Rev'd Browne had 12 children - enough for a school!
Compton Martin had a school for over 100years. There was an abortive attempt to start one in the 1780`s but in those days school and church were closely linked and it needed a new vicar in 1840 for a school to become established. Village population was at its peak – about 600.
Rev. Browne arrived with 11 children and found he had nowhere to send them. By 1845 he had built the school room that is sited at the entrance to the Church. It was an enormous single-handed achievement - he gave the land himself, established the finances, and recruited staff, all with no help from the Lord of the Manor, Mr. .Henniker, “unless music and dancing were in the curriculum”.
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The school had 45 to 65 pupils. It did not lack excitement - the longest serving Head was sacked for deafness, at another time it had two Heads, one in control from the trenches. . . Until 1930 it catered for all ages - then the senior children were moved elsewhere. The school lacked strong personalities, either in the pulpit, or in the Council, to struggle for its survival, and in 1950, with numbers down to 25 it closed with hardly a whimper. Most pupils moved to Chew Stoke or Ubley schools, which still flourish 60 years on with strong church and local backing.
The building is now the home of the local History Society.