Meriden was fortunate enough to have charity schools long before the state provided free education.

​

Girl’s School

On his death in 1811, Kenelm Digby,who lived at Meriden Hall left shares in his will to support a charity school for girls under the patronage of his sister Jane Mills. Land on the Old Bowling Green was leased from Lord Ayelsford for 1 shilling a year, where a schoolhouse was built in 1814. The dividend from the shares, which equated to £80 a year, paid for the school mistress and 24 girls to be clothed (usually when they left school). By 1833 the dividends had dropped to £64 a year and the school relied on the Right’s Land Charity, where Mrs Elizabeth Dyall left the interest on £20 to provide funds ‘for teaching and instructing poor girls in the parish to read’. Jane Mills made up the deficit, though the girls were no longer clothed, and some pupils paid to attend. Jane died in 1842, when Charlotte Mills took up the post of School Mistress. She was paid 15 shillings a week though this also had to pay for her assistant, Sarah Olton. The original building sill stands on the Old Bowling Green.

​

Boys School

In his complex Will in 1786, Henry Barnett a wealthy but childless resident left a £500 endowment to, ‘put boys belonging or residing in the parish to school and finding them books, pens and other things used in schooling’ but mysteriously, it was not implemented until 1821. Kenelm’s brother, Wriothesley Digby, left four shares to Meriden Charities on his death. Two of these shares were given to improve the boy’s school. The first master was Francis Plant who earned £20 a year. His successor John Henry Fretton (1830-1842) was the father of the famous Coventry antiquarian, William George Fretton . The masters lived in the nearby stone house on Main Road, which is still there. One of the school’s donors was Lord Aylesford who had given the site for the school and owned this house. The Digby family of Meriden Hall continued to donate to the school. All pupils received a suit of clothing.

​