The Foundation and Building of Holton St Peter School

The original school in Holton Village was located in the grounds of the mill.  It was then decided that a new school needed to be built.

In order for this to happen, Andrew Johnston of Holton Hall, which owned almost all of the land in the village, made the land on which the current school stands available to be purchased.  The school has a copy of the original conveyancing document, dated March 1859, an extensive document which starts with:

I Andrew Johnston, of Holton Hall in the County of Suffolk Esquire under the authority of the Acts of the fifth and eighth years of the Reign of Her Majesty for affording facilities for the Conveyance and Endowment of Sites for Schools, Do hereby freely and voluntarily and without valuable consideration to me paid grant and convey unto the Rector and Churchwardens of the Parish of Holton in the said County All that piece of land in Holton containing one rood and nine perches bounded by the road from Halesworth to Beccles on the east and by a road to Wissett on the south and by my land on the north and west.

Other documents in the school’s possession relating to its foundation include the Terms of Union dated 26th October 1859 and a letter signed by both the rector and Andrew Johnston relating to the completion of the building the establishment of the School Trust, receipt of private subscriptions and a council grant.  The school also has a copy of the application for aid to the National Society, signed by the rector and countersigned by the “ Bishop of the Diocese”.  The total requested was £527-3s-3d.  This document is dated 30th September 1858.  The school is designated to accommodate 90 children and the census count from 1851 has the village as having a population of 516.

The Big Room was built where it is now and the present classrooms created in 1914.  Before that the infants sat in gallery benches and the older children sat in the old hall.  Boys and girls had separate areas to play in.

The school fields and the houses a far as Lodge Road were then used for village allotments.

The school clock was donated by a Mr Deck who farmed at Blyford Hall.