South Green:
Victorian Village School, Farmhouse, Working Men's Club

by Janet Kennish

From left: Working Men's Club, Tarrant's Farm House, St Mary's School photo left: Windsor & Royal Borough Collection                                                                                                                             photo right: Rob Gordon 2006

The Village School (St Mary's C of E Combined) is the earliest of this Victorian group, opened in 1843 and built on land given by the Lord of the Manor, the Duke of Buccleuch. Its foundation deed, dated 1844, states that the school is to be under the management, control and inspection of the Vicar of the parish and to be used for the purpose of educating the children of poor persons resident in the Parish according to the Principles of the Established Church of England. It is typical of the time that a philanthropic landlord should provide a site, but it was due to the Reverend Isaac Gossett that funds were raised for the building. The Windsor Express on 20th November 1843 announced that: The Infant School at Datchet was opened for the free instruction of the poor of that village. The Inhabitants feel themselves greatly indebted to the Rev. Isaac Gossett for the establishment of this charitable organisation, through whose strenuous exertions, aided by the liberal donations of the local gentry, so laudable and desirable an object has been accomplished. Rev. Gossett is now remembered every year at the school's Founder's Day celebrations.

At first there was just one schoolroom (the second from the front) and a two-storey house for a schoolmistress (converted to a classroom in 1901), but in almost every decade since its foundation there have been rooms added, windows, heating systems or access changed or the playground enlarged. The room fronting the Green dates from the 1860s and the present hall was created in the 1960s from three classrooms built in the 1870s. The last room to be added in Victorian times was at the far end, at a higher level than the rest of the school due to devastating floods in 1894; this was the only part of the building which was not flooded in 1947. Major developments in the form of remodelling to bring the premises up to date have taken place several times, notably in the 1920s when the school was threatened with closure if comprehensive improvements were not carried out; funds were raised locally and it was saved. By the 1960s it was again sub-standard and two new rooms were added along with another complete internal renovation. The most recent classrooms date from the 1980s and 90s, while an almost continuous programme of work ensures that facilities are of the highest standard. The building now rambles a very long way back from its narrow village frontage, often perplexing visitors who find themselves lost, but now full of happy, purposeful and high-achieving local children.

The Working Men's Club was another philanthropic foundation built on land given by the Duke of Buccleuch in 1881. It was also funded by public subscription and intended to contribute to the welfare of the working classes; in particular to provide a place where  educational and improving leisure activities were available. It also became the first village hall and thus a played a central role in the life of the village until recent times. It has now been successfully converted to a branch library and police outpost, giving the original building a new lease of life in this prominent village location.

(For a fuller account, see the Parish Magazine article linked from the main History index page)

Tarrant's Farmhouse (derelict at time of writing) was built in 1875. In that year the Goodwin family's property was sold at auction due to disputed inheritance. They had been one of the major landowners since early in the 1800s and owned or leased four farmsteads in the village. The widow Sarah Tarrant was the last tenant of the Goodwins at the farmstead on the site of modern Hall Place (north side of the Greens) which was being sold. She took the opportunity at auction to buy a piece of their land at auction and built the farmhouse from which she ran a dairy business together with her Tarrant nephews and nieces. By 1891 it had been inherited by Philip S Tarrant as a dairy farm but not for much longer, his main employment in the 1900s apparently being gravel-digging and market gardening . It has remained in the possession of the same family until now, mainly as a dwelling house, when its future  poses quite a problem.

(Coming soon: for the WWI diaries of his son, the church organist Philip W Tarrant, see the Parish Magazine article link from the main History index page)