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Ours is not the kind of village green where cricket is played or people stroll of an evening. It is small, dumpy and not even level and the grass is deliberately left to grow until after mid-summer so that we can enjoy a particularly fine crop of "Queen Anne's Lace". However, it does possess six fine trees two horse chestnuts, an elm, a walnut, a false acasia and a plane. There is also a young Japanese cherry planted by the
W.I. to mark its Golden Jubilee in 1965 ..National Federation's /-
Nevertheless it was the natural centre of the original Saxon Settlement of two moated farms, and has survived all hazards including the Enclosure Acts. By the Act of November 1871 it became "a place for exercise and recreation for the inhabitants of the Parish" - although, added to its natural limitations, the increasing bulk and speed of modern motor traffic creates a new and lasting hazard.
There have been cottages around the green since Saxon times - demolished, rebuilt, extended, repaired, dating now from late seventeenth to mid nineteenth century. Until twenty years ago none were modernised except for electric lights - now all are properly equipped, well cared for and comfortable.
The two moated farms, or manors as they became in Doomsday, are described in "The Village of Widdington" by Sir Claud Hollis, G.C.M.G. :
"The earliest known reference to Widdington is in the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), when there were two manors at that place, belonging to the freemen Ingulfa and Turchill respectively. These two manors at a later date received the names of Widdington Hall and Prior's Hall. At the time of the survey in William the Conqueror's reign, the former was held by Robert Gernon and the latter by the Prior of St. Valery in Picardy.
During his wars with France, King Edward III (1327-1377) seized the Manor of Prior's Hall as belonging to an alien Priory, and either he or his son Richard II (1377-1399) presented it to William of Wyckham, Bishop of Winchester, for the use of New College, Oxford. The Warden of New
College, Oxford, held the moot court at Widdington (probably at the Fleur-de-Lys Inn) at fairly regular intervals until well on in the 18th century. The manor was sold by New College, Oxford, in 1919; but the manorial documents, dating from 1304 to 1775, as well as some old maps, are still preserved in the muniment room of this College. A list of them has been compiled by T.F. Hobson, and published (1929) under the title Manorial Documents at New College, Oxford.
Unlike Priors Hall, which only changed hands oneeduring the eight and a half centuries following the Conquest, Widdington Hall has been owned by several families.
WIDDINGTON HALL: The earliest part of the existing building dates from the 15th century, and the remains of this 15th century house are particularly interesting. A full description is given in the Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in Essex, and a very brief account will suffice here. The southern elevation has three gables, the one to the east being smaller than the other two. The east end of the east wing contains the remains of the Great Hall and the Buttery, now cut up into rooms. The Great Hall has an original pointed doorway now filled in, and in the west wall is the original oak doorway to the Buttery. The Buttery retains its original roof of three bays with two 15th century king-post trusses. The Cellars below the Great Hall are of two bays and have groined vaulting in brick. In the 16th century the house was lengthened to the west, and the west elevation and central chimney-stack contain 16th century bricks. This period is further represented by some flat shaped balusters in the modern staircase and, in the north elevation of the main block, by a plain oak-framed window. In the 17th century a low two-storied addition was made at the west end of the main block. The moat is rectangular; the south and part of the east arm are obliterated.
PRIORS HALL is older than Widdington Hall, for the present rectangular building was erected in the 13th century, though there is no visible detail of this period. The west wing dates from the 15th century. The south wing was added in
The first half of the fourteenth century.
Mr PrattsCottage burnt downon Sunday, September 3rd 1972. Hertford cottage also damaged
Pond Mead, standing on the left of the approach road to the village, is the beginning of the conservation area. It is described (Hollis) as a modern house with portions of old cottages incorporated.
The thatched cottage with two dormer windows facing west is the village's darling. It probably dates from early in the 18th century (Hollis) and was widely known as Rectory Cottage. It was a gardener's cottage for many years but is now part of Samys, the modern house between it and Pond Mead.
Hertford Cottage, on the green and facing north, is a rehabilitation (about 1958) of two very small, old cottages, Nos. 38 and 39 on the Debden Hall Estate list. This and No. 37, standing at right angles to it, have recently been tiled after a thatch fire.
Mr. Francis Smith of Bishops demolished the old Tudor farmhouse, traditional home of his family, in 1843/4 and built a new house on the site. Later he did likewise for many of the dilapidated Tudor cottages on the west side of the village, replacing them with solid brick and slate. Similarly he bought and reconditioned two pairs of cottages of a later date than the others, on the west side of South Green, copy-holds Nos. 17A and 17B. The earliest known reference is an extract from the court Rolls
"No. 17B. All those two copy-hold cottages or tenements being part of an Estate Situate and being in Widdington aforesaid with the appurtenances thereto belonging".
The earliest recorded owner of this estate seems to have been one Mayhaus, variously recorded through the years as Mayowes, Mayhewes, Mayhewys and Mayhouse. Seven occupants of No. 17B are recorded between 1766 and 1864, the year in which Francis Smith "enfranchised "i.e. bought the freehold of the two copy-holds Nos. 17A and 17B - for £41. ' Prior to this the annual Quit Rent on No. 17B was 3d per annum, payable to New College.
One photograph shows these four cottages about 1958, with a glimpse of some of the rebuilt brick and slate replacements beyond.
The following photograph, taken from the top of the church tower, shows the whole of the brick and slate rebuilding along the village street, which the Essex County Council Planning Department thought to be good enough examples of Victorian domestic architecture to include in the Conservation Order.
On the east side of South Green are what were eight cottages, (now converted to six ), once the property of the old established Widdington family of Holgate. These cottages though early nineteenth century in appearance are of much older date, for the first four of them, referred to in the will of Martha Holgate of 1902, quoted in title deeds, describes them as "All that messe or tenement formerly Trotts afterwards called the Fleur de Luce then and for many years past divided into and used as four tenements".
The Fleur de Lys is now further along the street, south of the green. The present building is thought to be 18th century although the Inn is known to be of ancient date and some think the moot, or court, used to be held there by the Warden of New College. Be that as it may, many of the Court Rolls state that a court was held at Priors' (or Stone) Hall.
We speak of tithe and tithe barns, but what does it mean? Tithes were "the tenth part of the increase arising from the profits of lands, stock upon lands and the industry of parishioners, payable for the maintenance of the parish priest by everyone who had things titheable, if he cannot show a special exemption".
Tithes were payable before the Christian era (Gen: xiv. 20), but in the Christian church were first given by the faithful as spontaneous offerings in kind e.g. wool, corn, etc. Church law later made their payment a legal obligation when they fell into three classes: produce of the land, produce of labour and industry, and a mixture of produce of animals. In the early church it was common practice to make tithe payments to the parsons of parishes and so they came to be regarded as of common right to parish incumbents (although sometimes laymen could show a right to a portion of tithes and rectorial tithes often found their way into lay hands after the dissolution. The only lands exempt from tithes were barren heath, waste forest or glebe, old monastic lands previously held exempt from Tithes and crown lands.
The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 commuted all the tithes of England and Wales into Tithe rent charge and fixed the amount of rent charge for which the Tithes of each parish were to be commuted. Gradually over the next 100 years further legislation phased out tithes until (in 1996: ) they will, at considerable cost to the Church, be at last abolished.
After the passing of the Tithe Commutation Act,
Commissioners of Tithes toured the country valuing the land and translating its produce into terms of rent. The Deed of Commutation of Tithes for the Parish of Widdington is dated 2nd June 1838 (only two years to get here: ). It estimates the imperial bushels of wheat, barley and oats that the land could produce and valued them at:
Wheat 7/0¼ d per bushel 552 bushels
Barley 3/11½d " 900 "
Oats 2/9 " 1410 "
and calculated that the gross rent payable to the tithe owner in lieu was £582.
The area of the parish was:
Acres Rods Poles
Whole parish 2020 2 37
Subject to tithe 2003 3 2
Arable 1373 O 7
Meadow or pasture 332 3 24
Woodland ) 240 1 39
Common Land )
Glebe Land 4 1 2
The Deed of Commutation lists 81 landowners and 180 occupiers, the biggest landowners being Sir Francis Vincent Bart. of Debden, William Charles Smith and New College, Oxford.
The largest rent charge was levied on Wm. Perry, who occupied 331 acres of Sir. Francis Vincent's land, at £113.2.6.
Two or three acres usually attracted a rent of £1 and the lowest recorded commutation was for Geo. Fennell, whose 1 acre, O rods, 4 poles, attracted 6/ -. Below an acre was generally ignored for commutation purposes.
The Barn, Prior's Hall, Widdington, Essex
One bay of this is illustrated, in perspective in the plate on p 71. The numerous and extremely accurate examples of the top-plate scarf to this barn are its surest dating evidence. The actual joint is the stopsplayed-scarf with square, vertical butts, diminished bridling, two edge-pegs and a tapered face-key. The most probable range of years, in Essex, for such an enormously expensive piece of workmanship to be used so liberally (for the barn is eight bays long) would be c 1330 until c 1350. Only three other examples of this scarf are known to me and one of these is cheaper, and has been carbon-dated to c 1350. The roof, which is crown-post, has its common-rafter interstices so calculated that they (the rafters) divide, evenly, the total length of the barn, and coincide only with the two tie-beams of the gable-frames. At the other tie-beams, the rafters, of which none are principal, are lapped into the beams' flanks to varying degrees, or depths. This roof is evidence of a complete failure of the crown-post system, since all its couples have given way to the prevailing winds, and have carried the purlin and crown-posts with them. This is very clear evidence that, were the method adopted for the sake of obtaining lengthwise stability superior to that obtained by single-framing, it must have been realised soon afterward that it was highly inadequate for that purpose.
The outshot, lean-to roofs, are provided with a purlin which is carried on struts, and set in-pitch; while the order of assembly is, at the eaves, reversed. At this point, the eaves, the construction is fortified with a hanging-knee, which constitutes an early example of the application of such timber-angles to buildings otherwise unrelated to shipwrightry. This knee, furthermore, appears to be placed at the wrong end of the outshot tie-beam, since that beam's junction with the back of the principal-post is the point where weakness was inherent, in all aisled buildings. This barn is highly interesting so far as dates for timber-work are concerned, but its scarf must, for the present, indicate its age. Wall-wind-bracing was applied to the barn. throughout, and these braces are extremely thin and wide; they rise, it should be noted, from the ground-sills to the wall-posts. For such wind-bracing, which later became invariable, these may well provide an example which is close to the inception date.
from THE DEVELOPMENT OF CARPENTRY
by
CECIL A. HEWETT.
Prior's Hall Tithe Barn is regarded as one of the finest in England. Authoritatively dated between c 1330/c 1350 it is therefore more than 600 years old and its vast size gives an indication of the bulk of tithe taken from this land in ancient times. Nothing is now known of the size of the barn which preceded this building, from the Conquest until, during the French wars, Edward III seized Prior's Hall back from the Prior of St. Valery in Picardy: but then the tithes stayed home. Later the Crown transferred this estate to William of Wyckham, Bishop of Winchester, who founded New College Oxford in 1379 and gave the manor of Prior's Hall to the college.
For years the old barn has been steadily deteriorating and for more than a decade the present owners have been trying to obtain help with the expensive business of its preservation (although there was an official Preservation Order on the building there was no official money to preserve it with: ).
Feb. 1963 : Approached Historic Buildings Council; after prolonged correspondence -
Jan. 1964 : Aid turned down by Council due to insufficient funds and too many buildings to consider already.
Mar. 1964 :Put on waiting list; reconsidered and then offered £1000 grant towards cost of work.
Further correspondence with architects etc. - but owners could not find means of raising the balance of cost, so matter shelved. Estimate £6,500 plus?
May. 1964 :Approach Essex County Council for grant - turned down as cost of £5,500 for restoration too much!
1966 to Unsuccessfully approached for advice, support or finance: National Trust, British Tourist Board, Pilgrims 1970 Trust, Avoncroft Musuem Trust, Saffron Walden Countryside Asscn ., Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings, Ancient Monument Society, The Landmark Trust, Building Survival Trust, Council for Preservation of Rural England and many others, including Country Landowners Assen for advice only.
1971/1973 :Considerable correspondence with Department of the Environment (Ancient Monuments Dept. ) and the Essex Archaeological and Historical Congress (Subcommittee for the Protection of Buildings and Sites) - the latter continually pressing the D.O. E. to "do something about it".
late 1974 :D.O. E. indicated their willingness to give further consideration to preservation in March 1975.
Feb. 1975 :Owners regretfully applied for planning permission to demolish, due to increasing deterioration and building becoming unsafe.
April 1975 :D. O. E. indicated that they were prepared to assume responsibility for the barn subject to a formal offer by the owners of guardianship. This was immediately given, since when, surveys have been in progress, and legal documents are being prepared.
During the later stages, tremendous support has been received from G. E. S. Curtis, Esq. of Sampford and, under his influence, members of the Planning Dept. of Essex County Council including Cecil Hewett, who is an expert on wooden buildings. The County Council and Uttlesford District Council are understood to have offered a financial contribution also.
History to the School
An interesting historical account of the village school
History to the School
An interesting historical account of the village school
Ninety-seven years after this splendid ceremony, on July 22nd 1960, and with a curious absence of any ceremony at all, the school closed its doors upon the last child. It stood, serving no purpose, for another fifteen years, but in May 1975 it was demolished, almost in a single day, to make way for one more house of the current stereotype.
The story of these ninety-seven years is that of hundreds of other 'National Schools', as these Church schools in small English villages were called. It is told in the schools' log books and is the story of a social revolution. These log books, or diaries, had to be kept by every school receiving a Board of Education grant, and to tell the truch they are extremely dull, for the head teacher was supposed to enter every event, however minor, but was not permitted to express any opinion; so that while her opinions would have been of the greatest interest a hundred years later, there was little of significance in the day to day events.
However, patient plodding through the trivia of a century gives some insight into the ways in which a single (and not always qualified) teacher, with an assistant certainly unqualified, and perhaps a pupil teacher, battled against the odds in one large chilly room with hardly any equipment, to hold the interest of 50, 60 or 70 children, in three standards and an infants' class. These were women of great fortitude and unobtrusive heroism, every single aspect of whose lot would have thrown today's National Union of Teachers into paroxysms of incredulous indignation. The log books are of course rather like newspapers, in that the news thought worthy of recording is almost invariably bad truancies, illnesses, breakdowns, shortcomings - so that the general impression is biased towards gloom. But there was certainly a lot to be gloomy about.
The most striking impression is the way the weather used to keep children away in large numbers - not only snow and ice, but rain, rain, rain, spring, summer, autumn and winter. For instance, in 1867 there were four consecutive days in May and another four in August when rain stopped the children going to school, and in 1869 five consecutive days in June. This goes on to the end of
the century, and there seems also to have been lots of heavy snow in March in those days. We don't think so much about rain today, but rain without macintoshes, without wellingtons - alas often without shoes - with roads of liquid mud, is another matter.
And all too often, in the most gruesome months of the year, there is a single entry - 'No fire'.
There were absences for other reasons too. Before school attendance became compulsory in 1880, school was in
competition with what parents and farmers thought much more urgent - indeed school attendance rule did not make a great deal of difference since the school leaving age, which was 10, was not raised to 11 until 1893 or to 12 until 1899.
To a large extent the tug-of-war between school and farm was ordered by custom, and the summer holidays would begin and more particularly would end - according to the needs of harvest. (Incidentally, these holidays were known in Widdington right down to 1960 as the Harvest Holidsy). The Easter term would tend to peter out when enough children were absent to make it hardly worth while to carry on, and in several years the autumn term opened a week later than had been planned because of a late harvest. Even so, absences spilled over into what was properly term time. In March there would be absences for gathering turnip tops; in April for planting potatoes; in July for gathering peas and wild strawberries; in August, of course, for gleaning; in September for gathering bean-stalks and picking up potatoes; and in October for potatoes again; and acorns.
More surprising was that work and school would be regarded as alternatives - if work finished you went back to school. Over and over again we come across this kind of thing:
'24.9.73 W.... T ... returned to school after seven months absence at work'
the most extreme example being entered on 15th October 1881
'S ... J ... sent to school after an absence of nearly two years.
Employed at work during this time'
The Education Act of 1870 had provided for compulsory school attendance but had failed to furnish any real sanctions, so that on 18th March 1875
Mr. Clarke of Ringers Farm asked permission for D ... G ...
to go to work. Boy under 9 years of age. I have refused and sent copy of the A. C. (?) Act to Mr. Clarke.
This seems to have made little impression on Mr. Clarke, for the log book over the next few years makes clear that the boy spent as much time on the farm as in school. Apart from mentioning weather and work, the first headmistress had been uninformative about the reasons for such frequent absence; but Mary Rebecca Hawkin, who succeeded her in June 1871, had fewer inhibitions. It was said of her on appointment that 'as she is not certificated the entries in the log book will be discontinued', an early example of the tendency of education authorities to suppose that no-one can do the simplest thing unless they have a certificate to say that they can. Actually she did the job much better, when after six months she was permitted to put pen to paper, for she introduces us to some of the facts of rural poverty. On the 'wet, dirty roads', the children got 'chilled feet' and had to stay at home. S ... G ... was absent 'because his shoes were being mended', and R ... F ... had to stay at home 'for want of tidy clothes'. She speaks of filling in particulars of certain children on 'cards sent by the Relieving Officer'. She throws light on an entry frequently made by her predecessor - and later by herself - to the invariable effect that
The whole school was detained for making an uproar during the giving out of clothes and on a number of occasions children were sent out in the morning to fetch soup'. The fact that they were also frequently 'sent home to be washed' or 'to make themselves tidy and clean' may have indicated bohemianism rather than poverty, but keeping clean in a nineteenth century farm labourer's cottage was no simple matter.
In these regrettable circumstances it was the habit of the village fathers to give the children buns. 'Mr. Perry! we read on 6th October 1874, the headmistresses' grammar failing her for the moment, 'gave each child a bun as they were dismissed from
afternoon school', and on another occasion in 1878, Mr. Hayden ' kindly sent 100 buns'.
Miss Hawkin also records a dismal catalogue of croup, face-ache, inflammation of the lungs, sore ears or head and influenza, while to the end of the century the school seems to have had more than a fair share of measles, mumps and scarlatina. No doubt it was the same everywhere in those days, though this particular school was both cold and unventilated, and its 'offices', to use the coy phrase of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, shocked even those hardened and experienced men; and there was no running water.
In 1886 two children died of diptheria.
A happier reason for absence from school, though irritating to the staff, was entered regularly each November:
Many children absent on account of Newport Fair.
Girls, who always exceeded boys on the school registers, were less at risk from employers; but there were none the less several entries of this kind
18.1.69 C ... M ... left to go to service and mothers assumed the right to withdraw girls to home duties at their convenience - indeed a Mrs. M ... told the headmistress categorically that her daughter would attend when she could be spared from home, while the mother of R ... F ..., who was very irregular in attendance, 'took sharp offence' when spoken to on the matter and withdrew her son from school altogether (1875). Angry and abusive mothers quite often entered the school, saying they would have their children when they chose.
The School Attendance Officer, a Mr. Wells, makes his fi rst appearance in the log book in 1881, and thereafter appears frequently, visiting parents, ca joling, threatening, collecting money; but his efforts appear to have been only marginally more effective than those of the teachers, and he must have been a disillusioned man.
But while children who ought to have been in school were not, others we would nowadays think unsuitable even for the infants'
class were happily present. Three children aged 2½ were admitted between 1867 and 1880 and three and four year olds were quite usual.
Actually, attendances were not quite as bad as the log book entries are apt to convey. At a typical inspection '53 were present of whom 47 had attended upwards of 200 times during the year', and a School Feast was given to the virtuous 47 provided (alas ) that the 200 attendances had included the inspection. It was not uncommon for the worst offenders to be refused admission after a time, or to be admitted only after & solemn pledge by parents; and the Rector, a law unto himself, would on occasion order a boy's name to be crossed off the register with instructions that he was in no circumstances to be re-admitted.
Financial affairs
Available records do not show how much the Church had to contribute to the maintenance of the school, but the State's contribution is summarised in the grant which accompanied the Inspector's annual report. The first of these, in 1874, was calculated on average attendance, with a bonus for infants, plus 4/- for a pass in reading, writing and arithmetic:
Average attendance - no.@ 6d. 56 £16.16. 0
Infants - 20 @ 8d. 20 8. 0. 0
Qualified for examination. 34
Presented at examination. 32
Passed in: Reading. 23
Writing 20
Arithmetic 27
No. for grant @ 4/- 70 14. 0. 0
___________
£38.16. 0
___________
By 1886 the Board of Education had become more sophisticated, recognising discipline, which was always good in Widdington, by a grant of 1/- a head, singing by 6d, 'class subjects' i.e. everything outside the 3 Rs. by 2/ -, and needlework by a block grant of 25/-:
In the same year we have a hint of the austere conception of Christmas holidays:
Desks, work drawers and bookshelves cleared out. Collects for Christmas, St. Stephen and St. John the Evangalist repeated by Classes I and II. 23 present. Dismissed at 3.15 p.m. for Xmas holiday.
The day was Christmas Eve and the school resumed on January 4th!
But a mellower concept evolved with time.
The school's manifold deficiencies restrained Her Majesty's Inspectors from showing any great enthusiasm for it.
They were oppressed by the inadequacy of the teaching assistance, by the one large room (it never did get properly divided ) and by the absence of any but the most basic facilities.
But this did not prevent them from praising the general atmosphere. The school was a calm and happy place.
The devotion of the headmistresses is shown by the fact that there were only 6 in ninety-seven years and that only one of these (in the early years of the 20th century) left under any kind of disapprobation.
Church, school and village were largely one, and the England of an earlier age lived on.
May Day started with the school children 'a-Maying' - taking garlands of flowers from house to house and singing the May Day songs - and the school started late to allow for this. This custom survived to the end, into 1960, and well into the 20th century the school occupied a traditional place in a traditional order.
But it never properly belonged to the 20th century.
The Education Act of 1902 brought increasing pressure on the Managers to modernise - though perhaps the word is an exaggeration, since all that was proposed was a partitioning of the room so that at least the infants could have some privacy; an adequate stove; and a rearrangement of the boys' 'offices' that would make the sanitary arrangements somewhat less repulsive. But a partition was never achieved - only a line of cupboards which made a rough division - while the school was without electricity until 1949 and without water till 1950, then only an outside tap.
As to the stove, it was the subject of a saga in itself, exercising the minds of the Managers, though failing to warm the bodies of the children, until a new 'Romesse' stove finally replaced a succession of
In the same year we have a hint of the austere conception of Christmas holidays:
Desks, work drawers and bookshelves cleared out. Collects for Christmas, St. Stephen and St. John the Evangalist repeated by Classes I and II. 23 present. Dismissed at 3.15 p.m. for Xmas holiday.
The day was Christmas Eve and the school resumed on January 4th! But a mellower concept evolved with time.
The school's manifold deficiencies restrained Her Majesty's Inspectors from showing any great enthusiasm for it. They were oppressed by the inadequacy of the teaching assistance, by the one large room (it never did get properly divided ) and by the absence of any but the most basic facilities. But this did not prevent them from praising the general atmosphere. The school was a calm and happy place. The devotion of the headmistresses is shown by the fact that there were only 6 in ninety-seven years and that only one of these (in the early years of the 20th century) left under any kind of disapprobation. Church, school and village were largely one, and the England of an earlier age lived on. May Day started with the school children 'a-Maying' - taking garlands of flowers from house to house and singing the May Day songs - and the school started late to allow for this. This custom survived to the end, into 1960, and well into the 20th century the school occupied a traditional place in a traditional order.
But it never properly belonged to the 20th century. The Education Act of 1902 brought increasing pressure on the Managers to modernise - though perhaps the word is an exaggeration, since all that was proposed was a partitioning of the room so that at least the infants could have some privacy; an adequate stove; and a rearrangement of the boys' 'offices' that would make the sanitary arrangements somewhat less repulsive. But a partition was never achieved - only a line of cupboards which made a rough division - while the school was without electricity until 1949 and without water till 1950, then only an outside tap. As to the stove, it was the subject of a saga in itself, exercising the minds of the Managers, though failing to warm the bodies of the children, until a new 'Romesse' stove finally replaced a succession of
patched-up, second hand affairs in the summer holidays of 1956. But by then little time remained in which to enjoy these amenities.
More seriously, educational reorganisation reached
Widdington in 1933 and children over 11 were moved to Newport County School. The school's numbers appear to have reached their peak in 1875, when 82 children were on the roll; they fell to 75 in the next ten years and to 54 by the end of the century, a figure which held for another twenty years. It then started to slip down the 40s, and the 1933 reorganisation left only 26 in what was now a Junior and Infant School. The figure rose a little during the War, because of evacuees, but fell again, and was down to 23 when the closure was finally applied.
The school ended 'not with a bang but a whimper'. It was done in an extraordinarily unceremoniously to say unworthy - way by the education people in Chelmsford and Whitehall. 'The Minister' did not make up his mind until the 13th July. The Rector was not notified of his decision until the 17th, the end of term being the 22nd. The last entry in the log book reads
22 July Widdington School closed for good today,
the last day of the Summer Term. A good
deal of school stock and equipment has
already been transferred to Mr. Hake,
Headmaster of Newport County School.
On August 3rd a removal van arrived.
And that was that.
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