Читать книгу Chelsea, in the Olden & Present Times - George Sands Bryan - Страница 14

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In the year 1706, a Vestry Room and School Room, with apartments for a master, were erected at the expense of W. Petyt, Esq. [23] There is a descriptive inscription upon the west front of the school room, which records the donation, at the conclusion of which it is added, “To all which may God give a blessing. Soli Deo Gloria.” The original deed of gift is entered in the Vestry minutes. Mr. Petyt resided in Church (lane) Street, and died there in 1707, aged 71, but was buried in the Temple Church. He was a member of the Inner Temple, and Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London.

In 1819 there were 100 boys and girls educated and clothed free of any expense to their parents. The girls at that period were instructed in a house rented in Lordship’s Place, near Cheyne Row. These schools, with the master and mistress, were transferred to the new School Rooms, at the back of the present Parish Church.

The Rev. Mr. Davies recently appealed to the Vestry for a grant of £100 to make considerable repairs in this old building, it being in a most dilapidated condition (the ground floor, which was the Vestry Room, was for some time previously used as a fire-engine station), and the one school room altogether inadequate for the proper accommodation of the children of the district, promising himself to be answerable for the deficiency in the amount of the expenditure. The Vestry, in consideration of its having been bequeathed to the parish, complied with the request. Mr. Davies likewise obtained for the same laudable object a grant of £20 from the Ragged School Union, the congregation generously contributing the remaining sum required to put the building in thorough repair. The entire cost was rather more than £279. There are now three good school-rooms instead of one, as was formerly the case, and consequently the number of children attending the schools has been greatly augmented.

It may here be mentioned that the “watchhouse,” and the “stocks” for vagrants, formerly stood close to the river, opposite the church.