|
In 1871 the small school under
Mr. Field at Berry’s Maple closed. It was to this school that
Mr John Rogers’ father1 went as a young boy, but
when it closed he moved to the Free School for boys in what is
today the Village Post Office (see Fig 3). This was the school
that was run by Mr George Elcombe, who appears to have held a
prominent position in the village, amongst other posts he was
clerk to the Church, and, as Mr Trend reports on behalf of his
father ‘….his grave can be found just inside the Church
Gates, on the left marked by a round iron gravestone.2
Actually this gravestone is no longer there and was
probably removed for the war effort between 1939 and 1945. |
|
The little school that Mr Elcombe run
finally closed in 1879, making the present school the only one
in Ash and Ridley. The school in Ridley being closed in 1878 by
a Parish Meeting held on January 4th 1877 which ‘resolved that
the £12 normally paid by the rate payers to the Rev. Phelps
(Rector of Ridley) for the education of the Ash children in the
Ridley Schools, be discontinued, that notice be given to Mr.
Phelps that it will cease after Christmas next.3
1 See appendix 5.
2 Op cit.
3
Minutes of the Vestry Meetings, January 4th 1877. |