A brief history of Partney School

There are no records of any school in Partney until 1856 at the earliest when the Reverend T.E.Mills held a night “school” in a large room at the Red Lion. The Reverend R.G.Giles who followed him tried a day “school” in the Rectory Coach House. These were not “schools” as we know them today but attempts to try and teach youngsters to read, write and add-up. In 1857 the Church of England came up with a proposal to support the opening of a “proper” school in every village!  They made great progress and the possibility of a school at Partney became real. The School is known as a “Church of England Aided School”. This meant that the Church and village had to raise half the funds to build the new school. Records show that the School was finished a year later in 1858 in Dalby Road.  The School included a house for the teacher and room for some 80 pupils who in those days all came from Partney & Dalby. The School needed a plot of land for the building and we were presented with the said plot by Lord Willoughby. Records indicate that the cost of building the school was in the region of £444.  The School had a playground but no grassed area where they could play sports. Mr John Hudson, one of our Governors started this school on the 25th April 1938 and left to go to the Spilsby Grammar School in September 1942. 

In 1951 the Managers learned of a plan to close many of the small village Church Schools.  Amongst them were Partney, Skendleby, Scremby and Sausthorpe. Partney was however given the option of building a Church School large enough to receive the children from these other parishes. Welton came on board some time after. Staggered with the idea of having to find half the building costs in addition to find another £3000 restoration for the Church, the Managers nevertheless felt a responsibility for so many children and decided to try. The Scremby and Skendleby School Managers agreed to keep their schools aided and although they could not help financially at that time, they said they would when their schools closed. This support they have continued to this day by supporting our fundraising by offering contributions every year since. Hence the start of regular money raising events such as the Garden Fetes at Dalby Hall, the Christmas Fair, and more. Mr R S Hudson, the father of Mr John Hudson was a Churchwarden and Treasurer at that time. He told Lincoln to raise the village “share” of the building costs of the new school they could hand over most of the saleable assets of the old school – because  the villagers had raised the money to have it built in the first place in 1857 and suggested that was a reasonable offer. So, fundraising schemes started to get some more cash in the bank including collecting waste paper– waste paper in those days brought in a good return. Mr Hudson provided a Barn at Partney Mill and this became a hive of activity, collecting a lorry load of paper every 3 or 4 weeks. The old school sold but when it came to the “settlement” it transpired that Lord Willoughby’s Solicitors at the time had not dealt correctly with the transfer of the deeds and the Inland Revenue dropped on him for around 2 to 3 million pounds!  Not just on Partney School – back in 1857, the Lord Willoughby had given plots to some 60 other villages on which to build their new schools. So, the Hudson’s, with the help of the local MP at the time, had to put a “bill” through Parliament to rectify the problem. This procedure took years to complete because even after the bill had gone through it then had to go through the House of Lords and finally signed off by the Queen. They succeeded.

The new School in its present location was completed and opened on 22nd October 1969 and has received several extensions and improvements since.