Page 27 - Hindsight Issue 26 April 2020

BUILDIngs
Rowlatt assumed all expenses and made an endowment in his will to provide £110 a year, on condition that the British and Foreign school society took over the school’s management.
the endowed school was opened in 1834 as Rowlett1 school and was divided into a boy’s room and a girls’ room, seating 88 and 66 children respectively. It is now known as Corby old Village school but still fondly remembered by local people as Rowlett school.
the school’s history is a long one and it reflects the social changes of society towards the poor and education. school records show the difficulties poor families had reconciling two necessities in life: the first being that their children might receive an education better than they knew, but at the same time needing their children to contribute to the family income through farming and basic jobs.
the school’s first log book reveals that in June 1882 to the end of July 1882 attendance was very poor, quite unsurprisingly, as this was a time that children helped in the fields and those that didn’t work all day still had chores such as taking dinners to parents who were working, thus making them late for lessons. As time went by absenteeism was the least of the school’s worries as overcrowding began to lead to disease and infection on a regular basis.
Again the school records show ‘May 1890, school closed due to scarlet fever’. this was repeated in 1893 with a whooping cough outbreak, and in 1895 with outbreaks of scarlet fever, ring worm and measles. these occurrences continued right up to the early 20th century and the results of these outbreaks had terrible outcomes with children dying because of the conditions of overcrowding, lack of sanitation and water contamination combined to cause poor health conditions. the problems seen through the records held by the school are typical of many small communities during those times, but conditions improved for Rowlett with the opening of a new school in 1914 designed by local architects gotch, surridge and saunders. sanitation and water supplies to the village were improved and the next stage of the school’s history saw the coming of steel-making to this small northamptonshire village.
the school today is a thriving and vibrant modern school with a proud and possibly enviable 177 year history.
1 Rowlatt or Rowlett? Although William Rowlatt endowed the school, it has been known over the years as both Rowlatt and Rowlett school. today it is generally known as Rowlett school. the confusion in spelling possibly arises because there are both Rowlatt and Rowlett families in the village.
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