The 'National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church' after its formation in 1811 established a boys' school in the Guildhall, Oxford Street by about 1820. This was popular and on 2nd February 1857 two new schools were opened, one for boys in Gastons Road and the other for girls here. This school was built thanks to the munificence of Samuel Brooke and his nephew Revd. Charles Kemble and could accommodate 300 pupils. Children between 5 and 14 were offered education but the parents had to pay for it. Advance payments of 2s. per quarter were levied on poor parents and 10s. for the better off. No 22 Cross Hayes was the home of the schoolmistress and S.B. Brooke's arms are over the door. The girls were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and needlework. Older children could be employed as Monitors to supervise the younger ones and would receive a salary of £6 a year.
Government grants were available after the passage of the Education Act 1870. Unfortunately Revd. Kemble was unable to accept that Act's Conscience Clause which allowed parents to withdraw their children from religious studies. The school had some support from the Poor Law Guardians. After Kemble's death in 1875 the school was able to benefit from the government money. In 1964 the opportunity was taken to move this school into the old site of the Grammar School, Tetbury Hill.
Wiltshire County Council first provided a library in the town during the 1920s which opened for two evenings each week. The late 1930s saw the library in the Town Hall but from about 1940 to 1953 it operated from separate premises on the corner of Oxford Street and Cross Hayes Lane (this was demolished when the road was widened in 1957). In 1953 it moved to 44 High Street where it stayed until the present premises were taken over in 1972.
Source: Charles Vernon
