===Bramshaw School===

The main source for this entry is Elizabeth Merson's illustrated book, Once there was ... a Village School ^[1].

Elizabeth Merson taught at Bramshaw School for nine years from 1968 until it closed. Her history draws on documents from archives, photographs and oral history interviews with past students. Her passion for teaching and for the children who lived in Bramshaw and nearby villages is vividly expressed through the pages of her book, with photographs and hand-drawn illustrations she tells the story of poverty, patronage, village and forest life in the context of developments in rural education over a hundred years and more ^[2].

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Bramshaw School in Hampshire was founded in 1812 and closed in July 1977. Through those 165 years this village school served the children of Bramshaw and nearby hamlets in the New Forest, Brook, Fritham and Furzley. People in these villages and hamlets relied on agriculture and forestry for their income. Within the New Forest there were also large estates with land and houses. Children passed through Bramshaw School, usually on their way to labouring and servant jobs in the forest and on the estates. Some families had ancient rights as commoners in the New Forest, which allowed them smallholdings and grazing rights on common land.

The school began life as a Boys' School, registered as a National School in 1812 with the Girls' and Infants' School being registered in 1819. At that time it was described as 'privately owned', only being registered as a [[Public Elementary School] in 1851 when it began to be supported with government funding. George Eyre (1772-1837), owner of the local Warrens Estate ^[3]. founded the school, 'demonstrating a paternalistic attitude to the labourers and their children, while providing a picturesque addition to the village scene' ^[4]. The school remained connected to the Eyre family until the death of the then Mrs Eyre in 1933. ^[5].

A letter written to the Official Verderer by George Eyre's son in about 1840 recalls the site for the original Boys' school, 'At the turn of the Salisbury and Southampton turnpike road, about a mile before that road enters the Bramshaw Wood...there is a small triangular green at the fork of the turnpike road...'. The same letter mentions the conversion of 'a carthouse of wide span into the first National School. ^[6]. As well as being used as a day school and a Sunday school, it was the meeting place for the Vestry. It was a simple structure with a brick base, wooden walls and a thatched roof. A fire in 1850 resulted in its total destruction, after some boys had put lighted papers up the chimney in the school room ^[7]. A decision was taken to enlarge the Girls' and Infants' School but eventually a separate Boys' school was built which eventually opened in 1867 as the school which survived until 1977 ^[8].

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Writing in 1979, Elizabeth Merson describes the location of the Girls' and Infants' School: 'If one goes from the present school, down Vice Lane, and across the road, one finds a small fenced area with a copse beyond. There is a little gate into a clearing, where thin birches and tall weeds grow on the site of the old Girls' and Infants' School built in 1819. The old well and some decaying window frames are all that remains in the long grasses to remind us that it was here that school life began for every boy and girl of the village. ^[9]

School education in the nineteenth century, so far as children of the poor were concerned, was restricted to basic skills and committed to instilling awareness of social place. Bramshaw school played its part in this, as Elizabeth Merson suggests. Social and class differences were recalled by local people: "The squire drove to church with his family in a carriage, with a groom, and a house boy on the back step. The servants followed, filing into their seats in order of importance, behind the family pew. One maid, who had come down from London with the family, was so bold as to wear a red dress. She was warned never to do that again. The squire read the lesson" ^[10]

The Eyre family held the patronage of the living at St. Peter's church Bramshaw, vicar and squire meeting socially and enjoying similar deference from village people, though memories of young people in the 1890s suggest that the church could also be the focus of rebelliousness.

The new school was built according to recommendations of the National Society '"to resemble a barn"', consisting of a brick built, slate roof, single room with an extension at the back where there were pegs for coats, a privy and a urinal. The 1902 Education Act gave responsibility for Bramshaw School to the Local Education Authority. By this time an inspection by the County Surveyor found a dilapidated, poorly lit building with earth toilets, no water and generally very worn ^[11]. Changes followed, including the addition of a small playground, a school bell, a new floor and a fire-guard. The building remained unchanged until 1925 when alterations allowed for Girls and Infants to be included under the one roof.

An ex-student recalls the school in 1891, 'I remember the Infant classroom, which was a small room at the back of the Girls School, with a gallery, which was a series of steps with about 4 or 5 pupils in each row, the second sitting between the feet of the first row, and so down to ground level'. The school house, where the head teacher and an assistant lived, at a yearly rent in 1904 of £6, was equally simple. According to the surveyor's 1904 report it had three bedrooms, but no indoor water supply (water came from the school well) and an outside toilet. ^[12] Later changes led to cooking facilities in the infant room once school dinners began in 1943 though there was no electric light in 1952 and flush toilets were only installed in 1957 and central heating in the late 1950s when a kitchen and staff cloakroom had been added. When the school closed in 1977 there was still no staffroom. . A letter from the Local Authority to the head teacher in 1953 mentions a total of 110 children being accommodated in the three rooms, though demand for places might mean classes greater than 40 in size.

There is little evidence about teachers before 1872, apart from one who was much disliked and was set upon by parents who claimed that their children had been excessively beaten ^[13]. Two who taught at the Boys' School were a Mr Bassett who stayed for 33 years from 1872 and was remembered for his lantern slide lectures and for giving an orange to each boy at Xmas. He was followed in 1905 by Mr Bowditch, with his mother as assistant teacher. He left after only two years following a fight between the young master and two local young men ^[14]. A Mr Knight was next, being replaced by temporary staff while he enlisted during World War One. He left in 1919. During his time and after, there had been some continuity with Miss Hitchens, who was at the Girls' and Infants' School between 1901 and 1936, taking over the headship of the amalgamated school in 1925. Though she was apparently no less strict than the men teachers, making use of the cane or cuffing with a book on occasions, she was also remembered as having a soft side to her: 'How about the day when a deer, in the last stages of exhaustion, passed by outside? What admiration for the headmistress, who, when the huntsman banged his crop on the window saying, 'Which way has the deer gone?', just turned her back on him'. And 'A stag was brought to bay at the fence of the Infants' School, and was torn to pieces by the hounds on the spot. Many of the children witnessed the incident, but were hastily returned to the classrooms by Miss Hitchens and Miss Ainsley, after which Miss Hitchens severely reprimanded the huntsman" ^[15]

In the early 1900s the curriculum focused on reading, writing and arithmetic. Suitable books for reading in school, supplied by the Education Office, included, for the boys, <Uncle Tom's Cabin> and <Robinson Crusoe> and <Little Women> for the girls, while <Children of the New Forest> and <Coral Island> might appeal to both. Writing was taught with slates, then copy books, using pencils and paper to start with, pen and ink being the goal of all. The boys seem to have had more mathematics teaching, doing simple algebra while the girls learned sewing. Bramshaw school log mentions occasions when boys were taken out of the classroom for practical lessons: '7.5.1908. The boys of standards III, IV, V, VI and VII were marched to Porter's Farm for practical work with weights and scales. The boys were weighed, and their weight recorded. '26.4.1909. The boys...went to Blinman's Farm in the morning to measure some fields' ^[16]

Gardening was introduced into the curriculum from 1900, despite opposition from the Parish Council, cultivation of land taken from the school allotments, behind the school, continued until after the second world war. In 1961 the two apple trees were pulled out and the land was handed back to Warrens and returned to grazing.

Physical education consisted of 'musical drill' for girls around 1900, with marching and games. For the boys, drill was an official part of the curriculum, with ex-army sergeants drilling with staves and dumb bells. An entry in the 1918 Log Book records a critical view of drilling: 'Drill inspectress visited the school. Boys drilled. In spite of the intense heat (80o in the shade), and boiling sun, the boys were asked to be drilled for over half an hour, and a game, suitable for midwinter, was engaged in by the inspectress. Many of the boys have to walk 5 miles to school, milk cows etc. before and after school. After this 'inspection' and drill, many of the boys were thoroughly exhausted'. ^[17] Other forms of physical education included 'Morris Dancing" and cricket.

Drawing and painting have few mentions in inspectors' reports, though religious instruction took up a large part of the day, with the vicar attending once a week to take religious instruction. In the early years, inspectors' reports had a strict feel, but by 1911, at the Girls' and Infants' school at least, a more sympathetic tone was being adopted, by 1911 'Generally speaking the state of the school is distinctly progressive'. ^[18]

School life at Bramshaw was determined as much by the curriculum and teachers as by the environment and life in the New Forest with its seasons and local customs and events. Games at school and out of it were similarly shaped. A particular custom '...which persisted at Bramshaw School in spite of attempts to bring it to an end, was that of carrying an ash twig on Ash Wednesday. Those old hands who knew the secret asked 'Have you got your ash?' of each child, who, if he answered "No", was liable to receive a smart whack'. ^[19].

'The Punishment Book' at Bramshaw School provides evidence of corporal punishment inflicted on boys, from 1908. The Girls' School punishment book has not survived though ex students remember particular occasions and there is also evidence that parents were becoming increasingly critical of actions which were considered unjust or excessive. In 1926 the School Managers received a petition from parents of 22 children who, protesting against ill-treatment, called for the teachers to be removed from their jobs. ^[20] Over time the Punishment Book shows a decline from 56 entries in 1912 to just 4 in 1962.

Special events which the school was involved in included the annual School Treat, held at the Warrens, religious services, support for the armed forces during World War One, Armistice Day, Empire Day, Royal Anniversaries accompanied by sporting events, the annual fete, concerts and seasonal celebrations.

The wreck of the Titanic affected Bramshaw people, with seven young men losing their lives aged between 17 and 32 ^[21]

The 1944 Education Act brought a great change to the school, though Bramshaw itself was changing too as its population came to include commuters into Southampton, people with different expectations about school and village life. The main change for the School was the introduction of the eleven plus examination which meant that all boys and girls over that age were moved to a new Secondary Modern School at Bartley, five miles away. Bramshaw thus became a Primary School, with less overcrowding and a narrower age range, suiting the younger children. The curriculum and teaching methods changed too. There were French and piano lessons and visits from the County Library van as well as swimming at Bartley and educational trips and visits. By the end of the 1960s there were 40 children in the school. Two teachers, both women, divided the school into classes of 5 to 7 and 7 to 11. Children who lived more than two miles away were brought by mini bus or taxi. As the school became smaller, activities also became more modest, entertainments involving the children were simpler and fund-raising events such as jumble sales were used to buy the school's first television set.

In January 1976 the news came to the then head, Mrs Goodall, that the school was to close in the summer of 1977. The 5 to 8+ year olds were to go to Copythorne First School while children from 8+ to 12+ were to go to Bartley Middle School.

Elizabeth Merson's includes her own memories of teaching at Bramshaw School: "On golden mornings, sitting among the children, looking out through the open door to the old arched porch, and glimpsing the chapel through the trees, a teacher could not help feeling closely identified with the lives of other teachers and children in the past. In spite of its deficiencies, when Bramshaw School closed in 1977, something rare and valuable was at an end". ^[22]