SCHOOLS 



The Dissolution of Chicheley's College 



On 1 8 July, 1 542,' Robert Goldson, master or warden, with Thomas 

 Frere and Thomas Graive, the last of whom was probably the school- 

 master, ' voluntarily ' surrendered the college to the king. 



On 17 April, 1543, the king granted to Robert Dacres all the 

 property of the college, including the chapel of Jesus and the vicar- 

 age, excluding however the actual site and buildings of the college/ 

 The grant contained a proviso that Dacres, his heirs and assigns, 

 should maintain two chaplains to be named by the crown ' to pray 

 for the soul of the king and his successors,' and to act as parish 

 priests, paying to the superior chaplain >Ci°' ^"^ t° ^^^ inferior 

 chaplain £8, a year, ' and that the said Robert Dacres his heirs and 

 assigns shall for all time to come find and maintain a sufficient school- 

 master, sufficiently learned in the science of grammar, to be named and 

 appointed ' by the crown ' well and diligently to teach and educate 

 freely (libere) boys and youths in the science of grammar at Higham 

 Ferrers,' and out of the issues, rents, and revenues of the church and lands 

 granted ' to pay the same schoolmaster for his salary £\o ii year' by two 

 equal instalments at Lady Day and Michaelmas. Provision was also 

 made for the maintenance of the twelve almsmen and one woman in the 

 bedehouse which the grantee was also bound to keep in repair. 



The School Building 



An interesting question arises as to the building in which the 

 grammar school has for many years been and was probably always held. 

 This is a remarkably beautiful little Perpendicular building 36 ft. 6 in. 

 long by 16 ft. 6 in. broad, standing in the churchyard a little to the 

 west of the church. There is a five-light window at each end and three 

 windows on each side, those on the north side being now filled up. It 

 has long been reputed to be the refectory of the bedehouse, apparently 

 because of what the historian Bridges called 'a stone pulpit fixed in the 

 wall with stone stairs to ascend it,' in which it was thought that the lessons 

 were read during dinner. But there is no such pulpit. A stone ledge 

 projecting from the south wall, which has been taken for the book-rest 

 of a pulpit, is the top step leading to the rood-loft of what is almost 

 certainly the Jesus chapel mentioned in the grant to Robert Dacres. 

 It is quite possible that it is the school in which Henry Barton taught ; 

 if so then it is the oldest school-building in England. Even if it were 

 the school built by Chicheley it would be the oldest school-building still 

 used as a school, the old school at Winchester, though in existence, 

 being much altered and no longer used as a schoolroom. 



' P.R.O. Augmentation Office Surrenders, No. 102. 



' These were sold i July, 1564, to John Smyth and Richard Duffield, of London, gentlemen (Pat. 

 6 Eliz. pt. vii), and were afterwards bought by the Fitzwilliams. 



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