106 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



These repressive conditions could not last under our British temperament, 

 and the position became easier when the courts of law decided in Cox's Case 

 (1 700) that ecclesiastical control did not extend to any schools except Grammar 

 Schools, while in Douses Case (1701) it decided that it was not a civil offence 

 to keep an elementary school without a Bishop's licence. ' This school was 

 not within the Act of James I., because the Act extends to Grammar Schools, 

 and Douses School was for reading and writing.' Then Parliament in 1714 

 definitely exempted elementary schools from the Conformity legislation. 

 As a result, we find many undenominational elementary schools were founded 

 soon after this. About one-third of the whole of the endowed schools in 

 Lancashire were founded about this period, including Lytham School (1702) 

 and Baines' three schools (1717). 



Lytham Schools. 



Various sums of money (commencing with £5 from Mr. Threlfall, of 

 Lytham) were given about 1 702, the profits whereof were to be employed ' for 

 the only use of poor children's schooling.' About 1720, by an agreement, 

 a sum of £100 was added to the school stock from money which had been 

 raised to repair damage done by a great inundation of the sea. For some 

 reason, the division of this sum among those whose property had been damaged 

 could not be settled, so it was given to the school fund, and put out to interest. 

 Later there were various bequests. Harrison's will (1 728) added £60, and by 

 Gaulter's will (1748) over £300 was received, the various monies also being 

 put out to interest. The trustees purchased lands in 1754 and again in 1767 

 with the funds (including, in addition to other lands in Layton, dwelling- 

 houses and land situated in Blackpool ' near a place called Lane Ends '). 



As the income from the property increased, schemes for the administration 

 of the Charity were made by the Charity Commissioners, and later by the 

 Board of Education, when the Orders in Council of 1900, 1901 and 1902 

 (made under the Board of Education Act, 1899) had transferred the powers of 

 the Charity Commissioners, so far as they related to educational charities, 

 to the Board. 



In addition to the elementary school at Lytham, another school at Heyhouses 

 (probably at first for girls and infants) was in existence in 1824, and was 

 supported by the Charity. In 1867 John Talbot Clifton (who had provided 

 sites for the rebuilding of Lytham School and for the enlargement of Heyhouses 

 School) gave land at St. Annes for a school there, together with £500 ; also 

 £1 25 was given by Lady Cecily Clifton towards the building. Another school, 

 St. John Schools, being in financial difficulties in 1880, the managers appealed 

 to the trustees of the Charity to take over this school. The Charity Com- 

 missioners refused their consent, for this was a Church of England school, 

 and the Lytham Charity was undenominational, but the Commissioners 

 authorised a contribution of £100 per annum. In 1896, this school was 

 closed, and later came under the Charity trustees. 



As the Charity funds were increasing in value, Sir Amherst Selby Bigge, 

 then an Assistant Charity Commissioner, held an enquiry at Lytham, and 

 ultimately a scheme was made in 1899 for the ' Lytham School Charities,' 

 allowing £450 annually for the three schools — Lytham, Heyhouses, and St. 



