CHAPTER 6.

THE REVIVAL OF THE SCHOOL IN THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.

The history of Kibworth Grammar School reflects locally
what was happening in the country at large.   The eighteenth
century had been a period of decline in education; the nineteenth
century threw off the sloth of its predecessor and ushered in a
period of reform in all aspects of life, and especially in education.
The first stirrings of this reform were felt in the great Public
Schools, but gradually the reforms reached the small Grammar
Schools so that their standards were raised, though the State had
finally to step in, in order to bring them up to the required standard.

At Kibworth the recovery may be said to date from about
1820. The Rev. Joseph Wilson died, in 1803 and was succeeded
by the Rev. Jeremiah Goodman, but the change of Head made
little difference to the School, for William Buzzard continued as
usher to the few boys who attended what was, to all intents and
purposes, the village school. When Carlisle was collecting infor-
mation for his history of the Grammar Schools of England, he
wrote a letter in 1816 to the Governors of Kibworth, but, as one
would expect, they were not sufficiently interested in the School
to return a reply to his letter.  Soon after this date, however,
things began to change for the better for the School, and the
trustee mainly responsible for this improvement was Mr. Joseph
Cradock.

Cradock was a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge,
and was interested in education. Having built Gumley Hall, he
collected there a fine library, and to Gumley came many eighteenth-
century personalities, including David Garrick, who is reported to
have played the Ghost at a private performance at Gumley Hall,
while Cradock played Hamlet. Cradock had been appointed a
trustee of Kibworth School in 1780, and in 1820 was one of the
four survivors left. He naturally shared in the growing interest
in educational reform and, in an effort to start some improvement
at Kibworth, he decided to have new feoffees appointed. For this
purpose he called together a general meeting of the inhabitants in
the Village Hall, at which he received support for his plans.

When he sought to draw up a new conveyance, however,
Cradock experienced great difficulty, for the deeds of 1775 and
1780 were missing from the School chest.   The last deed in
existence was that of 1754; but the feoffees of this were long since
dead, and so it seemed that the trust could not be continued
because the absence of the 1780 deed deprived the four living
survivors of legal authority to make a new feoffment.  Thus,
Cradock had to refer the matter to Chancery, and finally in 1822
fifteen new feoffees were appointed, while at the same time
Chancery drew up a new list of rules for the School.

The most interesting of these dealt with the curriculum. The
master was to teach reading, writing, grammar and arithmetic to
the children of the parish, and Latin to those children whose-
parents required it. An attempt was made once more to have
trustees who would be interested in the School—those appointed
had to reside within fifteen miles of Kibworth School. Moreover,
the trustees were given the power of dismissing any master who
neglected to do his duty.

The trustees of the nineteenth century were certainly more
businesslike than their predecessors of the previous century. We
can see that from the minutes of the Governors' meetings, many of
which are quoted in the pamphlet on the history of the School
written in 1865 by the Headmaster, the Rev. J. B. Hildebrand.
At the first meeting of the newly-elected Governors held in 1822,
Mr. Cradock was publicly thanked for the services he had rendered
to the School. From this year throughout the rest of the century
the Governors did, indeed, take considerable interest in the School;
in fact. Governors who did not attend the half-yearly meeting were
liable to a fine of ten shillings. In 1828, they resolved that the
age of admission to the School should be seven, and they instructed
the Headmaster to inform parents that children must be regular
in their attendance at school. A few years after this, in 1836, the
Rev. J. Goodman died. He was the last of the Headmasters who
took little part in the actual teaching of the School. The time
was now coming when public opinion would demand that the
Headmaster should be really in control of the School. The Rev.
Jeremiah Goodman is the best remembered of the early Head-
masters of the School, because of the money which he bequeathed
to it. It was to be many years, however, before the School felt
the benefit of this bequest, and it will be best to deal later with
the history of the Goodman Scholarship Fund.

With the death of the old Headmaster in 1836, the Governors
decided to take steps to improve the standard of the School.
Originally, it had been a Grammar School with a syllabus similar
to that of the best schools in the land; now it had deteriorated
into an ordinary village school with instruction in the three R's,
The first step to make was to get out of the rut of the three R's;

the second was to persuade the upper and middle class men of the
district to send their children to it once more. With these aims in
view, the Governors decided to set up a fee-paying department.
These private pupils could be either day-boys or boarders, and
they were to have the old type of Grammar School education.
Moreover, the Governors agreed that they should be definitely
separated from the free scholars. For this purpose, the School-
house was divided into two by a partition, which still exists—
between Rooms 4 and 5—the larger room being reserved for the
free boys.

At the same time, the Governors took steps to put the school-
house and the rest of the premises into a good state of repair.
Consequently they decided to raise some £750; £500 of this was
to be borrowed and £250 to be raised from the sale of school land
to the Union Canal Company.

Such was the plan adopted by the Governors in 1836 to effect
an improvement in the standard of education in the School. That
same year they appointed the Rev. J. B. Hildebrand to be
Goodman's successor. The new Headmaster had the assistance
of the old usher, William Buzzard, in discharging his duties.
Buzzard was already usher in 1803 and continued his duties till
1848. He must have been a very active man, for in addition to
his school work he was a land surveyor, land agent, farmer and
grazier, and in his spare time he acted as agent for the S.P.C.K.
When the Charity Commissioners visited Kibworth in 1837, they
reported that land surveying was one of the subjects Buzzard
taught in the lower School in addition to the three R's. Moreover
he had some forty free scholars to teach in his department. As
for the new plan of taking, in fee-paying scholars at £12 a year,
Hildebrand had five pupils in his first year.

Before the new scheme had been in operation for many years
parents began to realise the advantages of the better type of
education which was given in the fee-paying or upper department
of the School. Thus, it was not long before a parent wrote to
the Governors, asking whether a free scholar could have access
to the upper department of the School. The Governors replied:

" The sons of the inhabitants of the three townships were entitled
to instruction in either department of the School free from expense,
but no boy shall enter the upper department under ten unless he s
shall satisfy the trustees upon an examination in Latin Grammar
to be of such proficiency as to profit by the studies of that
department".   This examination in Latin would be a fairly
effective barrier against the admission of poor boys into the upper
department, for few local boys would know Latin. Whether any
free boys did ever enter the upper department is not recorded.

The scheme for the improvement of the School did result in
an increase in the number of scholars. In 1837 there were 45
scholars.   The death of Mr. Buzzard caused a set-back in the
numbers, for in October 1850 only 22 scholars were present.
Numbers increased again, however, in the fifties:-- 1853, 35;
1854, 42; 1855, 46; 1857, 50; 1858, 56; and in 1859, 68. How
many of these were free scholars and how many fee-paying is not
stated. Clearly the task of redeeming the School had been taken
in hand earnestly, for we now find pupils leaving to .train as
teachers. For example, in 1859 five boys left--three to work in
the fields, one to work in the knitting frames at the factory and
one to go on to train as a teacher.

An interesting picture of the everyday life of the School about
1860 is given by F. P. Woodford in his "Personal Reminiscences
of Kibworth ". He mentions how some of the boys used to take
mice to school surreptitiously to be released, when full advantage
was taken of their being "accidentally " seen by the whole school.
The Midland line was built through Kibworth in 1857, and so most
boys on the way to school stopped to watch the trains or to climb
the bridge walls, or occasionally to throw a cap over in order to
see it blown up again by the snorting monster. Mr. Woodford
mentioned that on the other side of the railway, away from the
School, there was a small paddock with a large gravel pit, and
this was the school playground.  " Here the best games were
played, and here the best runners, jumpers and wrestlers tested
their powers of endurance, and here many fierce fights have been
fought".

The first definite evidence of the growth of the secondary
department is given in 1862, when there were 35 free scholars and
24 fee-paying pupils. The average age of the former was eleven,
and that of the others was twelve. An increase of Scholars was
again recorded the next year, when 40 free and 29 fee-paying boys
were on the roll. The Governors were pleased at the progress the
School had made since the beginning of Mr. Hildebrand's
headship. " They regard the circumstances with satisfaction as
evidence of the value set upon the instruction given in the School".

The Governors, however, were not satisfied that Mr.
Hildebrand should teach the fee-paying pupils, while the free
scholars were left to the mercy of the under-master.   After
expressing their satisfaction with the progress made in the School,
the Governors added this rider: " They desire to remind Mr.
Hildebrand that the free scholars are entitled in the first place to
his attention ". Evidently, Mr. Hildebrand accepted the decision
of the Governors and took charge of the lower department.
Thereupon, the under master left, and the number of fee-paying
pupils dropped, for in 1864, while the number of free scholars had
risen to 49, only one fee-payer remained.

The virtual disappearance of the upper department meant
that the School reverted in status to an elementary school, in
which the three R's were the staple of instruction. The state of
the School is well illustrated in the report that was given of it in
1865. The previous year the Governors had decided that the
scholars should be examined each year by some competent person.
Accordingly, in 1865, the Rev. Mr. Romanis, of South Wigston,
inspected the School and made his report.

From this report we see that the main subjects taught in the
School were reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic. History of
England, geography and the study of the Bible.  In fact, the
examiner reported on the lack of suitable reading books. " The
Bible is the chief reading book in the School". He stated that
the writing was good, both that which the boys had already done
in their copy books and that which they did for him on their slates
and on paper without lines. The examiner also suggested that the
Headmaster should have the assistance of another teacher "if he
were to do justice to the School".

One result of the examiner's report was that the Governors
did some heart-searching amongst themselves, and at their next
meeting they commented on it at some length.  Their report is
indeed a most interesting document, for it shows how anxious they
were to do their best for the School. We have seen how, in previous
periods, the history of the Kibworth School reflects the history of
education in the country at large; so it was now in the eighteen-
sixties. The Government, whether Conservative or Liberal, at this
time was anxious to promote the welfare of the poorer classes by
social legislation; similarly, the Governors of Kibworth were intent
on improving the education given in the School.

The first criticism the Governors made in their report was that
the School was not a real Grammar School. " The instruction is no
more than might be expected from an ordinary parochial school,
and it is certainly very far below such as might be expected from
a liberal educational endowment.... The School ought to carry
on the work of instruction to a higher degree than can be shared
by those who look to no future but that of a life of bodily
industry". They pointed out that parochial schools had recently
been built both in Kibworth and Smeeton, which schools might
have afforded " preliminary instruction early on to the boys,
such would enable them later on to profit by admission to the
" Grammar School". These parochial schools, however, had not
received support from the wealthy classes, and, as a small payment
was necessary to enter them, the poorer inhabitants sent their
children to the Grammar School, where they could claim free
admission at the age of seven. Thus " the teaching power of the
School is now absorbed in teaching first rudiments ".

The Governors then mentioned how an attempt had been'
made to raise the standard of the School by admitting fee-paying
children who were to pursue a more liberal education. "Up to
a recent period there was instruction of a higher character afforded
in the Grammar School"—but the School had deteriorated again.
In order to raise the standard once more the Governors made
certain suggestions: (1) an admission test; (2) the master to take
fee-paying scholars again; (3) instruction in the upper school should
be such as to enable boys to pursue a mercantile or professional
career.

Finally, the Governors stated, " The recent appointment of
the Schools Enquiry Commission affords them new hope of
assistance in bringing Kibworth School to its proper use and
condition ". Throughout the country, the small Grammar Schools
were reforming themselves, but in the main the State was having
to intervene to bring them up to a really high standard.