Reg Little hears from the author whose book tells of education in Ewelme since 1437

The Hundred Years War in France was going disastrously, with English possessions across the Channel being rapidly retaken by the French.

At home, forces were being unleashed that would soon give rise to the equally bloody Wars of the Roses, with King Henry VI descending into madness.

The 1450s were certainly a time of dramatic events, as William Shakespeare fully recognised in his history plays.

In one Oxfordshire village, however, those violent and bloody years are warmly recalled as being the decade when its village school was built.

Eton College is proud to claim that it was founded by Henry VI in 1440.

But the altogether less well known Ewelme School can point to roots going back to 1437, when the pious Alice Chaucer and her husband, William de la Pole, fourth Earl and first Duke of Suffolk, were granted a licence by the saintly king to create a new foundation, God’s House, in Ewelme.

Founded as a medieval grammar school, the school survived major upheavals in the Tudor period as well as the grim years of the 18th century when the school came close to dwindling into disuse.

Today it is a Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, with the original school still in full working order, in a magnificent medieval complex that includes almshouses, the school house and church.

It may be less well known than Eton and Oxford’s Magdalen College School (founded as part of Magdalen College in 1480) but according to the school’s website Ewelme’s is the “oldest continuously functioning school building” in the country.

Not many school children can have had the privilege of experiencing their primary school education in a genuine medieval setting.

The school is now the subject of a new booklet, Ewelme School: A History and Guide, published on behalf of the Friends of Ewelme School and written by Dr Kate Tiller, founding fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford, and Reader Emerita in English Local History.

It has been published in memory of the school’s former headteacher, George Cannon, who died three years ago, and was himself an enthusiastic local historian.

She says the school history draws heavily on Mr Cannon’s recollections, and own historical research, pulled together over many years. Mr Cannon took over as head in 1971, on his return from working in the RAF school at Changi in Singapore.

Dr Tiller, a Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, had long been familiar with the school before embarking on the project. She lives in the nearby hamlet of Roke Marsh, where last month she was caught up in the drama that saw fires started in Roke and at South Oxfordshire District Council headquarters at Crowmarsh.

Dr Tiller was among those in the small hamlet forced to evacuate their homes at 3am.

As director of studies in local history at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education, Dr Tiller had run a series of local history courses at the school, where she came to know Mr Cannon well.

“He knew generations of children and was a central figure in the village,“ said Dr Tiller.

“His papers now form an important part of Ewelme Historical Archive. He had an enormous amount of knowledge and material. But he never got around to publishing.”

When he died, his friends in the village wanted to produce something to commemorate his contribution. A history of the school was seen as the perfect way to honour his memory.

Her own attachment to the place is obvious.

“The school is part of a remarkable 15th-century complex designed to provide for the bodily and spiritual well-being of Ewelme from cradle to grave, and beyond, “ she observes.

“The first formal statutes, in English and dating from 1448-50, show how the vision was realised.”

The church sits at the top of a steeply sloping site, with almshouses built below, forming a quadrangle of houses using what was then newly-fashionable red brick. Finally, around 1450, the school was erected.

Duchess Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer of Ewelme and grand-daughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, became the dominant figure. Her husband, a favourite of the king, died in 1450, after being blamed for the loss of the French territories of Maine and Anjou through his part in Henry VI’s wedding negotiations.

Oxford Mail:

Suffolk had been banished, following the King’s intervention, but on his journey to Calais his ship was intercepted and, after a mock trial, he was beheaded.

Alice would spend much of her 25-year widowhood pouring her wealth into the completion of God’s House at Ewelme.

“It is a remarkable building to sustain teaching into the 21st century,” says Dr Tiller.

Down the years there have certainly been times when it was questioned whether modern standards could be met in such ancient surroundings.

When a child was killed in 1872, falling down the worn spiral staircase to the first floor, the need for urgent repair work was recognised, with new stairs installed.

Dr Tiller tells how the opening of RAF Benson changed the school’s life, with the first influx of service families’ children arriving in 1939.

By 1950, pupil numbers had topped 100 and four additional classes were needed.

“Pressures were exacerbated by the further growth of RAF Benson which, until 1953, had no school provision on the base, bringing many new children to Ewelme,” Dr Tiller says.

“Sanitation, heating, learning and recreational space were all criticised. As in the 1850s, Ewelme survived by accepting a new status and funding regime. It became a Church of England Voluntary Primary School, and eligible for 50 per cent grants towards the improvements required by the Ministry of Education.”

Thankfully, plans to build a new school for Ewelme were dropped and improvements to the existing building were completed amid great celebrations in 1959.

It ensured a genuine, if little known, Oxfordshire educational phenomenon survived — a thriving primary school existing in a mid-15th-century building, that maintained its links to the original medieval founders and foundation.

Happily, it is one that can be enjoyed too beyond staff, children and parents.

On March 15, a new season of Sunday teas and openings will begin, continuing until September 13 on selected dates.

Copies of the booklet are available at the school, from Ewelme’s community shop, the village pub (the Shepherd’s Hut) or by post from Friends of Ewelme School, c/o Ewelme Primary School, Burrows Hill, Ewelme, OX10 6HU (priced £3 or £4 by post).