A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



was evidendy a system of rotation for service in this 

 office, for in 1766 an overseer was described as serving 

 out of his turn. Before the 19th century only i church- 

 warden was usually appointed, but sometimes 2. 



The parish owned 2 houses, each divided into 2 

 tenements, for accommodating the poor. One of the 

 houses stood at Weald Gullet and was copyhold of 

 the manor of North Weald; it was acquired for parish 

 use in 1766.^5 The other was at Skips Corner and 

 was freehold. How long the parish had owned it is 

 not clear, and in 1838 when the houses were sold the 

 deed of conveyance did not recite any earlier deed and 

 only stated that the house had been 'for many years' 

 parish property.'* 



In 161 3-14 the four overseers spent £6 16/. iid. 

 on poor relief, making grants of money, paying rents, 

 and supplying wood." By 1680 disbursements had 

 risen to some ;{^30-;£40 a year. There was a steady 

 increase throughout the 18th century, ;^200 being 

 reached in 1761 and ^^300 in 1781. By 1801-2 ex- 

 penditure had risen to ^^863 and it averaged about ;^8oo 

 between 18 10 and 1822. The division of expenditure 

 between the hamlets and the main body of the parish 

 varied considerably but usually approximated to their 

 respective proportions of the rateable assessment. The 

 parish overseer accounted for about half the expendi- 

 ture: in 1 801-2, for example, his expenses amounted 

 to ;^45 5, those of the Thorn wood overseer to ^^237 14J. 

 and of the Hastingwood overseer to ^^170 11^. The 

 hamlets were not so independent that they were left 

 to bear the burden of their expenditure alone. The 

 same rates were levied on all, whatever their share of 

 the total expenditure, and at the final audit at Easter a 

 deficit in one account was balanced by the surplus of 

 another. Usually all overseers had surpluses which 

 were paid to the churchwarden to meet his accounts. 

 Doctors' bills for attending the poor were being paid 

 from 1738. From 1778 the parish doctor received a 

 regular salary of 7 guineas a year. North Weald was 

 one of the parishes which contributed to the Society 

 for the Promotion of Industry founded in 1794 by 

 John Conyers of Epping. In 1836 the parish became 

 part of the Epping Poor Law Union. 



Simon Thorogood, fishmonger of London, by his 

 will proved in 1635, left ^^50 to build a 

 SCHOOLS schoolroom at North Weald, and en- 

 dowed it with ;^io a year from an estate 

 called Hartsgrove in Barking to pay a schoolmaster to 

 teach children from this and neighbouring parishes. '^ 

 The school was not actually established until 1678, 

 because of what Morant called 'some bad manage- 

 ment'.79 It subsequently flourished and seems to have 

 had a continuous existence throughout the i8th 

 century.8" By the early 19th century it had ap- 

 parently declined. In 1818 there were said to be only 

 6 pupils on the foundation, possibly because two other 

 schools had been established in the parish.*' About 

 1829 the vicar revived the school by increasing the 



" E.R.O., D/DBm M199. 



" E.R.O., D/DCc T25. 



" E.R.O., C/SBa 3. 



'8 r.C.H. Essex, ii, 559; P.C.C. Tear 

 Bks. of Probates, 1635-9, P- ^4> E-R-O., 

 D/P 84/1/,. 



'» Morant, Essex, i, 151. 



"> Ibid.; Colchester Borough Libr. MS. 

 Crisp*s Marriage Regs., vol. A— B, p. 



39- 



" Reins. Educ. Poor, H.C. 224, p. 275 

 (i8i9),ix(i). 



number of pupils and by establishing in conjunction 

 with it a Sunday school which flourished for many 

 years. In 1833 he was receiving, in addition to the 

 trust income of ;^i o, about j£i 2 in local contributions. *^ 

 He supervised the school and appointed the master, 

 who lived rent free and taught in a cottage situated be- 

 tween the road and the churchyard and thought to be 

 the original 17th-century schoolhouse. The pupils 

 paid i(i'. a week to learn to read and a higher fee for 

 writing; the girls were taught plain needle-work, ap- 

 parently by the master's wife.^J In 1838 the school 

 was occupying one of a pair of houses immediately east 

 of the old cottage.^ 



The population of the parish was almost 900 at this 

 time and the schoolhouse could not accommodate all 

 the children needing education. In 1839 there were 

 63 attending it; another 40 went to dame schools in 

 the parish. 85 In 1842 the vicar, Henry Cockerell, col- 

 lected subscriptions for a new school. The pair of 

 cottages previously mentioned was either rebuilt or 

 incorporated in a new school building of red brick.** 

 Although called a National School throughout the 

 remainder of the century it does not seem to have been 

 in union with the National Society. *' The attendance 

 increased rapidly after the building of the new school, 

 reaching 95 in 1846—7.** The master and mistress, 

 who were untrained, were then receiving ^42 a year, 

 a salary which the vicar thought insufficient to attract 

 competent teachers. Attendance at the school remained 

 steady for 20 years: in 1867 there were 97 pupils, all 

 children of farm workers, taught by an uncertificated 

 master and mistress.*' There was a special class for 

 the free scholars, said to number 40 in 1848.9" 



After the Education Act of 1870 Churchmen in the 

 parish decided to increase the accommodation, which 

 the official inquiry in 1871 showed to be quite inade- 

 quate." The Education Department pressed for the 

 provision of places for all the 160 children in the parish 

 needing elementary education.'^ A building com- 

 mittee was therefore established, which collected ^£334 

 in voluntary subscriptions and raised a further ^^256 

 by means of a voluntary rate of 9^/. The school was 

 extended at a total cost of ^^61 5 to accommodate about 

 150.93 A government proposal at this time to amalga- 

 mate North Weald and Stanford Rivers (q.v.) in a 

 single school district was dropped after strong opposi- 

 tion from North Weald. 



The enlarged accommodation and the increasing 

 population of the parish made possible an increase in 

 average attendance, from 59 in 1875 to 81 in 1886 

 and 122 in 1893; the annual grant to the school 

 increased from ^^33 to ^{^61 and ;^93 at the same dates. ^'^ 

 In 1 894 the accommodation was further increased to 

 214 places by the addition of an infants' room at a cost 

 of ^£250, defrayed by local contributions and some 

 grants from church organizations. In 1897 a new 

 teacher's house was built in place of the old cottage in 

 the churchyard. 95 In 1902 the average attendance 



8^ Educ. Enquiry Ahstr. H.C. 62, p. 284 

 (1835), xli; E.R.O., D/P 30/28/19. 



83 Ibid.; V.C.H. Essex, ii, 559. 



8t E.R.O., D/CT 387. 



85 E.R.O., D/P 30/28/19. 



8' Min. of Educ. File 13/284. 



8' Ibid.; IVhite's Dir. Essex (1863), p. 

 736. 



88 Nat. Soc. Enquiry into Church Schs. 

 1846-7, pp. 14-15. 



8« V.C.B. Essex, ii, 559. 



«o White's Dir. Essex (1848), p. 429; 



D. W. CoUer, People's Hist. Essex, 481. 



9> Retns. Elem. Educ. H.C. 20I, pp. 

 iio-ii {1871), Iv. 



«2 Min. of Educ. File 13/342. 



93 E.R.O., D/P 84/8. 



9* Rep. of Educ. Cttee. of Council, 1S7S 

 [C. 1513-1]. P- 533. H.C. (1876), xxiii; 

 ibid. 1886 [C. 5123], p. 520, H.C. (1887), 

 xxviii; Retn. of Schs. i8g3 [C. 7529], p. 

 715, H.C. (1894), Ixv. 



95 Ex. Inf. Nat. Soc. 



294 



