Uckfield School

{{Short description|Defunct school in England}}{{Infobox school | city = Uckfield | county = East Sussex | country = England | other_names = {{Plainlist| * Uckfield Grammar School * Dr Saunders's School * Saunders Foundation School }} | established = 1718 | founder = Rev. Dr Anthony Saunders | closed = 1930 | gender = Boys }}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use British English|date=February 2023}} '''Uckfield School''', founded in 1718, later called '''Uckfield Grammar School''', grew from a small local charity school at Uckfield into a grammar school with about 160 boys, including boarders. It closed in 1930.

At various times the school was also called '''Dr Saunders's School''' and the '''Saunders Foundation School'''.<ref name=nationalarchives>[http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/6821865d-b82c-4c95-957c-543c71ae793d Records of Saunders' Educational Foundation, Uckfield and Buxted] at nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 July 2016</ref>

==Beginnings== The school was founded by the Rev. Dr Anthony Saunders, Rector of Buxted (died 1719) to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and the elements of the church catechism to "six poor boys of Buxted and six poor boys of Uckfield". The first Master of the school was the Rev. John Lloyd. In his Will dated 31 October 1718, Saunders left a house in Church Street, Uckfield, which provided a house for the schoolmaster, his library of some six hundred books, and an income of £10 a year charged on Rocks Farm, Buxted. He also left bequests for founding a separate school for girls at Buxted and for providing apprenticeships for local boys.<ref name=lower/><ref name=crawleynews>[http://www.crawleynews.co.uk/school-s-closure-came-200-years-tuition/story-15120301-detail/story.html School's closure came after 200 years of tuition] dated 3 February 2012. Retrieved 11 July 2016</ref>

==Development== In the middle and second half of the 18th century, Uckfield School flourished under the mastership of the Rev. Robert Gerison, formerly Margerison, who probably held the mastership from 1738 until his death in the late 1790s.<ref name=caffyn/> Born about 1712, he was a scholar from Peterhouse, Cambridge, who had graduated MA in 1737.<ref>John Venn, ''Alumni Cantabrigienses'', vol. iii, Kaile – Ryves ( 1924), p. 140</ref> There is some obscurity about who attended the school under the Will of Dr Saunders and who was a private pupil, but Gerison's pupils at Uckfield included James Stanier Clarke and Edward Daniel Clarke.<ref name=lower/><ref name=caffyn>"Gerison, Robert (formerly Margerison)", in John Caffyn, ''Sussex Schools in the 18th Century'' (Sussex Record Society, 1998), p. 300</ref> Early in the next century, under the Rev. William Rose, curate of Little Horsted, who became Master of the school in 1800,<ref>''The Uckfield visitor's guide, and historical notices of Buxted, Framfield &c.: together with a directory of Uckfield'' (1869), p. 12</ref> boys were again taught to a high standard, including Rose's sons Hugh and Henry Rose.<ref name=lower>"Anthony Saunders, D.D." in Mark Antony Lower, ''The Worthies of Sussex'' (1865), p. 63: "At present the establishment is devoted to "middle class" education; but in former times the master was commonly a university graduate. In fact, Uckfield school enjoyed considerable celebrity. During the mastership of the Rev. Robert Gerison, Dr. James Stanier Clarke, and his brother Edward Daniel Clarke, the well-known traveller, received their rudimentary education there..."</ref>

In a Charity Commissioners' report of 1819, it was noted that the schoolmaster of the day had invested about £1,000 of his own money in improving the school and had transferred the twelve scholars provided for under the Will of Dr Saunders to a recently established National School, paying it £20 a year to educate them.<ref>"Uckfield – Saunders's School" in ''Public Charities: Analytical digest of the Reports made by the Commissioners of inquiry into charities. Digest of schools and charities for education'' (W. Clowes & Son, 1842), [https://books.google.com/books?id=DHtPAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA279 p. 279]</ref>

In 1855, after there had been an accumulation of funds, the Charity Commissioners approved an improved scheme for funding the school by a charity called the Buxted and Uckfield Saunders Foundation, and in 1865 ''The Worthies of Sussex'' noted that the school was then devoted to "middle class" education.<ref name=lower/> In 1876 a scheme of management was approved by Queen Victoria under which the master of the school must be a graduate of a British university. In 1880, the Saunders foundation sold Rocks Farm and paid for the building of dormitories for sixteen boarders and a gymnasium.<ref name=crawleynews/>

==Closure== The school was closed in July 1930, as a result of a new county school for boys being about to open at Lewes in September of the same year, and some boys transferred to the new school.<ref name=crawleynews/> The last headmaster was C. R. McGregor Williams (1889–1954), who in 1931 became the first head of the new Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School.<ref>Charles Wells, ''Past Purple: A History of Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School'' (London: Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, 2002), pp. 9–10</ref>

==Aftermath== The school's main building can still be seen in Church Street, Uckfield, and is called the Old Grammar School.<ref name=crawleynews/> The Saunders educational charity still exists, using its income to assist Church of England schools and to provide scholarships for local children.<ref name=nationalarchives/>

At least one old boy of Uckfield School was still living in July 2015, in the shape of Arthur Walter James, whose connection with the school was reported when he reached the age of 103,<ref name=103yearsyoung/> but he died shortly afterwards.

==Notable old boys== *Edward Clarke (1730–1786), clergyman and author<ref>[https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Clarke,_Edward_(1730-1786)_(DNB00) Clarke, Edward (1730–1786)] in ''Dictionary of National Biography'' online at Wikisource.</ref> *James Stanier Clarke (1766–1834), clergyman and author<ref name=lower/> *Edward Daniel Clarke (1769–1822), clergyman, naturalist, and traveller<ref name=lower/> *William Nevill, 4th Earl of Abergavenny (1792–1868), landowner and peer<ref>[http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search-2016.pl?sur=&suro=w&fir=&firo=c&cit=&cito=c&c=all&z=all&tex=NVL816W&sye=&eye=&col=all&maxcount=50 Nevill, the Hon. William] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210919194141/https://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search-2016.pl?sur=&suro=w&fir=&firo=c&cit=&cito=c&c=all&z=all&tex=NVL816W&sye=&eye=&col=all&maxcount=50 |date=19 September 2021 }} at venn.lib.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 July 2016</ref> *Hugh James Rose (1795–1838), clergyman and academic<ref name=lower/><ref name=crawleynews/> *Henry Rose (1800–1873), clergyman<ref name=lower/> *Sir Ewart Smith (1897–1995), engineer<ref>"Profile: Sir Ewart Smith, a leader in the art of good management" in ''New Scientist'' dated 14 May 1959, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fC5m7kDNiY8C&pg=PA1076 p. 1076]</ref> *Arthur Walter James (1912–2015), journalist and politician<ref name=103yearsyoung>[http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/13366436.Marlborough_man_is_103_years_young/ Marlborough man is 103 years young] dated 2 July 2015 at gazetteandherald.co.uk. Retrieved 11 July 2016</ref>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

Category:1930 disestablishments in England Category:Defunct schools in East Sussex Category:Boarding schools in East Sussex Category:Boys' schools in East Sussex Category:Educational institutions established in 1718 Category:Educational institutions disestablished in 1930 Category:Grammar schools in England Category:People educated at Uckfield School Category:1710s establishments in Great Britain Category:Uckfield Category:Defunct boarding schools in England