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Badsey & Aldington Trail - Location 44

Badsey First School

The first school to be built in Badsey opened on 1st November 1854 and was located in a building at the junction of Synehurst and Synehurst Crescent which latterly was extended to become the Royal British Legion building and latterly the Pub in a Club. Although called Badsey National School, it was fee paying – 3d a week for the first child, 2d for the second and 1d for subsequent children.

Old School building

In 1895 the school moved to its current location on land adjacent to the Glebe Farmhouse at a cost of £90 for the land and £1,500 for the building work. The new Badsey Board School opened on 21st June 1895 and the children were given a day’s holiday and a tea party to mark the occasion. Later the school board were given £500 to build the schoolhouse next door.  The building was enlarged in 1899, then again in 1924 and 1928 to cope with the growing population of the village. By this time the school was called Badsey Council School From September 1939, when Blackminster Secondary Modern School opened, it catered only for pupils up to the age of 11. In 1958 the school assembly hall was built, and with the setting up of a 3 – tier education system in 1975, children now left at the age of 11 and the school became Badsey First School. There have subsequently been several refurbishments of the school buildings and grounds to make up the site you see today.