Ringmer Board School

[ABOVE] The Master of Ringmer Board School, photographed around 1880 with some of the older female pupils at the school. The School Master depicted was either Frederick Jones (born 1842, Stanmer, Sussex) or Joseph Hardy, who was born in Dorset in 1851 Frederick Jones was previously a School Teacher in Hellingly. Joseph Hardy was previously Master of the National School in Frant. Joseph Hardy served as the head teacher at Ringmer Board School from 1880 until 1883.

[ABOVE] Frederick Jones, a 29 year old "School Master", recorded with his family at Hellingly Church of England School at the time of the 1871 census. In July 1879, thirty-seven year old Frederick Jones was appointed Master of Ringmer Board School. By September 1880, Frederick Jones had left Ringmer School and taken up the position of School Master at East Hoathly National School.

Frederick Jones's eldest son Frederick Thomas Jones (born 1865, Great Warley, Essex) succeeded his father as Master of East Hoathly National School. When Frederick Jones junior died in 1896 at the age of 30, his place was taken by his younger brother, Ernest Alexander Jones

Joseph Hardy - School Master of Ringmer Board School (1879-84)

Joseph Hardy was born in Swanage, Dorset, in 1851, the son of Maria Spencer Masters and William Hardy, a cordwainer. After his marriage to Catherine Spring (born 1855, Elham, Kent), Joseph Hardy took up the position of School Master at the National School at Frant, a Sussex village a few miles south of Tunbridge Wells. Joseph Hardy was the Master of Frant National School for about 3 years, during which time his wife Catherine gave birth to two sons - Edgar Hardy (baptised in Frant on 4th February 1877) and Joseph Waris Hardy (born at Frant during the 2nd Quarter of 1879). Shortly after the birth of his second son in 1879, Joseph Hardy was appointed as the Master of the recently built Board School in Ringmer.

Joseph Hardy (left) was the School Master at Ringmer Board School until around 1883, when he was succeeded by Martin Luther Jackson (born 1861, Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire) [See below]. Joseph Hardy's movements and subsequent teaching career are not known, but his son Joseph Waris Hardy was in Suffolk when he married in 1907.

1881 CENSUS: Board School, Turnpike Road, Ringmer, Sussex

NAME

OCCUPATION

AGE

PLACE OF BIRTH

Joseph HARDY

Head

School Master

Swanage, Dorset

Catherine HARDY

wife

School Master's wife

Elham, Kent

Edgar HARDY

son

Scholar

Frant, Sussex

J. Waris HARDY

son

Frant, Sussex

Elizabeth BENFIELD

boarder

Sewing School Mistress

Yarmouth (Isle of Wight)

[ABOVE] Joseph Hardy, a 29 year old "School Master", recorded with his family at the house attached to Ringmer Board School.

Joseph Hardy had been appointed Master of Ringmer Board School in September 1880. Mr Hardy remained at Ringmer School until 1883.

(B) Photographs of Staff and Pupils at Ringmer Board School (1890)

by Frank Walter Burgess of Ringmer

[ABOVE] The teaching staff of the Ringmer Board School photographed by Frank W. Burgess of Ringmer (1890). Martin Luther Jackson (School Master) and his wife Mrs Sarah Jane Jackson (School Mistress) are seated in front of five pupil teachers. (S34)

[PHOTO: Courtesy of John Kay & Ringmer History Study Group - Photo Ref: S34]

[ABOVE] The infants of the Ringmer Board School photographed by Frank W. Burgess of Ringmer (1890). Mrs Sarah Jane Jackson, the Mistress of the infant section of the school stands to the left of the group. A blackboard with an inscription in chalk helpfully identifies the school and the date of the sitting - "Ringmer Board School, May 5th 1890".

[PHOTO: Courtesy of John Kay & Ringmer History Study Group - Photo Ref: S36]



[ABOVE] Mrs Sarah Jane Jackson (born 1860, Leicester), School Mistress at the Ringmer Board School, in a detail from a school group photograph by Frank W. Burgess of Ringmer (1890).	[ABOVE] The infants of the Ringmer Board School photographed by Frank W. Burgess of Ringmer (1890). Mrs Sarah Jane Jackson, the Mistress of the infant section of the school stands on the left of the group. Frank Walter Burgess (1867-1899), the semi-professional photographer who took this photograph and the two above, lived in Ringmer and combined his interest in photography with book-selling. In the 1891 census, Frank W. Burgess gave his occupation as "Photographer", but by 1897 he was concentrating more on his business in antiquarian books.
	[PHOTO: Courtesy of John Kay & Ringmer History Study Group - Photo Ref: S35]

Schools in Ringmer in Victorian and Edwardian Times

At the end of the 17th century, bequests in the wills of Sibella Stapley and Barbara, the late wife of Sir William Thomas of Folkington, provided an annual sum for "the teaching of poor children in Ringmer". At the beginning of the 19th century a school house was built on a piece of waste land on Ringmer Green. From 1847, this school building was used as a National School (an elementary school provided by The National Society for Promoting Religious Education, an organisation which promoted "Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in England"). In 1855, the National School in Ringmer was being run by Miss Ann Walton. A number of poor children also received instruction at the Workhouse School provided by the Chailey Union. During the 1860s, the Mistress of Ringmer's National School was Mrs Frances Packham. During this period The Chailey Union Workhouse School was staffed by a husband and wife team - first by Michael Griffin and his wife Martha Griffin and later by Mr & Mrs Frederick Jones.

By 1878, it appears that the only formal education available to Ringmer's children was at a school supported by a Miss Rickman of Wellingham. Two elderly spinsters of independent means Rachel Rickman (1798-1886) and Sarah Horne Rickman (1813-1901) provided funds for the village school. Known as "Miss Rickman's School", the school was staffed by a headmistress named Miss Martha Meek and Mrs Bray, the infants' mistress. A School Board had been established in Ringmer in 1875, with Frederick J. Jones (1815-1893) serving as the Clerk to the five members of the Board. In 1876 work was started on the construction of a purpose-built school building. Ringmer Board School, which was designed for 230 children of elementary school age, was completed in 1879. Joseph Hardy (born 1851, Swanage, Dorset), the former Master at Frant National School was appointed as Head Teacher. Mr Joseph Hardy was assisted by Miss Frances Terry, a school mistress who took charge of the infant classes. Mr Thomas Hardy was succeeded by Martin Luther Jackson (born 1861,Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire), who was appointed Master of Ringmer Board School in 1883. Under Mr Hardy, Ringmer Board School with a capacity for 230 children had an average attendance of 140, but under Mr. Jackson average attendance rose to an impressive 215 pupils. Mr Jackson was assisted by Miss Jane Whitbourne (born 1863, Stanmer), the daughter of a local carpenter and a former "Pupil Teacher" at the school. When Jane Whitbourne married in 1890 and left Ringmer to live in Essex, her duties as Mistress of the Infant section of the school were taken over by Mrs Sarah Jane Jackson (born 1860, Leicester), the head teacher's wife. Mrs Sarah Jane Jackson had previously worked as a school teacher in Leicester, but had put her teaching career on hold to produce a family.

In 1893, Ringmer Board School, which was originally designed for 230 pupils, was enlarged to accommodate an additional 70 children. The 1895 edition of Kelly's Directory of Sussex reported that in the previous year Ringmer Board School had an average attendance of 253 pupils; 87 in the infants' department and 166 older pupils in the "mixed department". When Martin Luther Jackson and his wife Mrs Sarah Jane Jackson left Ringmer Board School in 1907, the average attendance had risen to a total of 272 pupils. Martin Luther Jackson, the Master of Ringmer Board School was well respected by the pupils who attended the school. George Ambrose Miller, who attended Ringmer School between 1894 and 1903, recalled in a memoir written nearly sixty year later that "we were particularly fortunate in having a Head (Mr. M. L. Jackson), who was not only an outstanding educator, but who was also the soul of integrity. And we all knew it."

In 1903, Ringmer Board School became a Council School. Mr Jackson was retained as the Head Master of Ringmer Council School, but in 1907, he decided to resign from his post. M. L. Jackson's successor at Ringmer Council School was Richard Randell, the former Master of Hassocks Board School. Born at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, in 1865, Richard Randell was the youngest son of Charlotte and John Randell, a boot-maker from Hurst (Hurstpierpoint). In 1886 Richard Randell had married Emily Mary Wood (born c1865, Brighton) in the Sussex district of Steyning. Their only child, a son named Reginald William Rendell was born in Burgess Hill, Sussex, during the 2nd Quarter of 1899. By this date, Richard Randell had taken up the position of Master at Hassocks Board School, and he and his wife, together with their infant son, were living at 3 Woodsland Road, Hassocks. When Martin Luther Jackson left Ringmer School in 1907, after 24 years service at the school, Richard Randell was appointed as the new Head Master. Richard Randell served as the Head Master of Ringmer Council School up until the First World War.

The original building of Ringmer's Public Elementary School, which dated from 1879, was demolished in 1993.

[ABOVE] Public schools in Ringmer listed in the 1855 edition of Kelly's Post Office Directory of Sussex.

[ABOVE] A group of pupils at Ringmer Board School photographed around 1900. Mr Martin Luther Jackson, who served as the Master of Ringmer Board School between 1883 and 1907 is the bearded man standing on the left of the school group. The boy standing to Mr Jackson's left has been identified as Emrys Francis Baker, who was born in Warbleton, Sussex, during 4th Quarter of 1891. George Ambrose Miller (born 1889, Ringmer, Sussex) is the boy standing at the other end of the back row. These 28 boys and girls were part of the "Mixed Department" of the Ringmer Board School . In 1899, there was an average attendance of around 180 pupils in the Mixed Department of Ringmer School in 1899 and roughly 80 pupils in the Infants' Department, so it is likely that the photographer took a further five group portraits of the older children and at least two separate photographs of the infant children.

[ PHOTO: Courtesy of Robyn Fisher of Australia ]

[ABOVE] The entry for Ringmer's Public Elementary School in the 1915 edition of Kelly's Directory of Sussex. Richard Rendell had become the Head Master of the Council School in Ringmer around 1907.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to John Kay of the Ringmer History Study Group for providing the majority of the school group photographs featured on this webpage. I also have to thank the Ringmer History Study Group for collecting and safeguarding so much of Ringmer's history and making it freely available. Sources include: census returns for 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911 ; Melville & Co.'s Directory of Sussex (1858) ; Editions of Kelly's Directory of Sussex (1855, 1862, 1867, 1878, 1882, 1887, 1890, 1891,1895, 1899, 1907 & 1915).

Anna-May Bridger has produced a very useful website which covers all aspects of Ringmer Village, both past and present. The section entitled Ringmer Past includes marriage records, a surname index for census returns for Ringmer and transcriptions of Ringmer Directories. The website also features photographs of Ringmer Board School linked to a map entitled Ringmer: Then and Now.

Ringmer Village Website

Robyn Fisher of Australia has created a website featuring the Miller Family of Ringmer. The link below will take you to the webpage devoted to George Ambrose Miller (1889-1974), who attended Ringmer Board School as a boy in the 1890s. In addition to a number of family photographs taken in Ringmer during the 1890s, Robyn Fisher has included an extract from a memoir written by George Ambrose Miller around 1962 in which he recalls his school days in Ringmer in the 1890s.

George Ambrose Miller of Ringmer


(C) Photograph of Pupils at Ringmer Board School (c1897)
by Frank Doran of 64 Church Street, Brighton

[ABOVE] A detail from the school group photograph taken at Ringmer Board School by Frank Doran of Brighton, illustrated on the right. Martin Luther Jackson, the Master of Ringmer School, stands on the left. (An inscription written on the reverse of the card mount identifies him as "M. J. Jackson (H.M) with beard". George Ambrose Miller, the boy sitting cross-legged on the ground in the bottom right-hand corner of this detail, was born in Ringmer on 29th September 1889, which suggests a date for the photograph of around 1897. George Ambrose Miller emigrated to Australia in	[ABOVE] Pupils at the Ringmer Board School photographed by Frank Doran of Brighton around 1897. This group photograph must have been taken at Ringmer Board School after 1895, because the photographer Frank Doran (born 1860, Hoxton, London) was based at a studio in Hove up to this date. By 1898, Frank Doran had established a new photography business at 64 Church Street, Brighton. Identification of two of the pupils in this school group photograph supports a date of around 1897. Constance Wicks, the girl standing in the centre of the 3rd row, was born in Ringmer in 1890. George Ambrose Miller, the boy sitting cross-legged on the ground ( second one in from the left in the front row) was born in Ringmer on 29th September 1889. Mr Martin Luther Jackson, the Master of Ringmer School ( standing on the left) and an unidentified male teacher (right) bookend the assembled scholars.
	[ PHOTO: Courtesy of Robyn Fisher of Australia ]