3-047-125 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mount Charles Elementary Schools, St. Austell, Cornwall, 1872. 'St. Austell...has had the honour of opening the first school erected in England by a School Board, under the provisions of the Education Act, 1870. Of this precedence the local Board would have been ignorant, if Mr. King, her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, had not made inquiries at the Education Department, and ascertained that, although several new Board schools would be opened early in January next, no other would be completed so early as the present month. The new buildings are intentionally plain, but very substantial and convenient. They have been erected from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. Silvanus Trevail, of Par Station, by Messrs. Paul and Ede, builders, of St. Austell. There are separate school-rooms, class-rooms offices, and playgrounds for boys and girls, the whole accommodating 375 children. The total cost of buildings, furniture, and fittings was about £940, or an average of £2 10s. per child. An inscription over the boys' entrance states that "The site of these schools was a free gift from the family of the Veales to the parish of St. Austell, 1871"...On Monday week the children took formal possession; and the schools were declared duly open'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.