Both the County Council and the Town Councils have a body of officers to see that their wishes are properly carried out. They comprise a Clerk, Treasurer, Accountant, Surveyor, Medical Officer of Health, Inspector of Weights and Measures, Analyst, and so on, down perhaps, to the Gardener. In the case of the County Council the adjective County is prefixed to the name of the office; in the case of a city or town, the word Borough. The chief officer in each is known as the Clerk of the Council and the Town Clerk.
The Urban and Rural District Councils, and also the Parish Councils, have each a smaller body of officers whose duties resemble those of the officers mentioned above.
XXX.
EAST RIDING SCHOOLS.
To have behind it a history that goes back certainly for eight hundred years, and in all probability for a thousand, is something of which a school may be proud. Such is the rightful boast of the Beverley Grammar School.
Arms of Beverley Grammar
School.
As far back as the year 1100 there is mention of the schoolmaster in the Minster records. But the earliest known mention of the school is contained in a letter written in 1276 by Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York, to his bailiff at Beverley. In this letter the bailiff is directed to
maintain John Aucher and his two companions attending school at Beverley from Michaelmas last, with 2s. a week, and their small necessaries in fitting style; and pay 36s. for three gowns for their use.
But centuries before this the Beverley Grammar School must have been in existence. For it was part and parcel of the Collegiate Church of Saint John of Beverley, and one of the first duties of a collegiate church was to establish and maintain a school for the education of youth. Therefore, just as the Minster of St. Peter at York maintained a school—and a very famous one too—as early as the year 730, so the Minster of St. John of Beverley will undoubtedly have maintained a school for many years before the Norman Conquest. Its foundation is, in fact, believed to date from the eighth century.
