Photograph of the Dame School, Hook, Lydiard Tregoze c1845

A rare photograph of the small thatched cottage which served as the Dame School at Hook prior to the building of a larger school at the top of Hook Street in 1880. Kelly's Directory of 1848 states it was a school 'supported by Lord Bolingbroke'. (This would be Henry 4th Viscount Bolingbroke).

The building and its history is thoroughly researched and recounted in an article entitled 'The Cottage Dame School at Hook' by Richard T Clarke in Report No: 22 (1989). Richard's ancestors, George Swyer and his wife Jael (Eveleigh), lived in the cottage to which the school room was attached. George was the Headmaster in the mid 19th century.

The article tells us that George was paid £48 a year, and in 1848 the school catered for 32 boys and 41 girls in two Sunday and two day-schools. Scholars who could, paid 2 pennies a week. The school room itself was typically spartan with bare lime washed walls and a flagstone floor.

In 1965 the thatch roof was destroyed by fire and the building has been rebuilt and altered several times since then. It is located on 24 Hook Street.