Bentley's School, Calne
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Bentley's School, Calne, in
Calne Calne () is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity ...
,
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
, England, was a school founded in 1660 by John Bentley and closed in 1974 by
Wiltshire County Council Wiltshire Council, known between 1889 and 2009 as Wiltshire County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire in South West England, and has its headquarters at County Hall in Trowbridge. Since 2009 it has bee ...
. At different times it was known as the Bentley Grammar School and Calne County School.


Origins

By his will dated 29 September 1660, John Bentley, of
Richmond, Surrey Richmond is a town in south-west London,The London Government Act 1963 (c.33) (as amended) categorises the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as an Outer London borough. Although it is on both sides of the River Thames, the Boundary Commis ...
, left one sixth of a field called Ficketts, near
Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...
, London, and a rent-charge of £12 a year on another part of the same field, for the founding of what he called "a free English School" at Calne, and appointed three trustees to make the necessary arrangements. It is unclear why he chose Calne, although one of his trustees, William Penniger, bore a Wiltshire name."The Bentley School, Calne", in ''
Wiltshire Victoria County History The Wiltshire Victoria County History, properly called The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire but commonly referred to as VCH Wiltshire, is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Wiltshire in England. It forms part of the overall Vic ...
'', Vol. 5 (London: Victoria County History, 1957)
pp. 348–368
/ref>A. E. W. Marsh, "John Bentley's School" in ''History of Calne'' (1903), pp. 212–213


History

In 1665 a house and garden on the Green at Calne were bought and remained the school's home until 1833. In 1683, the new school became a
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
, on the orders of the Commissioners of Charitable Uses, who required
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
to be taught. In 1690, the land near Lincoln's Inn was sold for £1,200, although only four of the six trustees transacted the sale. Investing some of the money in a mortgage led to a
Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...
claim in 1727 which was not settled until 1742. They trustees came out of this with enough money to buy annuities worth £50 a year on land near Chippenham and to put £300 into
Consols Consols (originally short for consolidated annuities, but subsequently taken to mean consolidated stock) were government bond, government debt issues in the form of perpetual bonds, redeemable at the option of the government. The first British co ...
. In 1734, Sir Francis Bridgman gave the school two exhibitions to be held at
the Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...
, and the trustees gave instructions that at least seven boys were to be taught both Latin and Greek. In 1833, the Consols were sold to provide a new schoolroom and master's house. In 1834, the Brougham Commissioners reported that Bentley's had ceased to be a classical school and that no Bridgman Exhibition had been claimed for thirty years.''29th Report of the Charity Commissioners'' (1835), p. 1236 In 1836, the income was too small to hire a competent classical
schoolmaster A schoolmaster, or simply master, is a male school teacher. The usage first occurred in England in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. At that time, most schools were one-room or two-room schools and had only one or two such teacher ...
, and the trustees began to charge school fees. H.M. Inspector of Schools found in 1846 and 1847 that the teaching was good. In 1861, a government grant to the school was stopped, because the level of the fees was too high for it to continue. In 1868, the Schools Inquiry Commission reported that the school was teaching book-keeping,
Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...
, and
surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...
and was "good as far as it goes", but that there were only 41 boys, aged from eight to fourteen. In the 1890s, the Charity Commissioners reorganized Bentley's School by lowering the fees and bringing in commercial and science subjects, including chemistry, a modern language, and agriculture, and making it a school for boys from eight to sixteen. In 1901, it was combined with a technical institute and became the Calne County School. Girls were admitted but at first were taught in another house on the Green. In 1909 a new school building was built and classes became co-educational. By 1934 it was clear that the school suffered from being neither a higher elementary school or a grammar school, and that more up-to-date courses were needed. A new headmaster, Mr. M. S. Gotch, was able to make a better
sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...
for the arts and sciences by renting extra rooms around the town for classrooms. Following the
Education Act 1944 The Education Act 1944 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 31) made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the Butler Act after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Histori ...
, the school accepted
voluntary controlled A voluntary controlled school (VC school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a Christian denomination) has some formal influence in the running of the school. Such schools have less autonomy th ...
status, meaning that it had little autonomy. In 1946, the County Council bought a site at Wessington for a new school building and a boarding house, not built by 1952. In 1947 the school was renamed as the Bentley Grammar School. In 1974, Wiltshire County Council decided to close the school and establish a new
comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...
in its place. The Wessington site is now occupied by Kingsbury Green Academy.


Notable former pupils

*
Pat Hayes Patrick John Hayes (born 21 August 1944) is a British computer scientist who lives and works in the United States. He is a Senior Research Scientist Emeritus at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola, Florida. Educa ...
(born 1944), computer scientist * Julia Reid (born 1952), former
Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...
"Reid, Dr Julia (born 16 July 1952), Member for South West Region and Gibraltar, European Parliament, 2014–19" in ''
Who's Who A Who's Who (or Who Is Who) is a reference work consisting of biographical entries of notable people in a particular field. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary promin ...
'', online edition, accessed 19 February 2023


Notes


External links


Calne Bentley Grammar School
National Archives {{WiltshireSchools Defunct grammar schools in England Educational institutions disestablished in 1974 Educational institutions established in the 1660s Defunct schools in Wiltshire 1660 establishments in England 1974 disestablishments in England Calne