Bonchurch Schools
The mixed, National Schools, were established at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight in 1848. The site of the school was south of St. Boniface’s Church, at the junction of Bonchurch Village Road and Bonchurch Shute.
In 1887 the school was in debt and Mr. J. Snowden Henry (of Eastdene) and his wife gave £50 as their (Victoria) Jubilee Offering to free the school from debt. To keep the school free of debt in future, a six pence in the pound voluntary rate was proposed as the existing subscriptions, together with the ‘school pence’ from the children and the Government grants were insufficient to maintain the school. An alternative considered was to hand the school over to a School Board, but that would have involved the subscribers in heavy expense before it could be handed over[1].
The schools was enlarged in 1890 to accommodate 130, the average attendance in 1898 was 70 children[2].
By 1911 the school had been taken over by the Isle of Wight County Education Committee and was a mixed Elementary School and the attendance had fallen to 43[3].
In 1918 the school Education Committee proposed to close the school as average attendance was less than 30, after an inquiry the closure was confirmed; the school was closed and the pupils transferred to Ventnor schools[4].
Subsequently the building was used as a Church Hall and was grade 2 listed in 1976 as the “Former Bonchurch School and School House”[5]. In 2013 the church-owned properties were sold as the PCC could not maintain them as well as the two churches in Bonchurch. In 2016 a planning application (P/01273/16) was made to the Isle of Wight Council for the change of use of old church hall to residential dwelling ; the application was approved and today (2021) the School and School House are and known as Church House.
