Page 11 - Moreton Village Only Book

Moreton Village Only 11

The first (and only) school in Moreton was set up in 1860 (ten years ahead of the
Education Act of 1870 which made free primary education compulsory) with money
donated by St. Mary’s Church, Thame and Lady Wenman of Thame Park. The school
was established for “poor infants under seven years of age”. At that time the village
consisted of seven farms and about 40
cottages constructed of wychert or wattle
and daub with thatched roofs.
With the coming of national compulsory
free education in 1870, children from
Moreton went to the “British School” in Park
Street or the “National School” in Southern
Road in Thame. At a time when the wages
for a farm labourer were between £0.12s.0d
(60 pence) and £0.14s.0d (70 pence) a week,
the children walked to school with a slice of
bread and lard for their midday meal –
supplemented by the apples and carrots that
they managed to scrump along the way!
Children left school early at around 13 or 14
– the boys would join their fathers as farm The School House – circa 1910.
labourers or plough boys at starting wages of £0.1s.0d (5 pence) a week and girls went “into
service” as maids in the bigger houses in Thame (and occasionally as far afield as Oxford)
where their wages were little more than their keep. Some of the brighter lads were apprenticed
to tradesmen in Thame (a “premium” of £10.10.0d (£10.50) was payable) and where they
would earn 1s. (5 pence) a week in the first year rising to 5s. (25 pence) a week in the fifth
and final year. The school for infants was attended until just after 1920 when the numbers
fell so low that it was uneconomic to pay for a teacher and the children were transferred to
schools in Thame.

Cricket was first played in England at The Artillery Ground in Finsbury, North London
in 1744 and the first cricket match recorded to have been played in Moreton was in 1848
when the teams were “married” v “single”. Moreton had a flourishing cricket club and the
matches were played in a field behind Brook Cottage on land loaned by Farmer Betts of
Moreton Farm. As families grew smaller in the late 1800’s, interest waned and the club
gradually faded away. However, you can’t keep an Englishman away from his cricket and the
club started off again in the late 1940’s/1950’s.

Hospital Sunday – early 1900’s. Thame town band, helped by others from
surrounding villages paraded the streets with collection boxes. This was one of the
chief sources of revenue for the Radcliffe Infirmary, Eye Hospital and Nursing
Home before the days of the NHS, with the Old Bell in the background.