Katharine Lady Berkeley School one of the oldest grammar schools in England
| This was the earliest known case of grammar school
foundation by a lay person, independent of the church; the first by a woman;
and the first of its kind in which tuition was offered free to all who entered.
The pioneering sprit behind this venture, Katharine, the Dowager Lady Berkeley,
widow of the third Lord Thomas, lived in troubled times. England was being
drained financially and in terms of morales by the Hundred years' War, at
that time around half way through its tortuous course, and the Black Death
was raging. Indeed, three of Katharine's four sons died in early childhood,
though the causes are not known. The only survivor was the last, John, who
was born in Wotton rather than Berkeley. It was towards the end of her 65 years - indeed, less than six months before her death - that Katharine and her two chaplains, Burnell and Pendock, fixed their seals to the school's foundation deeds, on October 20, 1384. The deed, reflecting that instruction in grammar was "very frequently disappointed and frustrated by reason of poverty and want", went on to assert that the chaplains had purchased certain lands and tenements . . .that they may build a new certain schoolhouse in Wotton under Edge for the habitation or foundation likewise may be able to dispose of the said estates for support of one Master and two poor Scholars of the art of grammar; which said Master and his successors shall govern and instruct all the scholars coming to the said house or school for the learning this art, without taking anything for their trouble from then or any of them. From this it is obvious that it was in response to a need and demand for learning, rather than through religious piety, that Katharine made her foundation in Wotton, her estates' major centre of population. It is equally obvious that even before this time, some kind of school must have existed in the town. There are not too many people round Wotton these days who remember Lady Berkeley and her chaplains - but thousands can look back to the days before 1963, when KLB was housed in what have now come to be known as the old school buildings in School Lane. These were built in 1726, and served adequately enough until 1900, when the school became co-educational buildings in the town. When it moved to the present site in 1963 it was still as a grammar school, and the first plan was for Wotton's secondary modern school to move in alongside it, retaining its separate identity. In the decade up to 1973, through, during which time the second phase of the new building was completed, a fully comprehensive scheme was drawn up, with few of the traumas that appear to be besetting the likes of Stroud and Gloucester at present. Certainly, not all the old grammar school's governors and parents were overjoyed with the proposals, but KLB was always tiny by grammar school standards, around the 350 mark, and the secondary modern was even smaller. Todays roll stands at 1465 pupils, 241 of them in the sixth form, taught by 91 teachers, 86 which are Full time. The head master Mr A Harris Edward Jenner the pioneer of smallpox vaccine, is undoubtedly the star old pupil of the school. Attended from about 1757 to 1760 he was credited at an early age with an interest in dormice and fossils. A detailed History of the school has been produced by Frederck Hornsby, a headmaster in the 1950's, and Peter Griffin, head of History. A 220 page book - Katharine Lady Berkeley School , 1384 - 1984 can be bought from the bookshops in Wotton and Stroud, or direct from the school. |
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COTSWOLDS ~ AMY COOK ~ BERKELEY HOUSE ~ ISAAC PITMAN ~ KLB POST OFFICE ~ WOTTON HIGHWAYMAN ~ PHOTO ALBUM ~ SITE INDEX ~ LINKS sendinfo@cotswoldedge.org.uk |