Robert Windle bequest funds Earby Grammar School building

The building in School Lane is owned and run by the Robert Windle Foundation Trust, a registered charity whose role is to provide help with education to the youth of the ancient parish of Thornton-in-Craven, which includes Thornton, Earby, Kelbrook and Harden.

The school was built in 1600 following a bequest left to the people of Thornton-in-Craven by Robert Windle.

In the 1500s, the Windle family were prosperous yeoman farmers in and around Earby and Thornton-in-Craven.

They were wealthy enough to afford education for their sons and Robert was born sometime around 1530.

It is not known where he received his early education, but eventually Robert attended the University of Oxford where he studied to become a priest.

He was a rector at two parishes in Oxfordshire during a turbulent time for priests when Edward VI, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I all brought their own changes to religion in the country.

Robert died in 1591 and he made many bequests including one relating to the foundation of the Earby Grammar School.

In the will, he asked that all of the lands he had bought for £880 be sold within a year of his death for £440, which would then be distributed among all the householders, rich or poor, in the parish of Torentune (the ancient name for Thornton-in-Craven).

This complicated bequest was found to be void in law due to several technicalities but it was settled when his surviving benefactor, Henry Mitchell, saw to it that his uncle's wishes were carried out.

During his life, Robert made it known he wanted to build a free grammar school in the parish and the school was built in around 1600.

This was a time of prosperity, the great Elizabethan age was drawing to a close and it was common for people who were successful to leave a legacy to found schools or hospitals.

A sum of £40 was paid by Henry Mitchell towards the purchase of a parcel of land called Sellcroft in Earby and the construction of a school. Sellcroft was a wooded area stretching from what is now Albion Road to School Lane. The school was built on an acre-and-a-half of land called Green Pocke.

The building was built in the fashionable Elizabethan house style of local sandstone, the roof was covered in stone slates and the windows were made with chamfered mullions to allow more light to enter. It would have been a very impressive modern building in its time.

Over the years, the school provided an education to the children of Thornton, Earby, Kelbrook and Harden.

The school was held in some repute for the teaching of Latin and English up to the end of the 18th century.

The children were charged a few pence each week, which the headmaster took as his income and to pay for the expenses of running the school.

The school taught the three “R” and its effectiveness could be gauged by looking at signatures on the marriage records between 1754 to 1771 when 57 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women could sign their name.

This dropped between 1803 and 1812 to 35 per cent and 11.5 per cent. These were hard years with the industrial changes from hand loom weaving (a major industry in the area) to power loom weaving, the wars with France and the Corn Laws forcing up the prices of food. Fewer families could afford the “school pence”.

In 1840 the school had to be closed as the roof was unsafe, but was reopened in 1848.

In 1894 a new group of trustees, led by the Rev Lawrence Morris, was appointed. They included local dignitaries and businessmen and one woman, Ellen Smith. This group was very active at a time when Earby was a boom town.

Many industrialists were starting businesses and the population of the town was rapidly increasing with people moving in to work in the mills.

The need for school places was obvious, but the grammar school was not up to the standards of the time, so the trustees decided to renovate and improve the building. The whole building with the exception of the porch and kitchen was converted into one large classroom.

In 1904, the trustees resolved that the school should be transferred to the local authority to be used for secondary education.

The tenancy of the grammar school was terminated by the council on July 31, 1911, when it was deemed no longer fit for the education of children.

The building was rented to a gentleman’s organisation known as the Craven Club and later the Junior Conservatives, who remained there until December 1929.

The West Riding County Council took over the building in 1931 for £20 per year and agreed to do the necessary repairs. It was used by the council as a public lending library and clinic until 1970.

The Earby Mines Research Group then took over the building as a Lead Mining Museum and remained in the building until July 2015.

During the 1990s, the group took on a major upgrade of the building, with grants from English Heritage and the National Lottery.

The museum held one of the country’s largest collections of lead mining artefacts and was of national importance. When this group folded in July, all of the exhibits were relocated into the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes.

Today the grammar school is back in the hands of the trustees, who are renovating and redecorating the building.

In the short term, the trustees will be running exhibitions and a café, but in the long term they are looking for a tenant.

Their first event will be on Saturday from 10 am to 3pm. Admission is free, but there will be refreshments and a light lunch available and an exhibition on the history of the Robert Windle Trust and education in the ancient parish of Thornton will be on display.

All are invited, but if anyone has an interest in the future of the building either for community use or business they are encouraged to come talk to the trustees.