SCHOOLS 



estimated by the founder to produce an income of 300 a year, of which 

 6 13*. Afd. was to provide a dinner to the town council, 23 6s. 8</. for 

 doles, &c., and the rest, or 270 a y ear > f r the school. Invested in land at 

 Awre and Blakeney, amounting to 954 A. I R. 39 p., the income in 1852 had 

 risen to some 1,700 a year. Under a scheme of the Court of Chancery, 



5 March, 1852, the hospital was rebuilt and the number of 'blue boys' 

 increased to 34. But the education given remained wholly elementary. 

 The trustees of this charity were the Municipal Charity Trustees, and con- 

 curred with the trustees of the Crypt School on 14 April, 1877, in asking 

 for a scheme to unite the two charities. 



On 10 August, 1878, the Charity Commissioners published a scheme 

 under the Endowed Schools Acts to give effect to the trustees' proposals. Hot 

 opposition was offered to the scheme, mainly by the old boys of the Blue 

 Coat School, on the ground chiefly of the proposed abolition of the appren- 

 ticeships and the alleged disregard of the poverty qualifications. A public 

 inquiry held on 17 19 June, 1879, showed that the payment of apprentice- 

 ship premiums was practically obsolete, and the apprenticeship had become 

 merely a dole, and that the class from which the boys had been drawn was 

 precisely the class that would obtain scholarships under the new scheme. 



THE GLOUCESTER UNITED ENDOWED SCHOOLS 



In the result the scheme was approved by Queen Victoria in Council on 

 3 May, 1882, with a few unimportant alterations. The scheme consolidated 

 the Crypt and Blue Coat Schools and two connected charities as the Glou- 

 cester United Endowed Schools, under a governing body of 18, of whom 



6 were appointed by the Town Council and 6 by the Municipal Charity 

 Trustees, and 6 were co-optatives. There were to be 4 schools ; the Crypt 

 Grammar School for 160 boys, 120 day boys and 40 boarders at tuition fees 

 of 5 to 10 a y ear > giving an ordinary second-grade grammar-school 

 education, with 15 scholarships for boys from Rich's School, and with 3 50 

 exhibitions to the University. Sir Thomas Rich's School was to be a lower- 

 grade school at tuition fees of 2 to 4 a year, with 30 scholarships for boys 

 from public elementary schools. There were to be upper and lower girls' 

 schools corresponding to the two boys' schools. At this time the income of 

 the endowments was over 3,000 a year. 



The Crypt School went on much as before the scheme, averaging about 

 1 20 boys. 



Rich's School was established under Mr. James Crofts, at tuition fees of 

 3 a year and 3 15*. in the 3 upper forms, the leaving age being 15. It 

 soon rose in numbers and averaged about 240 boys, getting a good general 

 education, French being taught in all classes, Latin as an optional subject 

 pretty generally taken in the upper forms. Some 90 boys were in the science 

 classes earning grants from the Science and Art Department, South Kensing- 

 ton. After 1888, owing to a falling off in the income from the endowment 

 to the extent of some 600 a year, due to the depression in agriculture, the 

 bulk of the scholarships had to be suspended. 



The lower girls' school was set up in Mynd House in Barton Street in 

 1890 under Miss Barwell, B.A. of London University. The numbers 

 a 353 45 



