Chapter II.
EDUCATION.
BY OSMUND AIRY, M.A.,
H.M. INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS FOR BIRMINGHAM.
It can fairly be said that there is probably no town in England which possesses a more complete educational system than Birmingham. This system has been no effect of a pre-conceived design, but has grown up, piece by piece, in the stress of the life of a great manufacturing centre, where people of leisure may be counted on the fingers of one hand. All the more, probably, it has been constantly and definitely adapting itself to the needs of the locality. The boast is at any rate a just one, that in this busy population the road is clear, clear that is of all artificial obstructions, clearer far than in many a more polished and cultivated society, for a boy to rise from the gutter to the University, or to eminence in any science or art.
Foundation of the Grammar School.—King Edward’s School owes its origin to an institution more than a century and a half older than itself. The Gild of the Holy Cross, the earliest record of which is to be found in a writ of Richard II., July 10, 1392, was a body which concerned itself, not of course with education, but with functions partly religious and partly quasi-municipal. It possessed a Gild Hall, a building of wood and plaster, standing at a distance from the town on the south side of the highway to Hales Owen, now New Street. In 1547 its possessions were seized by the King, and they continued in the Crown until 1552, when Edward VI., upon the petition of the inhabitants, gave them back to the town for the maintenance of a Free Grammar School, for the instruction of children in grammar. The clear yearly value of these lands was then £21,[2] and they were assigned to William Symmons, gent., Richard Smallbrook, Bailiff, and 18 other inhabitants, “to hold by fealty only, in free soccage” on condition of an annual payment at Michaelmas of £1 (apparently commuted in 1810 for £25. 15s. 6d.). These twenty assignees were to hold their position for life, and all vacancies by death or removal were to be filled up by co-optation. In the first instance they were to be inhabitants of the manor of Birmingham, but the restriction was modified in 1830. They were to nominate a Pedagogue and a Sub-pedagogue, to whose support the revenues were to be exclusively employed; and they were permitted to acquire further revenues to an amount not exceeding £20 per annum.
First Statutes.—More than one hundred years later, Oct. 20, 1676, the Governors issued their first statutes. No tenant of school property might be a Governor. The house, then occupied by the chief schoolmaster, with a barn and croft in New Street,[3] a close called the Lower Leasowe or Broom close, in the “foreign” of Birmingham, and the pit on the lower side of the Leasowe, were appropriated to the use of himself and his successors for ever; while the usher’s house, with the garden, use of the pump, and other appurtenances, a barn and croft in New Street, and Kimberley’s croft in Moor Street, were similarly appropriated to the usher. The salaries of the chief master and usher were to be £68. 15s. 0d. and £34. 6s. 8d. respectively. There were appointed also a chief master’s assistant; an English master, to teach in a distinct school fifty boys[4] to read English; and a scrivener, to teach twenty boys to write and cast accounts. The first two were to be unmarried, but the Governor reserved the power of allowing the scrivener to marry. £30 per annum was allowed for repairs to the school and masters’ houses, payment of dues, etc. Another statute permitted the Governors, when their funds allowed, “to set out to Poore Tradesmen, when they come out of their apprenticeship, or others who want stock to manage their trade, £10 a piece, gratis, for 6 months, on good security;” but no record exists of this having been acted upon.
Scholarships.—£70 a year was devoted to forming seven scholarships of £10 a year each, tenable at any college in either University.[5] Children from the manor had the preference; then those from adjacent places, who had spent the last three years in the school; failing such, the poorest and most capable, to be selected from the upper form by an independent body.[6]
At the end of the reign of Charles II., the charter was surrendered to the Crown, probably under a writ of “Quo warranto;” a new one dated February 20, 1685, being granted by James II. Six years later, a decree in chancery was obtained annulling the new charter, and restoring the old one.
The Second Building.—In 1707, the old Gild Hall was removed, and a new building erected, consisting of a centre and two wings, the latter coming close up to the street, enclosing three sides of a small quadrangle, comprising a dwelling house for the head master, one large and two small school rooms, and a library. A separate house for the second master stood behind. A large tower in the centre was “ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor, Edward VI., dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of the garter, holding a Bible and a sceptre.” In 1756, a set of urns was placed on the parapet, to relieve the stiff air of the building.[7]