Architectural plans, site maps and building estimates for primary schools funded by the Erasmus Smith Schools educational charity founded in 1657. 64 sets of plans form this collection which are the only ones extant for the 250+ schools funded by the charity since foundation. The primary schools are known as Erasmus Smith Schools locally but called English Schools within administration records.
Related records and files can be consulted at the ESS Archive - only plans, site maps and building estimates have been presented here. The plans were photographed on a 1 cm grid mat to gauge size.
Click through on 'All' or 'Image' under 'Objects in this Collection' to view the school plans. The plans can be ordered in a number of different ways by clicking on the drop down menu 'date created'.
The English Schools
The first English School established was in Xelva (1776), Valentia Island, county Kerry, and the last one was in Ardee (1807), county Louth. The schools ran on the basis that the local community or patron would pay for half of the teacher’s salary, for half of any repairs and maintenance and for half of the books and equipment required for teaching. Many of these schools were established between 1810 and 1820, usually on the land of the main local land owner or on church glebe lands.
However, by the mid-1800’s the financial burden of the schools became so great that the Governors were forced to cut back the number of schools in their care. The land acts in the 1880’s created difficulties for the patrons of the English Schools, as they were, more often than not, wealthy Protestant landowners. It was during this period that many schools closed or became National Schools. In the beginning, the English Schools were to provide basic education for tenants’ children and then other poor children in the parish, often both Protestant and Catholic.
In the later decades of the 19th century schools were mostly in outlying areas, where Protestant communities were very small, but where there was a desire that the children be given a Protestant education. Various grant schemes helped support the schools but direct management was minor and rare. Because of the wide dispersal of the English Schools, they are perhaps better known than the grammar schools in local communities.
The English Schools’ records at the Erasmus Smith Schools Archive also contain letters from the teachers and superintendents to the Registrar regarding the running of the schools from 1778– c.1980. There are also reports from teachers and inspectors on the school 1852-1935.
