School

HISTORY – There was a public school for boys and girls in Dinton in 1783 then said to be very well regulated. In 1818 some 80 children attended the school kept by the parish clerk with the assistance of three women. It was claimed that at that date nearly every child in the parish went to school and that many were paid for by the wealthier inhabitants. The children of Teffont Magna also attended the Dinton school. In 1845 the school was conducted in some outbuildings close to the Rectory House which had been converted into one large schoolroom. This still stood in 1962. In 1859 about 60 children, including those from Teffont Magna and Baverstock, were taught there by a mistress, assisted in the mornings by a master. A bequest of £100 was made to the school in the will of Thomas Barnes, proved in 1864. By 1871 a school had been opened in Teffont Magna, and in 1872 the Dinton school moved to a new building. This was built with financial aid from the State, the National Society, and Magdalen College, Oxford, on the south side of the main Salisbury-Hindon road. In 1936 the school at Teffont Magna was closed, and the younger children from there again attended the Dinton school, by then a junior mixed and infants’school. The school was given controlled status in 1950, and in 1962 there were 3 teachers and 75 children.

There were two private schools in the parish in 1833, but in 1859 only one is recorded, and was then attended by a few farmers’ children. This was possibly the school which in 1865 was run by Harriet Doughty and took boarders, and continued under her management until 1870. There was another private school in the parish in 1893. In 1864 the vicar conducted a night school in the parish which he reported to be fairly well attended.