Winterborne Came School
Winterborne Came School
A small school was based in the parish and was known firstly as Came National School and later as Winterborne Came Church of England School (number 254), according to the school log books. The school was based next to the estate buildings and used a building next to the eastern wall of Came House's kitchen garden. According to notes in the first log book, the dimensions of the school were as follows:
- Length 26ft
- Width 12ft
- Height 16ft 6in
Mention is made of the school staff in the census returns. In 1881 49-year old spinster Miss Emma Foot was schoolmistress and was the sole inhabitant of the School House. In 1891 14-year old Edith Mary Osmond of the parish was described as a school monitor.
16 children were on the roll in 1907. It closed on 28 March 1923 and is a residence known unsurprisingly as The Old School House.
The log books for the years between 1872 and 1923 are kept at the Dorset History Centre and give a real flavour of village life. They will be transcribed by me when time allows, although with 2 books of 498 and 258 pages respectively, this may take some time! Some extracts have already been transcribed.The regular visitor, Miss Barnes, must be Laura Barnes, daughter of the rector, William Barnes, who was living at the rectory at the time. (She was working at the London Diocesan Penitentiary in Hornsey at the time of the 1891 census, but returns to live with her rector brother in Monkton by 1901).