tress continued to receive a coal allowance in addition to their salaries. (fn. 469)
In the 1850s Barton tried to mitigate the evil of children leaving the school at an early age by establishing an allotment garden for the boys (fn. 470) and ensuring that in the girls' school a certain number of hours were devoted to reading, writing, arithmetic and plain needlework, even if in other respects it was run as a lace school. (fn. 471) Barton also established a night school, to which the local branch of the National Society made a grant of £4 for equipment to meet £2 raised in the parish. (fn. 472)
In the 1860s the boys' school, where the master was 'well-intentioned, but growing infirm', had an average attendance of 30; the same figure was returned for the girls' school, although the pupils only attended for ordinary classes two days a fortnight, the rest of the time being devoted to teaching lace-making. There was a night school and library attached to the girls' school but not the boys'. (fn. 473) A few years later the girls' school, whose premises had been more than doubled in size from the original room of 1839 and could now accommodate over 90, although there were only 33 on the books, was working alternate weeks as an ordinary school and a lace school. This arrangement was criticised by the diocesan inspector, although in other respects he was satisfied. The boys' school had 25 on the books at the end of the 1860s, when it was described as an 'unpretending little school . . . perhaps sufficient for the wants of the population'. The two schools together then had an income of £75 a year from voluntary contributions and £1 10s. from school pence. There was also a night school twice a week during the five winter months, taught by the rector, his family and the schoolmaster, and funded by the rector. (fn. 474)
The Village School After 1870.
From 1871 the school came under government inspection and began to receive a grant; other changes followed the retirement of the longserving master and the arrival in 1872 of a new rector, Edward Cadogan. In 1875 Cadogan claimed that he found the school 'struggling into life and health' but within three years had placed it on a sound footing. He coupled this optimism with an appeal for increased subscriptions, threatening a school board if these were not forthcoming, but at the same time offering to hand the management over to the subscribers or their elected representatives. There were then about 80 children on the books. (fn. 475) During the 1870s the grant was around £50 a year and voluntary contributions some £70. The Grand Junction Canal share continued to pay £4 a year, with the balance coming from school pence, which rose from £3 in 1871-2 to over £20 immediately before they were abolished in 1891-2. (fn. 476) Subscriptions fell off noticeably during the agricultural depression of the 1880s, settling at about £40 a year in the 1890s, although this was largely balanced by a steadily rising grant, which reached £100 by the end of the century. The old master was paid £75 a year in the early 1870s; his successors received £100, which remained unchanged until after 1900. The infants' teacher was paid £25 a year in the 1870s and 1880s, which rose to £45 in the 1890s and later. (fn. 477)
The most fundamental change came in 1878, when the 1st Lord Penrhyn, almost as soon as he bought the Wicken Park estate, met the entire cost (£1,000) of a completely new schoolroom, capable of accommodating 90 children, with a house for the headmaster. A classroom for 50 infants, with a gallery, was added in 1898. At the turn of the century the average attendance for the two departments was between 60 and 70, taught by the head and a part-qualified woman assistant. (fn. 478) In the years up to the First World War the school received reasonably satisfactory reports from H.M.I., although there were repeated complaints about the poor premises and the limited abilities of the staff. (fn. 479)
Edwin Green, who had been headmaster since 1891, retired in 1921 and was succeeded by the first of three women heads,