SCHOOLS 



In 1879, the Upper School, having only an 

 endowment of ;Ci20 a year, was in financial 

 difficulties, while the Middle School, having 

 285 boys, and being used as a practising school 

 by the Battersea Training College, and there- 

 fore cheaply conducted, was flourishing. So 

 it was proposed to close the Upper School and 

 the elementary school and transfer all endow- 

 ments to the Middle School. The elementary 

 school was closed and its buildings annexed 

 to the Middle School. 



But the Upper School was saved by the 

 advent in 1880 of Mr. William Henry 

 Bindley, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 

 as Headmaster. He quickly put a new 

 aspect on its affairs. The numbers rose 

 from forty-eight at the beginning of i88i, 

 to 160 in 1 89 1, while the endowment was 

 increased to ;£266 a year by the sale of part 

 of the site to the London and South Western 

 Railway Company. The tone of the educa- 

 tion was raised. Greek was added, and 

 science was now adequately taught. Even- 

 tually a new scheme under the Endowed 

 Schools Acts, approved by Queen Victoria, 

 23 November 1893, definitely recognised the 

 Upper School by the title, long used in fact, 

 of Battersea Grammar School, and the char- 

 acter of its education as that of a first-grade 

 school of the modem type, not excluding 

 Greek, but placing most insistence on modern 

 subjects. 



The curtailment of the premises is not of 

 so much moment as it might have been, as the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Clapham Com- 

 mon makes adequate provision for school 

 games. 



It was a great pity that when the scheme 

 was made the whole resources of the founda- 

 tion were not concentrated on this school and 

 the Middle School handed over as a practis- 

 ing school to the Battersea Training College. 

 The attempt to carry on two schools of a 

 different type, though no longer in the same 

 buildings, on a limited endowment, cannot be 

 a permanently successful experiment. 



THE MARY DATCHELOR GIRLS' 

 SCHOOL, CAMBERWELL 



One of the most striking newcomers into 

 the educational field of the ancient county of 

 Surrey is the Mary Datchelor Girls' School, 

 in Camberwell, a short distance from Wilson's 

 Grammar School for boys. In outward 

 appearance it bears a most sister-like resemb- 

 lance to the male institution. Mary Datch- 

 elor originally established a charity by will, 

 the main object of which was to preserve for 

 herself and her sisters the exclusive right to a 



vault in St. Andrew Undershaft Church, in 

 the City. The actual foundation was assured 

 by deed of her sister, Beatrice Cook, 26 Sep- 

 tember 1726, whereby she gave the Dutch 

 Coffee House — a century later called the 

 Anti-Gallican Coffee House— in Thread- 

 needle Street, in the city of London, on trust 

 for the maintenance of Mary Datchelor's 

 monument, certain doles, and other purposes 

 including ;C20 for apprenticing two poor 

 children. The Court of Chancery, by scheme 

 of 29 March 1823, increased the poor children 

 to six, the income of the charity being £1263 

 year. In 1 863 the quondam Coffee House was 

 sold for ;C3o,ooo. By a scheme of the Charity 

 Commissioners, 12 May 1871, two-thirds 

 of this money were directed to be applied 

 for a girls' school. No site being obtainable 

 near St. Andrew Undershaft, and the popula- 

 tion of the parish having dwindled to almost 

 nothing, by a scheme under the Endowed 

 Schools Acts, 19 February 1875, the scope of 

 selection of a site for the school was extended, 

 and on 24 October 1878, a couple of houses 

 in Camberwell Grove were bought, and the 

 school established. It met with such instant 

 success, that by a scheme of 14 August 1879, 

 the trustees of other charities in St. Andrew 

 Undershaft obtained the application of Sir 

 Henry Lee's charity, founded in 1619, for a 

 sermon and dole, and three other like charities, 

 the richest of which was one founded by 

 Thomas Arch in 1672, to the school ; while 

 by another scheme of 25 October 1881, 

 a small apprenticing charity, founded by 

 Thomas Coventry in 1636, was added to the 

 endowment. 



With these charities a new school was built 

 at a cost of close on £12,000. The income 

 left for maintenance of the school was, in 

 1883, about £^$0 a year. 



Under a scheme of 15 October 1894, the 

 Clothworkers' Company were constituted 

 governors of both the school and its endow- 

 ments, so long as they should contribute not 

 less than ;£400 a year for its support beyond 

 the income of the endowments. 



Under Miss Rigg, who has been head- 

 mistress from the beginning in 1877, the 

 school has grown to 445 girls, paying £g a 

 year tuition fees, with twenty regular form 

 mistresses. The girls learn all the subjects 

 taught in boys' Grammar Schools, with the 

 addition of cooking, dressmaking, and needle- 

 work. There are eighteen entrance scholar- 

 ships with a preference for parishioners of 

 St. Andrew Undershaft, but as at the last 

 census, the population of that parish was 

 only 218, the demand for the preference is not 

 great. Leaving exhibitions to the universi- 



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