EDUCATION
An unlicensed schoolmaster was
recorded at Horsley in 1602. Edward Webb (d.
1751) left £200 for the poor. In 1752 the money
was vested in trustees to purchase land for a free
school, where a master in communion with the
established church was to teach the catechism,
reading, writing, and accounting; £155 was spent in
purchasing land in 1755, and the remaining £45,
with an additional £30, was handed over to the
trustees by Elizabeth Castleman in 1775 and the
interest was applied to the school. Anne Wight of
Tetbury, by will dated 1788, left £100 for the school
and in 1789 a further £30 was bequeathed by Sarah
Wilbraham. In 1789 £450 was laid out on land at
Twatley in the north part of the parish, sold to the
school at a beneficial price by Henry Stephens, lord
of the manor; the income of the school supported
25 children at that date. Further bequests to the
school came from Henry Sheppard who gave 1 a. of
land at Tickmorend and from Mary Frost who, by
will dated 1819, left £90 to be invested in stock.
The school did not have a proper building in 1818,
when the master's salary was c. £50 yearly. The
premises, situated at Tickmorend, became dilapidated and were away from the populous part of the
parish, so in 1824 a new school was built on an
unconsecrated part of the churchyard with a grant
from the National Society and subscriptions. In
1828 the income from the charities was £66 a year;
books were purchased with the help of casual
donations and the buildings and furnishings were
maintained by Edward Wilbraham. In 1833 there
were 120 children at the school, then known as the
Horsley Free school, and charges were made for
those children taught to write on paper. In 1854
the average attendance was 75. The school funds
were augmented by a bequest of £300 from Edward
Wilbraham in 1863, a gift made by the Revd.
W. H. Bathurst in 1866 which yielded an annual
income of £46, and a further grant by Bathurst of
£100 in 1868 which was used for a master's house
and a boys' playground. The school was rebuilt in
1894, and c. 1910, when it was called Horsley
C. of E. school, it had 173 pupils.
