05 – The Old Grammar School

THE Ilkley Civic Society has continued its campaign to celebrate local people and important buildings which have shaped the town's history.  Members of the society have recently installed a plaque' at the Old Grammar School on Skipton Road.

There is detailed information about the Old Grammar School in Peter Wood’s (Headmaster 1979-2002) book Olicana’s Children and below is a brief extracted summary.

The Old Grammar School was built in 1637 to educate local children.  Although there was a school in Ilkley prior to this (a legacy from one George Marshall, who died around 1598, led to an establishment of a school on 25th May 1607) there was no building, with the teaching taking place in the Church.  On 2 January 1635 fourteen townsmen stated, “by general consent of the inhabitants of the Parish of Ilkley, aforesaid, we whose names are here subscribed do undertake to pay our proportionable rates towards the erection of a schoolhouse”.  By April 1637 on the chosen site on Iand probably owned by one of the fourteen, Christopher Bainton of Wheatley) the building "no more than a cottage with a middle doorway and two four-light windows - Nikolaus Pevsner” had been erected.

The schools financial footing was secured following Reginald Heber’s bequest of £100 in 1697 being added to the remains of the original bequest and invested in land near Pateley Bridge.  Reginald was a son of one of the fourteen (also called Reginald Heber), a former pupil and trained lawyer in the Inner Temple who left the bequest saying, “to the school where I got my learning”.  The Deed of Trust for the lands required that the schoolmaster “do and shall teach and instruct all the male children gratis which shall come to be taught and instructed by him”.

Other than various financial shenanigans over the subsequent 100 years there is not much known about the school.  In 1829 the Brougham Commission, set up to inquire into Charities gave its brief observations on “Ilkley Endowed School – Marshall’s and Heber’s Charities” that included “The Vicar holds the appointment of master of the school, but the scholars are taught by an assistant.  The school has long been conducted on the footing of an English-school only, and all the children in the place are admitted on application to the vicar or the assistant, and they are taught reading without any charge, and writing and accounts on the payment of a small weekly sum.  The average number of scholars is about forty.  The trustees pay to the vicar out of the rents of the estates £46 17s 4d a year, and to the assistant £70a year, and they retain the remainder of the income for the reparation of the school-room, which is a very old building.”

By the time Rev John Sowden (1842-1878) was vicar of Ilkley, there were governance issues and financial problems which resulted in 1864 angry parishioners writing to the Charity Commissioners saying amongst other things “The schoolhouse is falling into decay and in consequence of this state of affairs we are obliged to seek for our children in the neighbouring villages that education which we think this Charity ought to afford”

In 1868 the Taunton Commission (survey of endowed and proprietary schools) confirmed that things in Ilkley were indeed in a bad way.  The Assistant Master, Thomas Wood, featuring in the photograph of the Old Grammar School building in 1869, shortly before it closed, was “working under great difficulty” having to accept every parishioner’s child (45 on roll, 33 attending of which 6 were girls) with the only fee being charged a penny a week.  Of the “thirteen boys at the head of the school, there were only three who could write a short sentence from dictation, and two who could do an addition sum.  Little beyond reading, writing and arithmetic has been attempted, but nothing else has been effectively taught.  In the lower part of the school, it was impossible to find evidence of any teaching or discipline whatever.

Of the building itself the report said “the general aspect of the school is most unpleasing, as the premises are old and in bad repair and very ill adapted for school purposes.  The schoolroom is inconveniently situated close to the high road and there is no playground.”

The conclusion was “it is evident that at present the school serves no useful purpose”.

A scheme was proposed for a fee-paying school, which was unacceptable to the public and instead funds were raised for a National School and in 1872 a new school on Leeds Road.  This is the subject of Tower Court Blue Plaque 4.  The Old Grammar School having closed in 1871.

The schoolhouse was sold for £200, which when added to the realised funds from Heber’s bequest and investment in farms and after expenses left £4,260 for the Trustees to ensure the continuation of a Grammar School on Cowpasture Road in 1893.  Another story that Peter Wood continues to relate in his book.

The Old Grammar School become a cobblers shop before being rented by the Christian Brethren and then owned by Jack Shaw & Co Antiques and Silversmith.

This plaque has been sponsored by a grant from the Bradford Council's Community Chest and the Foundation Governors of Ilkley Grammar School.  It was also supported by the building’s owner Mr J Shaw.

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