Description:A National School was established in Codsall in 1818. Supported by subscriptions and charitable donations, by 1833 the school was providing an education for forty five boys and sixty five girls, at a cost of two pence per child per week.
In 1860 Clergyman Reverend Paley and Churchwarden Thomas Harley of Codsall appealed to George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), the second Duke of Sutherland for assistance in establishing a Parish School in Codsall.
Churchwarden Thomas Harley wrote to Mr. Smith, an agent of the Duke of Sutherland on 9th April 1860, complaining that Codsall was ‘badly in want of a proper Parish School’. A letter dated 11th April 1860 written by Smith to the Duke of Sutherland’s Chief Agent George Loch accompanies Harley’s letter.
Local people were enthusiastic about improvements in the provision of education in Codsall. Harley’s letter notes that the people of Codsall were ‘endeavouring to raise the necessary funds’ to build a school in the Parish. In order ‘to accomplish this object’, Harley was writing to ‘all parties’ who shared ‘an Interest’ in Codsall. As ‘owner of the Tithes of a Portion’ of Codsall, residents appealed to the wealthy Duke of Sutherland for a donation ‘towards the School’.
It is significant to note that the Duke of Sutherland made regular contributions to schooling in Codsall. Documents relating to estate expenditure in Staffordshire for 1852 state that the Duke paid an annual subscription of three pounds and three shillings to ‘Codsall National School’, reflecting his active interest in the provision of education in the area.
Contextual information from ‘Codsall’ in A History of the County of Stafford, edited by M. W. Greenslade, Volume XX (Oxford University Press, 1984)