Barlestone village is 3 miles north-east of Market Bosworth and 11 miles west of Leicester.
Daily schools for poorer families in 1818 (population 558 in 1811, with 29 poor people)
Barlestone had no day school of its own, but as with four other local villages, children from poorer families could receive a free education at the Dixie Grammar School in Market Bosworth. However, the funds and property that provided an annual income of £700 to support the Grammar School were tied up in the Chancery Court and it was reported that ‘there has been no proper master for 30 years’. Comment was made that ‘The poor are desirous of possessing more sufficient means of educating their children’.
Daily schools in 1833 (population 582 in 1831)
The village had three infant schools, teaching 36 children, both male and female, and one daily school with 26 male pupils, all of which were supported by the parents of the children.
Daily schools connected to the Anglican Church in 1846-7
The Market Bosworth Grammar School and Barlestone are listed together as the ‘Market Bosworth and Barleston Grammar School’. The endowed grammar school was only open to boys. There were 60 male pupils, taught in one ‘legally secured’ schoolroom by one schoolmaster, supported by the endowment. The 75 female pupils had a schoolroom that was ‘not secured’, one schoolmaster, one schoolmistress and one assistant master. The female pupils were supported by a subscription and payments from parents.
Read about schools in Barlestone, 1870-1901
Sunday schools
In 1818
There were no Sunday schools listed at this time.
In 1835
Two Sunday schools were listed. One was connected to the General Baptists, attended by 53 males and 43 females, and had a lending library attached. The other was connected to the Primitive Methodists, taught 21 males and 19 females, and had started in 1824. Both of these schools were funded through annual collections. There was no Anglican Sunday school in the village.
Anglican Sunday school in 1846-7
The daily school maintained a Sunday school as well, with the same pupils attending both.
In 1851 (population 576)
St. Giles parish church in Barlestone had 64 scholars attending Sunday school on the morning of 30 March 1851, and 66 in the afternoon of the same day. The Baptist Chapel recorded 52 scholars at the Sunday school on the same morning, with no afternoon or evening Sunday school held.
Return to A History of Leicestershire Schools: A-Z
Sources
- Education of the Poor Digest, Parl. Papers 1819 (224)
- Education Enquiry, Parl. Papers 1835 (62)
- National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, Result of the Returns to the General Inquiry made by the National Society, into the state and progress of schools for the education of the poor … during the years 1846-7, throughout England and Wales ( London, 1849).
- 1851 Ecclesiastical census