Tiny Weslyan chapel/school in Piltdown?

[bugbear]

I've found an ancestor at boarding school in the 1861 census (Class: RG 9; Piece: 577; Folio: 111; Page: 4; GSU roll: 542665).

The school is TINY. It's described as "School house and Weslyan Meeting Place", and has a head[master], his daughter the house keeper, a General Servant and 9 children, all described as "boarder" for relationship, and "scholar" as occupation.

The ages of the children range from 7 to 13, and two of them are female.

Browsing with a map in one hand, and the names from the census in the other, I believe the location to be here:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=50.980067,0.058395&num=1&t=h&z=17

The only reference I can find is this:

http://www.theweald.org/P2.asp?PId=Fl.WesleyCh

which tells me it was Consecrated 1824.

Does anyone know more? My ancestor was from Brighton, and this is 20 miles away, so it's "quite interesting"

    BugBear

[swebby]

<a href="http://webmedia1.guildproperty.co.uk/properties/468333/MED_468333_489203.pdf">This</a> might be the house you have identified on the map.



Regards
Sean

Edit
There is a small bit of info on it <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_places_of_worship_in_Wealden">here.</a>
ESRO also has <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=179-nb&cid=9#9">records</a> on it.

[bugbear]

Chapel cottage! Love it!

 BugBear

[bugbear]

I've been pursueing this a little more.

it appears that the school at the chapel was very much the creation and work of one man - George Stevenson (b1793). He died in 1879.

Sadly, the subsequent 1881 and 1891 census are very vague about house names and numbers - which is a catastrophe, since Piltdown doesn't really have clearly named streets either!!

But the 1881 only shows occupation schoolmaster against "school house", which is adjacent to the vicarage, which (must be?) the main Fletching school, not the chapel/school out on Piltdown.

The 1901 census is lovely - easy to read, and good, descriptive, house names.

There is NO residence with "chapel" as part of its name.

I suspect that the boarding school stopped with the death of Stevenson, leaving just a "normal", non residential chapel.

  BugBear

[bugbear]

For the benefit of any one else who runs across this (there are quite a few pupils in the census over the years).

The place was variously known as "Shortbridge Weslyan Chapel", "Baptist Chapel", "Piltdown Church of Christ Mount House Chapel", and (on the census) "School House".

I have been told that the 1851 Religious Census of Sussex lists it as "a place of public worship and day school". From the census we can also tell it was a boarding school, and that (at least some) of the teachers were resident.

However, the most obvious, and rich source of information is the National Archive, who have:

http://apps.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=179-nb&cid=9#9

I have now been the East Sussex Record Office (The Keep) and after wrestling with their unhelpful staff and less helpful computer system have read the documents.

They are very good on the chapel, but as far as I can tell without reading every word (it's had written of course), there is NOTHING in them about the school. In particular I did read every word of the accounts (which are more structured than the other documents). No payments or receipts of any kind that look in the least school related.

If anybody has any hint on where records pertaining to a school might be found, I'm all ears.

    BugBear

[bugbear]

Oh "darn". During my re-reading of the entire census returns for 1841, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91, in an effort to nail down the location (by comparison on the map of marked, neighbouring properties), I have noticed that "School House" and "Mount House" are commonly BOTH PRESENT.

This means (of course), that the School House is NOT the Mount House Chapel (and that I'm an idiot).

   BugBear

[swebby]

 

[bugbear]

Some more research has found that the "School House" became a "House" after George Stevenson's death, and is still there (and rather splendid), called "Gazle Slope"

Shows clearly in 1908:

http://maps.nls.uk/view/101434794

(just above "ShortBridge", and below "Brickyard Farm" top left)

 BugBear