This year it is 350 years old, and is therefore one of the longest running schools in the country. Before the 1870 Education Act it was not unusual for schools to be founded by local benefactors, but what is remarkable about Sir John Maynard's School is the fact that it survived, and continued to be used as a school right up to the present time. It is one of the oldest primary schools in Devon.
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Sir John Maynard was not only Lord of the Manor, but also Member of Parliament for Bere Alston several times between 1659 and 1689. He was born in Tavistock in 1602, and died in 1690, outliving his four wives and all his children. He was a lawyer and a politician, a staunch Presbyterian who served in high office during the government of Oliver Cromwell and, remarkably, was also welcomed by Charles II at the Restoration in 1660, becoming King's Serjeant and serving under Charles II, James II and William and Mary. Samuel Pepys was disgusted by this and wrote in his diary that he considered that Maynard was a turncoat.
Sir John Maynard had a lifelong interest in education. In his capacity as trustee of the Elize Hele charity, he founded the girls' school in Exeter known as the Maynard School, which still exists today as an independent school for girls aged 7 to 18, and is the third oldest girls' school in England. He also founded a boys' grammar school in Exeter, now a comprehensive, and a grammar school in Totnes.
In Bere Alston, Sir John Maynard set up an endowment fund to provide for both the annual rent of the school building and to provide a salary for the schoolmaster, who actually lived on the premises. The school was to be 'for the education of 8 free scholars' who should be taught reading writing and arithmetic free from all charge and expense. In 1826 the Charity Commissioners, reporting on the school, mentioned a document dated 24th July 1788 which explained that the rector and churchwardens acted as trustees of the charity, and were also responsible for its management. Rents from lands in Tutwell, in the parish of Stoke Climsland, just over the Cornish border, provided the funds.
On the 13th of February 1817 four rules were laid down: that the master should teach, free of charge, 16 boys or girls of the parish of Bere Ferris, in reading, writing and spelling; that no more than 10 boarders should be taken by the master; that he should instruct such poor children as should be sent to him, for two hours every Sunday morning, in reading and the church catechism; and that he must not let any part of his lodgings. The schoolmaster had a house and garden, with a schoolroom under the same roof. In 1826 he was teaching 16 boys and girls, all children of poor people of the parish. The boys were taught reading and writing, and some of them were instructed in arithmetic. The girls were taught reading and plain work (sewing) by the master's wife, and some of them were taught writing by the master. There were no boarders at this time, but the master had about 25 other day scholars, for whose instruction he was paid, and who were taught with the other children. Since the rents from the endowment were by the 19th century quite low in value - only £21 per annum in 1868 - the master was obviously able to augment his income by taking fee-paying scholars.
White's Directory of Devon stated in 1878 that the school had recently been enlarged and rebuilt to accommodate 210 girls and infants. There was by now a separate boys' school built in 1853 as a Church of England school, and a small National school in the village of Bere Ferris. Schools were also attached to each of the three chapels in the parish, and there was a small parochial library. Education in the parish had clearly expanded greatly during the 19th century. By 1902 Kelly's Directory stated that the school held 150 children, with an average attendance of 126. In 1912 a new building was added to the school, and in 1996 a further extension was built.
Sir John Maynard's school was therefore able not only to survive but also to adapt to changing circumstances. Had it not survived, the terms of the endowment meant that the rents would have been used for the parishioners of Bere Ferrers in lieu of the poor rates, it being the intent of the donor that it should be for ever for the use of the parish.