Our first speaker for 2015 was Julian Hunt and his subject Romsley and Hunnington Schools and Schoolmasters attracted an audience of 60 plus, which included over 20 visitors.
Julian as usual had researched his subject very thoroughly, as had his father, Jo Hunt, before him. Julian said that due to advances in technology and the number of documents now being placed on the internet, he had in fact been able to add to what his father had discovered. "Take William Smith, Yeoman, living here in the 17th century,. Everyone knows he is the founder of the original school next to the Sun Inn, but it was not until we started on our Wills project that we discovered William Smith's Will of 20th December 1684 and we were able to read for ourselves the details of his bequests."
In his Will he stated that profits from land and tenements in Romsley and Nickersfield were to be used to provide some education for 22 children of the poorest families within the townships of Romsley and Hunnington. Not only that but some honest sober and industrious person fit to teach should be maintained and encouraged. Other later Wills which we studied also described bequests to the school.
Julian followed up his talk with photographs and descriptions of the school when it was held in what is now the Church Hall, where we were that evening, when at play time the children would go out and play in the road in front of the hall. The toilet and other facilities in the Hall were rather primitive, but eventually the children of Romsley and Hunnington were provided with a much more modern school a short distance away, and this is the one that Ruth Harper and Friends will be talking to us about in a few months time.
Our talk on the 24th March will be given by Dr. Chris Upton, Senior Lecturer at Newman University on 'Peaky Blinders - The Gangs of Birmingham', and our Court Rolls research group will next meet in the Church Hall at 2.30 p.m. on 1st April. Come and join us.
June Humphreys