The development of education in Berwick upon Tweed to 1902

Abstract

From the small schools of the late mediaeval and Tudor periods there had developed in Berwick upon Tweed, by 1902 a most complex and comprehensive pattern of education. A Latin Grammar School and other Corporation Schools were;founded by the Guild in the seventeenth century, and in 1725 private benefactors established the Charity School, which was closely allied with Holy Trinity Parish. Church. The; non-freemen of Berwick and the many non-Anglican religious groups in the town therefore determined in the nineteenth century to found their own schools, and both the Guild and' the Church of England congregations in their turn responded to the challenge and extended their own provision of education. Detailed accounts are given of the following schools: a) the Latin Grammar School b) the; Corporation Schools, later the Academy. c) seven National Schools, namely Berwick Boys' National School (for merly the Charity School), Berwick Girls' and Infants' National Schools, Whitadder Bridge National School, St. Mary's National School, and the Tweedmouth and Spittal National Schools d) the Workhouse School e) six Nonconformist Schools, namely Kirkwood's Lancasterian School, Spittal British School, Berwick British. Infants J and Berwick British Schools, and the Berwick and Tweedmouth Presbyterian Schools f ) St. Cuthbert's Roman Catholic School. Mention is also made of the contribution of private schools, Sunday Schools, evening classes, the Mechanics' Institute, the School of Art and libraries. Berwick is remarkable for the number and) great variety of its schools, and the influence upon them of both Scottish and English educational practice, the result of the town's geographical position and the presence within it of so many distinct groups, each working to create and sustain its own ideal of education.