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As there is a vacancy for a
new Trustee I thought it would be a good idea to give a brief history of the
Foundation.
Richard Thornton of Old
Swan Wharf, London, and Cannon Hill, was a London banker whose father had
been one of the founders of Lloyds Bank. He had purchased Cannon Hill
House and Park from the Sherwood family after Moses Sherwood’s departure for
the Crimean War about 1854. During his life he had taken a great interest
in all branches of village life and “on Christmas Eve would give all the
local people a mug of ale, a mince pie and a half crown, and children a
shilling and a mince pie”.
He also loaned some
money to build the South Aisle of St. Mary’s Church and there is a plaque in
his memory on the wall behind the brass lectern.
He was known locally as
the “hermit millionaire”, and “was a familiar figure in Merton in his little
four wheeled chaise and ready offer to pick one up”.
Richard Thornton died
20th
June 1865 and in
his will bequest to the Minister and churchwarden of Merton the sum of
£11,000.00 for the poor of the parish.
On 17 September 1868
the Charity Commissioners granted a Scheme and this remains in force today
for the regulation and management of the Charity. The Trustees were to be
“the Incumbent and Churchwardens of the parish of Merton for the time being
and five other respectable persons resident in the same parish or within the
distance of seven miles of the Church thereof”. Vacancies among the
Trustees through death, resignation, incapacity or bankruptcy were and are
filled by the other Trustees.
The Scheme allowed the
Trustees to spend £2,000 on the purchase or erection of school buildings and
accommodation for a Master and/or Mistress. The School was to admit
children of all inhabitants of the parish, and other children if space
permitted, between the ages of 7 and 16. On 14 June 1870, the
Commissioners allowed the sum to be increased to £2,500 provided it included
an Infant School and the lower age limit was reduced to 2 years. The
School was built on the corner of Melrose Road and Church Lane in 1870.
The Trustees applied to
the Charity Commissioners (after 1918 to the Board of Education) for funds
for improvements or exceptional expenditure, including:
(1880) Enlargement of
Master’s House (1888) Improved sanitation (1893) Additional places for 60
boys and 36 girls and enlargement of School for requirements of 1902 Act
(1907)
Some of the investment
was allowed to be sold. The interest on the remainder was frozen for up to
30 years to replace the capital. All four schemes were completed with
considerable help from the Church. It was not until 1920 that the Trustees
were again able to use the interest.
In 1926, the Trustees
purchased the garage, sheds and strip of land at the back of the School
(part of the garden of
1 Melrose Road)
for £355, again the Churchwardens advancing part of the price.
With more resources,
the Trustees were able to make improvements to the School, including
replacement of the lavatories (£2,000), extra heating, rebuilding the south
wall of the domestic science room, hot water to wash basins in the Girls’
School, etc. The Church paid £60 each year for an additional classroom in
the Red Cross Hall in Kingston Road. Numerous schemes for rebuilding or
re-siting the Schools were discussed over the years. A contract for
rebuilding was actually signed in 1939 but annulled by the outbreak of the
war.
The possibility was
considered again in 1960.
In 1965 the number of
pupils at the School had dwindled such that there were suggestions to close
it.
In 1966 the resources
of the Trustees were the School site of 1.1 acres, the buildings, including
2 houses and a double garage producing rents standing on it, 6,081 Charities
Official Investment Fund units (purchased at 225.9d each) and £600 in cash.
The Borough plans for a
3-tier comprehensive education in Merton were announced including the
proposals for Queens Road to be a Voluntary Aided Church Middle School
catering for 9 to 13 year-olds. This was to be subject to the co-operation
of and suitable financial arrangements with the Richard Thornton Trustees.
It became certain that the
Melrose
Road
School
would have to close in 1968 or 1969 whatever happened.
The exchange of Melrose
Road for the Queens Road School was formally agreed by the Trustees on 26
November 1966 and in July 1967 they resolved to close
Melrose Road.
The Local Education Authority (LEA) occupied the
Melrose
Road
School
on 1 September
1967 for a technical college before any formal agreement regarding rent or
sale terms. In February 1968 the Education Committee authorised
negotiations for the exchange of the
Melrose Road
premises with those at Queens Road. A price of £40,000 was agreed for the
sale of Melrose
Road although
there was protracted correspondence regarding one of the boundaries and a
right of way to the site of the workshop which had previously formed part of
the garden of 1 Melrose Road, a property owned by the Church. The LEA did
not require the workshop which was owned by the Trustees although they
rented it later. This had to be left unresolved. A price of £60,000 was
agreed as the value of
Queens Road.
Canon Tirrell of the
Board of Education proposed to give the statutory grant of 80% on the
difference in the values of the two schools. The Vicar as Chairman of the
Trustees enrolled the assistance of Mr Michael Havers, MP for Wimbledon, to
establish that the grant of 80% should be paid on the purchase price of
Queens Road without regard to the earlier sale of
Melrose Road.
He took up the matter with the then Secretary of State, Mrs Margaret
Thatcher, who, exceptionally, allowed the grant on £60,000. Thus the
Trustees were left with the full proceeds of the original School. The
purchase was completed in June 1971.
When the acquisition of
the Queens Road School was likely, there was correspondence with the Diocese
and the Trustees as to the name to be used for the new
Church
School.
Suggestions included ‘Richard Thornton’, ‘Bishops’, ‘Deanery’, ‘St. Bede’s’,
and ‘The Queen’s School’. It was Mr Jack Arnold, Treasurer of the Church
at that time as well as a Trustee, who suggested ‘Priory’, the name
eventually adopted.
Today, the Priory
Church of England Primary School has recently been refurbished to a high
standard with a new Reception Area, new Kitchen Block and a lift was
installed for Special Needs children. The children’s parents banded
together to design pay for and build an amphitheatre in the playground -
modelled on those used in Greece more than 2,000 years ago. It is thought
to be the only amphitheatre of its kind in a British primary school.
The Priory School is
now insured against fire for over £22m.
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