0637. The new school viewed from the road when newly built in 1860, at a cost of £1,000 raised by subscription and grants. The land was given by the Duke of Rutland by a conveyance held in the County Record Office dated 1856 which refers to the previous school on the site built about 1827.  In 1846 the school master  was William Burnham and we are told the school had been built by the Rector, click here for the details. In 1854 the schoolmaster was William Chandler, click here.

There is also said to have been a "dame school" in Dickman's Lane in the house opposite Dickman's Cottage shown in photo 0853. We have so far not found  a record of the time confirming this.

The 1856 conveyance lays down that the new building is – “to be used as and for a school for the education of children and adults or children only of the labouring manufacturing and other poor classes in the parish of Harby”. It says that the school is to be open to inspection by government inspectors, and operated under the national society for promoting the education of the established church. The man in the top hat may well be the Rector, the  Rev Norman who was the central person in Harby getting the new school built and acting as the equivalent in those days of "chairman of the governors".  Photo 0269 shows  him later in a similar pose and similar top hat. The other gentleman may be the headmaster. The census for 1861 tells us that the certificated schoolmaster was Henry Major, aged 23, born in Folkstone in Kent.   Booth collection.