This was built in 1814 as Hungerford’s National School. The adjacent building (41 High Street) was refurbished for the headmaster and clad in Bath stone.
National Schools were built across the country by the Church of England to improve the education of children, using the Monitorial System. This was a clever method of providing cheap education to a large number of children. Each school only had to pay one master’s salary, and he was able to teach the large number of children in the school by use of monitors. The master taught these few senior boys who in turn passed knowledge on to large groups of more junior children. The three subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic were taught in this way.
The children had to pay a few pennies per week, depending on their parents’ jobs, but some parents could not afford the children’s pence, and this gave rise to a problem of absenteeism. Children were also often absent at the time of the harvest when the local farmer needed extra help and welcomed the cheap labour provided by the children.
In 1876 the school managers introduced a graduated scale of fees due to the good reputation and competition for places – Labourer’s 2d per week; Mechanics and Artisans 3d; Tradespeople 6d
In 1903 there were 320 children on the role.
The National School closed in 1910 when the new All-Age Council School (now Hungerford Primary School) opened in Fairview Road, but it continued to be used for educational purposes.
During the First World War the building was used as our Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) Hospital, where many servicemen were able to recover from their injuries.