The Old Grammar School

A GRAMMAR SCHOOL has existed in Bourne since the Middle Ages and there are a number of references to the names of headmasters after 1580, either in the bishop's or the parish registers.

There was a rapid turnover in staff about this time and the names of seven different schoolmasters appear in the records during the first 30 years of the 17th century. But a new and important phase in the arrangements for education in Bourne began in the early 17th century when William Trollope, a local landowner, left a bequest which provided for an endowment of £30 a year to maintain "an honest, learned, and godly schoolmaster" in a free grammar school incorporated by royal charter and built by himself.

The school was sited next to the Abbey Church where it still stands although the premises have been rebuilt since his day. His will, dated 16th November 1636, stipulated that it should be called "The Free Grammar School of King Charles in the town of Bourne and County of Lincoln, of the foundation of William Trollope, gentleman".

The present building, erected in 1678, has a brick superstructure over a solid stone foundation but it is not certain whether this stonework is from Trollope's original school or whether it dates even further back to the days when the monastery existed. Repairs and alterations were carried out from time to time, in 1858 and particularly in 1876, mainly through the generosity of Lord Kesteven, a noted landowner in the locality at that time and five years later, a new stove chimney was erected and repairs carried out to the floor, dado boarding was fitted and when the ceiling was removed, the oak roof became visible.

The school appeared to have a more stable staff than in earlier years and by the 19th century, the duties of schoolmaster were carried out by the vicars of Bourne until the Rev Joseph Dodsworth was appointed in 1842. He began delegating the actual work of teaching and administration to his curates until 1858 when William Webber was appointed under-master with a salary of £30 a year, as provided in the original endowment.

Webber was an energetic and conscientious teacher and it was his influence that provided the boys with a playground on a small area of land adjoining the school on the east side. Until then, scholars had been playing in the churchyard among the tombstones and several had been damaged and there had also been complaints about them roaming the streets between lessons.

He was also probably responsible for the alterations of 1876 that included new seating to accommodate 32 boys. Many of his pupils were successful in their studies, going on to Oxford and Cambridge Universities, but he became frustrated with the slow response to his repeated requests for improvements and he resigned in 1881 after 23 years of teaching and moved to a school at Tunbridge Wells.

Webber's successor was to be the last schoolmaster, the Rev Henry R F Canham, a curate from Barrowby, near Grantham, but by this time, the popularity of the school had begun to decline and Canham tried valiantly to revive its ebbing fortunes by increasing the number of pupils who attended and spending a lot of his own money in the process. But despite his efforts, the future of the school was now in doubt and the 21 pupils in attendance in 1889 had dwindled to just nine by 1897 and soon it was removed from the list of those officially recognised by Kesteven District Council. Canham refused to accept the inevitable and in the autumn of 1903, he departed for Scarborough with the key of the school in his pocket but after much correspondence and discussion, he finally agreed to resign at the end of 1904, thus officially confirming its closure.

There were several attempts at a revival but there was insufficient interest and from 1918 the church decided to use it as a Sunday School. The building was never re-opened for its original purpose and it was eventually replaced by a secondary school that became the present grammar school in 1921. Two years later, in January 1923, the building was sold by the trustees for a nominal sum of £100 to the secondary school and the board of governors has administered the building ever since. It has largely been unused during that time although in the Second World War, the premises became an ambulance station and a meeting place for the Girl Guides and in later years it was used for a time as headquarters for the local troops of cubs and boy scouts.

Today, it is Grade II listed within the Bourne conservation area and is currently administered by the Bourne Educational Foundation but has again been badly neglected in recent years and in April 2003, it was condemned as unsafe and all entry forbidden. The roof was leaking although some remedial work was carried out in May 2007.

The building has been up for sale since February 2005 for an undisclosed price although potential buyers are warned that there is no vehicular access and the only approach is by way of a footpath through the churchyard. Nevertheless, sale to a private developer is seen as the only chance it has to survive unless an organisation such as the Bourne Preservation Trust is prepared to take on the challenge with the intention of bringing it back into useful life for the benefit of the town.

There is a chance that this may happen for although the trust is currently involved in trying to restore the badly neglected Victorian chapel in the town cemetery, officials have expressed the hope that the Old Grammar School might prove to be another worthwhile project at some time in the future.