the school had passed, a general concern was expressed by the Mayor, Aldermen and residents of Wickwar, about the relevance of part of the school's teaching.
Petitions were sent by the school's trustees to the Court of Chancery asking for certain amendments to be made to modify the trust for the school's management. These amendments questioned the value of teaching Latin in a village school. It would be, so they petitioned, of far more service to the town and people, if the girls were taught to read, knit and sew and the boys to read, write and cast accounts. Unfortunately this common sense displayed in the suggested amendment was denied by the Court of Chancery, who ruled that the teaching as laid down in the old constitution, was to be continued at the school.
Several other petitions were delivered to the Court by the later Mayors and Aldermen of Wickwar but the Court of Chancery refused to amend the original terms of the school's management trust. So the school continued to teach the Latin tongue and reading and writing to the pupils who attended.
Few accurate accounts remain of the school's early years. Most of the documents are concerned only with the petitions that were presented to the Court of Chancery. It is evident from these petitions that only a few pupils ever attained a degree of proficiency in the Latin tongue and that the Latin class was poorly attended. The writing master's class had the attention of the greater number of pupils. Obviously the subjects being taught were more relevant to the life of the children and so they attended in large numbers.
In 1835 a scheme was made by the Charity Commissioners which ordered that the master should be able to teach Latin and give a general English education. The school should consist of 40 free boys of the Parish and 30 girls, also free, who should be taught by a mistress. This scheme if carried through, would mean that the small Latin Class would be incorporated into the larger English Class. Here the reading and writing and Latin would now be taught by one teacher. The other class would be of girls and taught by the mistress.
A further report by the Assistant Commissioners of Charities in 1866, reported that no boy had gone to University or other place of education for many years and that now the teaching was merely that of a national school. Judging by the lack of petitions from the trustees to the Court of Chancery, it would seem that the education available now at the school was more suited to the pupils and their needs. Again, there is a lack of records for this period of the school's life and no way of really knowing how this scheme was implemented at the school.
In 1870 we do have records of two masters at the school, but no mistress. A separate girl's school, a national school, was formed in 1860 by the Earl of Ducie, with a Miss Mary Jane Lovett as mistress and so it would seem the girls went to their own school and were taught to read, knit and sew there.
In 1882, the head of the Endowed School, a Mr.Lawrence Preston, along with the assistant master, Mr. Cause, left the School and ventured into the expanding field of private education. These two masters opened up an independent school named the Collegiate School. This new private school was for boys; eighty boys and forty boarders in fact and it was situated near to Charfield. It was well advertised in the press and was staffed by the former Head of Wickwar Endowed School - Mr. L. Preston, the second master was Mr. Cause. Other staff were Monseigneur E.Gallic, the professor of languages, Sgt.Major Greenfield was the drill master, whilst a Mr. W. Stinchcombe was the professor of music.
The Endowed School closed when the two masters left and no new staff were appointed. It remained closed until 1885 when a new head, Mr. G. Scriven, was appointed and the Charity Commissioners re-organised it as an elementary school. A later scheme, by the Commissioners, slightly amended this title and it re-appeared as a Public Elementary School, still run by a body of Trustees who could make awards of money to any student who continued their education after leaving the Endowed School.
Whether these schemes were ever implemented at the school is doubtful for when Mr.Scriven left in 1893 to be replaced by Mr.W.Woodford the new head wrote in his log book “I took charge of this school May 8th 1893. At the commencement of my work here the school was a secondary one”.
It seems that the previous schemes to re-organise the school as an elementary (Charity) school had not been carried out and it was left to Mr.Woodford to divide the school into standards and prepare a time table in keeping with the code for Public Elementary Schools. The second master, Mr. Bagley, arrived on the day the boys of the National School were transferred to the Wickwar School (The National School was the "girls school", now the Village Hall).
Mr. Woodford continued as head of the school until his death in 1916. A replacement for Mr. Woodford was not easy to find. In the mid-years of the Great War most men, young enough not to be involved in the War were near indispensable at their current jobs. This problem of replacing Mr.Woodford was solved when the position was offered to Miss Woodford who had taught at the school alongside her parents. Miss Woodford took over as temporary headmistress of the school and remained as head until she resigned in 1920. However, she resigned only so that she could marry a soldier who had recently returned from active duty, a Mr.F.S. Robinson. Mr. Robinson had trained as a teacher and during his spells of leave as a soldier he had visited Wickwar School to tell the boys of his experiences in the War. Demobbed, Mr.Robinson married Miss Woodford and was appointed as the new head of Wickwar School.
The amalgamation of the three schools in Wickwar had been discussed by the managing bodies of the schools at some length during the early 1920's. The original idea was that the Endowed School and the Girl's school should be worked as mixed schools; one for senior pupils and one for the juniors and infants. The infants school, at the far end of the village, was to be used for the teaching of manual work and domestic science. Out of this amalgamation of the three schools came one Wickwar School with the schoolroom enlarged on the southern aspect, to accomodate the infants class. The start of the new school, named the Wickwar Council Mixed School, was in January 1926, when the necessary alterations were completed. On the first day the number on roll was 118. Mr. Robinson was the headmaster and he taught Standards V – VII; Miss V, King standards 3 & 4 whilst Miss Goulding took standards 1 & 2. The infants were taught by Mrs Robinson helped by a Miss F.Richmond. An extra hand in the form of a pupil teacher was available on Wednesdays and Thursdays and she was deployed in the infants room.
Spirits were obviously high during these early days. For, two pupils Jeffrey Dibble and Charles Howell, their entering into the spirit of the occasion too fully earned them two strokes of the cane because they filled the inkwells with cocoa during a dinner hour. This was noted by the head in his school log book and alongside he wrote that in future it would be possible to use the Dining Hall and not the Schoolroom itself for mid-day meals. (This hall is the room now at the rear of the School
House).
A new curriculum for the school was devised by the head and it met with the approval of the Inspector who visited the school. Classes were far larger then and the pressure on the staff must have been considerable. The organisation of the whole age range within the one building posed many problems, but those early days are remembered with great affection by the ex-pupils. Mr. Robinson inaugurated many events into the school calendar. He encouraged the parents to visit the school and meet the staff, Carol concerts were given at Christman and Sports competitions with other schools were organised on a regular basis. The first open day was in 1927 and the first school sports day held in 1930. The craft work and cookery lessons were held in the old Infants school and the older boys cultivated a plot of land as a school garden. Their interests ranged from growing vegetables to bee-keeping and prizes were won at various shows as a result of their labours in the garden.
The newly formed school was inspected by His Majesty's Inspectorate after a few months and although the report was brief it did note that the children were well behaved and industrious.
Attendance at the school continued to rise and in January 1928 one hundred and thirty five pupils were on the register. Absences noted by the Head in his Log Book were usually caused by items such as "very poor weather", whooping cough or an epidemic such as measles. One such measles epidemic in 1928 reduced the attendance over a period of three months to 37.6% afflicting both staff and pupils alike. It took several months more to regain a high percentage of attendance. Once this measles epidemic had left the school a new one arrived in the form of scarlet fever. This again ravaged the school, reducing attendance to alow of 53.0% in the July of 1928. The Summer holidays of 1928 seemed to clear the school of infection and the Autumn Term passed free of any large epidemic. A respite at Christmas 1928 saw the new term of 1929 begin with an outbreak of whooping cough along with several reported cases of Diptheria. Such years as this were not usual but it is perhaps a chilling experience to realise that these illnesses were ever present in any school over a period of time.
In 1939, with the outbreak of the Second World War, the school was host to children from Stirchley, a suburb of Birmingham. The school hours were altered to deal with this new influx of children from Stirchley about 86 in number and a shift system was introduced by the Head. Wickwar children attended school from 8 am - 12 noon, Stirchley children from 12.30 to 4.30. The infants were taught in the Old Infants School and the'babies' in the old girls school. The Head noted in the School Log Book that the school nurse had made her visit and inspected the heads reporting that they were "all clear", perhaps allaying local rumours that had persisted about the evacuees to the school.
In 1940 the situation at the school in terms of numbers of children seemed to have eased a little as many of the Stirchley children had returned to their homes. Those who remained in Wickwar were taught within (alongside) the four classes of Wickwar children.
Air Raid warnings were frequent as enemy aircraft searching for industrial targets at Yate, Bristol flew over the area of the school. Depending on the time of the warning the children stayed either in the school cloakrooms or were taken to houses near to the school for safety.
During the war schoolchildren assisted in the efforts to grow more food and the senior children helped on local farms whilst the younger ones gathered rose hips to be processed into the vitamin rich syrup.
Visitors to the school included old boys who were now active soldiers, but on leave. They came to the school and talked to the children about their experiences at the front.
With the end of the war and the return of the remaining Stirchley children to Birmingham the school returned to normal. The implementation of the 1944 Education Act in many authorities took a long time. The transfer of all the pupils above 14 years into a secondary school took place in Wickwar in 1951. A County Secondary School was established in Wotton and this accepted pupils from the primary schools in the surrounding area.
Mr. Robinson and his wife Mrs E.B. Robinson continued at the school until 1953 when they both decided to retire. The assistant master at the school, Mr, C. H, Davis was appointed in Mr.Robinson's place and took up the position as head in September 1953. Unfortunately for the Robinson's their retirement together did not last long for Mrs.E. Robinson died in November 1954, She had taught at the school from 1916 - 1954, 38 years of continuous service at the one shool.
Mr.Davis left the school to take up a headship in Wiltshire in 1957 and in his place the governors appointed Mr. G. P. Morgan from his post at a Cirencester school. As Mr. Morgan could not be released from his post at Cirencester until January 1958, a supply head was employed for the autumn term 1957.
Mr. Morgan continued as head of the school until 1973, when he reached the age of retirement. The governors of the school then appointed the present head, Mr. W. Aplin who was the deputy head at a Wotton Primary School. Another change also occurred in 1973 when the boundaries of the counties in England and Wales were changed resulting in the formation of several new counties. Wickwar along with several other local villages were now part of the new County of Avon, an amalgamation of parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire and the City of Bristol.
The school acquired a Parent Teacher Association and over the years has benefitted from the active involvement of the parents with the School.
Although this account of the School's life is now more or less up to date we cannot finish without making a reference to the body of Wickwar people who, over the years, have formed its governing body. Initially the idea of the founder of the School, the governing body has always taken a very active interest in the life of the School. Support and advice has always been given generously by the governors to the school when ever it has been necessary and it was with their support and encouragement that the Tricentennial Celebrations of the School's founding was undertaken.
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