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Haughton Grammar School

By THOS. M. BLAGG, F.S.A

Haughton Grammar School.

BY the wayside, at the Bothamsall end of the parish of West Drayton, by Twyford Bridge, which was the line of the Great North Road before it was diverted to go through Retford, and close by the site of the entrance gate to Haughton Park is a red brick building comprising a dwelling-house and school­rooms. There is a stone tablet over the door with this inscription :—

REMEMBER . THY . CREATOR . IN . THE . DAYES . OF . THY. YOUTH
BUY . BUT . DO . NOT . SELL . THE . TRUTH.
BE . A. FAIRE . DEALER . A. GOOD . NEIGHBOUR . AND . A TRUE . FRIEND
DO . AS . THOU . WOULDEST . BE . DONE . TO . AND . CONSIDER . THY . END

THIS SCHOOLEHOUSE WAS BY GIFT OF HENRY
WALTER, gent., dec^d. WHO WAS STEWARD TO YE
Rt. Hon. GILBT. and JOHN EARLES OF CLARE BUILT AN°. DOMⁱ. 1692

This building is Haughton Grammar School, which Henry Walter, as above, by his will dated 10th April, 1688, founded for all the male children that should come from Bothamsall, Haughton, Elkesley, Gamston, West Drayton, Milton and Bevercotes, to be instructed in grammar-learning until they come to the age of four­teen years; and he directed that a school house should be built in such convenient place as the Earl of Clare should approve, near the place of meeting of Bothamsall and Drayton Moor, at Denman Hole or thereabouts.

The school was to be built of brick and covered with tile, 33ft. long and l8ft. wide, with a chimney and an “outstroll” at one end; and the master was to spend £5 on a dial, and an enclosing ring of oaks, 100ft. away from the school.

Walter left also pensions of £5 a year each to four widows of ministers, which are still paid, and a paten to Bothamsall Church, which is still in use. He was buried in Bothamsall old Church; the vestry of the present one, which was built in 1845, is over his grave.

The schoolmaster’s house is much the same as when built in 1692, but the school-room was enlarged and added to in 1878 by a voluntary rate, raising £260; and in that year a new scheme was promulgated by the Charity Commissioners, converting this Grammar School into a Public Elementary School.

In the chancel of Markham Clinton or West Mark­ham Church is the grave slab of the Rev. Francis Holliday, Vicar of Bothamsall and “several years Master of the Free Grammar School of Hawton.” He died 4th October, 1787, in his 70th year. In 1756, this Master published a book entitled “An Easy Introduction to Gunnery, or the Art of Engineering, by F. Holliday, of the Free Grammar School at Haughton Park.”