HISTORY OF ENMORE SCHOOL

As with many very old institutions there are some details that are hard to establish. Reading about the history of the school one soon discovers that some claims that have been made are incorrect. Enmore was not the first free school but is historically important nonetheless for other reasons.
For the first 100 years the school was known as Enmore National School- named from National Society which was not formally established until 16th October 1811. At the founding meeting, a statement about educational purpose was recorded: "That the National Religion should be made the foundation of National Education, and should be the first and chief thing taught to the poor according to the excellent Liturgy and Catechism provided by our Church."
We were therefore one of the first National Schools- certainly there is no older C of E school that I am aware of in the county although there are a handful in the country.

As with many very old institutions there are some details that are hard to establish. Reading about the history of the school one soon discovers that some claims that have been made are incorrect. Enmore was not the first free school but is historically important nonetheless for other reasons.
For the first 100 years the school was known as Enmore National School- named from National Society which was not formally established until 16th October 1811. At the founding meeting, a statement about educational purpose was recorded: "That the National Religion should be made the foundation of National Education, and should be the first and chief thing taught to the poor according to the excellent Liturgy and Catechism provided by our Church."
We were therefore one of the first National Schools- certainly there is no older C of E school that I am a There were some interesting differences between the models proposed by Bell and Lancaster and in his book; “The Village School Improved” Poole explains which elements of the two models he adopted. The National Society advocated Bell’s method. As the system developed Monitors were paid a small sum. This later developed into pupil becoming teachers after a 4/5 year apprenticeship.

Both Bell and Lancaster’s schools very much urban models.

They arose from a concern over child labour and welfare as a result which developed as a result of a booming urban population. They established free schools for deprived children.

Enmore was therefore the first village school to adopt this system which was later adopted and pushed by National Society and became the mainstay of church school education for over 100 years.

A problem often encountered in these schools was that monitors need to be pretty able in order to effectively fulfil their duties.

John Poole had the, at the time unheard of, idea of also teaching grammar and arithmetic. This was a radical change in a local village school and solved the problem of sourcing effective monitors. Farming children were no longer sent away to school. This enabled the school to be a school for the whole community- not simply the poor.
It was certainly also one of the first schools that aimed to serve the entire rural population. As an early visitor commented “Masters and servants” were educated together.

John Poole’s own book contains the story of the establishment of Enmore School.

In 1810 there was already a small day school run by a Mrs Bailey in one of the Park cottages in the village. This school was reorganised under Poole’s new system. It was moved to a new room in a cottage believed to be near the church.  Equipment such as desks, slates and sand trays for younger children to write in were purchased. The new system was trialled successfully with a group of older children before being fully implemented in July 1810.

By March 1812 there were 70 children. In the summer they assembled at 9 a.m. had lunch at 1 and then came back at 2 until 5. In winter lunch was ¼ of an hour earlier and children would leave according to day length.

Because of materials used it was not a free school- most families paid, those who could not afford to pay had sponsors. Out of the70 attending in 1812, 13 required sponsorship.

The school was soon a great success and pupils who became monitors were often poached by neighbouring schools to teach there. In her book “Tom Poole and his Friends”, published in 1888, Mrs Sandford wrote of this adding, “The institution rapidly attained great celebrity and was visited from far and near by people of all ranks and even foreigners…. Indeed, it was commonly believed that hardly anyone could teach arithmetic like the teachers trained by Mr John Poole.”

The school is frequently referred to in diary of Rev William Holland of Over Stowey. Within a couple of years pupil from Enmore used to set up school at Nether Stowey. Tom Poole of Nether Stowey was John’s cousin. Tom spent some time with Coleridge and Wordsworth but it is fair to say that John did not see eye to eye with the poets: “Coleridge especially talked sad democratic nonsense when I used to meet him at Tom’s”

Wordsworth certainly asked after the school in letters and may well have visited.

In 1835 Government grants were available to assist school building. John Poole successfully applied and by 1837 plans for the present building, on land donated by the Earl of Egmont, were drawn up. Total cost £277.

In 1847 work commenced on ground known as Long Six Acres made available by deed in 1847 by Sophia Gould and Nicholas Broadmead. The school hold this deed in the safe.

The school was built by local family Abraham, Isaac, Robert and John Loxton. Work was completed in 1848.

John Poole secured the school’s future by having six cottages built. Some of these still retain the name School Cottages. They are close to the Tynte Arms.

The rent was added to what became known as the Poole Trust which maintained the fabric of the school. The sale of two cottages (Dixies Cottages) owned by John also bolstered this trust.

John was getting on at this time and needed to employ regular teachers. He died at the age of 87 in 1857

The first teacher was Ann Daw (later Wiltshire) from Wiveliscombe. She taught at the school for more than 30 years. When she retired in 1884 the 2 monitoresses were Constance Collard and Fanny Mayled. The new head, Mary Bryant, from Jersey, started on 24th February 1885 on a wage of £60/year. She died in 1893 from an epidemic on 25th January.

Some of more interesting log book entries relate to WW2

4th October 1938
All school children have been fitted for gas masks and the records sent to Mr Anger, ARP Warden.

1st September 1939
School closed. State of Country Emergency.

11th September 1939
School re- opened and 11 children from other districts admitted.

21st June 1940
38 evacuees from West Ham LCC took over the Memorial Hall for educational purposes.

By July 1942 there were just 11 children left. The others had drifted back home and these 11 were admitted to the school.

4th April 1944
Sergeant Greed of the Bridgwater Police Force spoke to all of the children about “Butterfly Bombs” yesterday.

6th June 1944
D- day. Children walked to church at 3.20 and a short service was held.

The Education Act of 1944, moved control of the school from the church to the LA. Enmore became a Voluntary Controlled school.

In 1952 the school was listed

In 1953 the school in Goathurst was closed and 13 children transferred to Enmore.

Miss Stubbs 1956- 1963 was the last headteacher to live at the school

6th March 1961
After 2 ½ years the school and house have at last been supplied with electricity. What a fight! This was linked to Hinkley Point power station. Much of their big equipment was stored in the village.

1963- 40 pupils on roll

In the mid to late 60s a hutted unit was erected. This contained a kitchen and classroom.

The 70s saw for children from Durleigh travelling out to the school the first time. The school was now serving a comparatively mixed community. At this time there were 70- 80 children on roll.

1995 Enmore went Grant Maintained. This became a National Press headline: “Village Split by historic school’s move to opt out” Only 3% of primary schools took this option of being directly funded.

Grant Maintained status was abolished in 1998 and Enmore became a Foundation School.

The school rebuilding started in 1998 and was concluded in 2006.