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HISTORY of
EDUCATION
at FOWEY
Prior to the building of the present Fowey Community
College, on the Windmill at the top of the hill, education took place in the Girls
and Boys Board School and Fowey Grammar School, located on Daglands Road.
In 1692 the Free School was given a permanent income;
£500 was available for educating 30 poor children of Fowey and adjacent places.
Land was handed over by John Treffry to John Rashleigh and Shadrach Vincent on the
understanding that a Free School would be built on the site.
John Johns died, leaving £8.10 shillings (£8.50)
for teaching poor children to read and £1.3 shillings (£1.15) a year for
books.
Boys' Education.
In
1856 fees for the educating of the boys were set at:
2 shillings (10p) per quarter for sons of Fishermen,
Labourers and Journeymen.
10 shillings (50p) per quarter for boys under 10 years
15
shillings (75p) per quarter for boys of 10 to 12 years
20 shillings (£1.00)
per quarter for boys over 12 years
Boys' subjects included:
Christian Religion, Mathematics (including Algebra),
Navigation, Arithmetic, English Literature, Composition, Reading, Writing, History,
Geography with Languages, Arts and Sciences (according to the wishes of the Trustees)
and Greek and Latin for the more advanced boys (if their parents wished).
Girls' Education.
In
1856 it was proposed to erect suitable premises for the education of girls and fees
varied from 2d (1p) to 1 shilling (5p) payable weekly.
Girls' subjects were:
Christian Religion, English Grammar, Reading, Writing,
Arithmetic, Geography, History, Sewing, Needlework and Singing.
Interesting Dates and Events
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1876 |
saw the opening of the Fowey Board School. 51 boys were admitted. | |
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1878 |
a policeman visited the school with a summons for two boys for misbehaving at Church. | |
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1885 |
only a dozen pupils attended school as streets of Fowey were impassable due to
flooding to a depth of two feet of water caused by the spring tide. | |
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1902 |
the school was closed for a holiday. Peace was declared and the Boer War ended. | |
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1935 |
a special prize was awarded to William Earnest Knapp, who had a perfect attendance
for 9 years and 5 months, probably the whole of his school life. | |
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1939 |
the first radio set was bought for the school at a cost of £14.14 shillings
(£14.70), the age of Technology was beginning. | |
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1939 |
the school was closed owing to the outbreak of war | |
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1940 |
Polruan Boys School was bombed. | |
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1941 |
girls taken to Fowey Hall to make camouflage nets for the war effort. | |
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1943 |
the school was cleared and all boys were in the air raid shelter within 30 seconds. | |
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1945 |
the school was closed for 2 days holiday to celebrate V.E. Day. | |
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1954 |
saw a class of the Girls' School situated in a Nissen Hut at Windmill, adjacent
to what is now the entrance of the Community College.. Several of these huts, built
in 1943 by the U.S. Navy, were in existence at the time. | |
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1957 |
on September 1st, Fowey County Secondary School was opened at the top of the hill,
later to become known as Fowey Comprehensive School, Fowey School and at present,
Fowey Community School). | |
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1963 |
the flagpole was dismantled for erection at Fowey County Secondary School. | |
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1968 |
saw the merging of Fowey Grammar and Fowey County Secondary Schools into the Fowey
Comprehensive School. | |
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1972 |
the school underwent its first extension work, ( opened by Margaret Thatcher the
then Secretary for Education, later to become the country's first woman Prime Minister),
to accommodate the extra number of pupils due to the raising of the School leaving
age to 16 years. |
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