Who was Walter Scott?
Walter Scott was the son of a poor tradesman of Ross-on-Wye
who became very wealthy and towards the end of his life endowed his old school
to enable the continued education of local poor children.
Walter Scott was born in Ross in 1716 and attended the local
Charity School. The school was a Blue
Coat school funded through public subscriptions and intended for the
“instruction of poor boys and girls in the parish of Ross-on-Wye in the
Christian Religion according to the doctrines and usages of the Church of
England”.
Blue Coat schools have their origin in Christ’s Hospital – a
public school founded in 1553 by King Edward VI.
Even today, students at Blue Coat schools still wear a long blue coat, knee
breeches with yellow stockings and a white collar.
Aged 13, Walter Scott was caught scrumping pears and ran
away from home rather than face his punishment.
He went to London and became apprenticed to an uncle who was a master
plasterer.
He worked diligently at his trade, rising to become a
liveryman, then a warden and finally a master of the plasterers. When his uncle died he inherited the business
which he carried on until his death in 1786.
In 1785 , aged 69, Walter returned to visit Ross-on-Wye and
was distressed to find his old school in a very neglected state. He roused the local townspeople to revive the
school, promising to contribute five guineas annually to the funds. On his return to London Walter amended his
will to provide a permanent endowment for the school.
He died a year later in 1786. His body was brought back to Ross and buried
in the parish churchyard where a white memorial stands prominently next to the
path to the main door.
The endowment
Walter Scott’s legacy was to instruct his executors to
invest £6,666-13s-4d in New South Seas Annuities, the resultant annual yield of
approximately £200 to be set aside in perpetuity to fund his old Blue Coat
school. By 1792 sufficient funds had
accrued to demolish the old school building and erect a new one.
£6,666-13s-4d in 1792
is worth £ 373,533.33 in today’s money,
so clearly Walter Scott had gone from being a pauper to a very rich man. The investment has remained intact, and even
today it generates a modest £1,000 annually which is given as grants to
children of Ross-on-Wye for the purchase of books, educational equipment or
musical instruments.
The school
In 1799 the school was officially established as Walter
Scott’s Charity School.
The trustees determined that the school would “provide
education for as many pupils as the income could afford to keep clothed” which
was around 30 boys and 30 girls . There
was to be one master and one mistress who must be married and live at the
school and be members of the Church of England.
The school building essentially comprised four classrooms –
two on the ground floor and two on the first floor, with girls and boys in
separate classrooms. The master and
mistress lived in a flat on the top floor.
Each room had a single small fireplace, so with the big
Georgian windows it must have been very cold in the winter.
The building was renovated in Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Year
1887 by public subscription. It remained a school until the early 1970s, at one time being a cookery school for girls and a woodworking school for apprentices.
It became an auction house and store room for 15 years and
then sat derelict and empty before being purchased and restored by Roy
Peers-Smith in 2009.
The uniform
Each boy was provided with –
- 3 pairs shoes and stockings
- 3 shirts
- 3 neckbands
- 3 handkerchief
- 2 pairs leather breeches
- 2 belts
- 1 cap
- 1 pair of gloves (carefully knitted for them by the girls)
- 1 blue waistcoat
- 1 long blue overcoat with red collar
- 1 hat
Each girl was provided with –
- 1 dress and petticoat
- 1 winter hat
- 1 summer hat
- 3 shifts
- 3 caps
- 3 aprons (one white for best)
- 3 neckbands
- 3 short capes
- 3 pairs shoes and stockings
- 3 handkerchief
- 1 pair leather braces
In addition, on their first day of school each child was
given a numbered medallion to wear. We
have used a facsimile of this medallion as safety icons on the glass walls in
the entrance hall.
The curriculum
Children started school aged six, and were required to leave
when they reached 14.
All the children were taught reading, writing and
arithmetic.
Boys were taught woodwork and girls were taught
needlework.
The Blue Coat tradition was maintained by instructing all
pupils in the Christian Faith and they were required to attend church twice on
Sundays.
All pupils were supplied with a bible, a psalter, a spelling
book, a slate on which to write, and various writing materials.
No exams were taken, but pupils were assured of getting a
job because of the high reputation enjoyed by the school in general.
Severe misbehaviour was punished with a cane – for both boys
and girls. During the course of
renovations, a ruled school book was discovered under the floorboards in which a
student had had to write lines – either as punishment or as an exercise to
perfect their handwriting (we suspect the former due to the nature of the lines
and because there is no evidence of improvement!)
Founders Day
Founders Day – 4th December - became the most
important day of the school year and the traditions were maintained right up
until the school closed in 1970.
Table decorations were made and placed in the classrooms
and there was a competition among pupils
for the best Founders Wreath to be placed on Walter Scott’s memorial.
Pupils dressed in their best and went to church where a
sermon was preached to remind them of what was expected of them – “diligence
and discipline in the classroom, honour, obedience and respect for teachers and
parents, complete trust and faith in Lord God and never to forget the
generosity of their benefactor”.
Afterwards, in the long room upstairs there was prize giving
for the pupils and a big feast was held
including the staff, trustees and governors.
(We intend to respect this tradition!)