Chairman, Carr Glyn, a director of Glyn Mills, the Bankers, and 151 Baron Wolverton, recommended that schools be established at Wolverton for the children of the workers in the Company’s employ. The recommendation was approved and a special committee was set up to carry that recommendation into effect.

This was an exception: it was one of the very few schools not set up by religious bodies before 1870, although it will be noted later that the Anglican Church was soon heavily involved.

The Committee quickly got down to work and on 12^th June 1840 the Works Committee of the L&BR requested permission to proceed with the School buildings and a reading room at Wolverton for the use of persons in the Company’s employ. Evidently the Committee had already submitted satisfactory plans.

On 28^th August 1840 the Board accepted a tender for the erection of a School House and reading room, at Wolverton station. Obviously the Railway Company was serious in its intent to set up schools where a large workforce had to be assembled [2].

On 16^th April 1841 the Board resolved that the Committee for the Wolverton Schools (one for boys, one for girls) be instructed to make the necessary arrangements for the fittings and for engaging a master and a mistress (obviously considerable progress had been made with the buildings).

On 11^th June 1841 the Board read a report from the Sub Committee for the management of Schools. It was resolved that the appointment of Mr. Laing on trial as Master of the Wolverton School at £100 per annum plus house and firing be confirmed (a good salary for those days, much higher than the average). At the same time the Board was pressing for the appointment of a priest.

This was timely: in an extract from the Report of the Proceedings of a General Meeting of Proprietors, dated 7^th February 1840, it was stated that at Wolverton, which not long since had been little more than a field, there is now established a town [sic]. In view of the adverse behaviour of the population and the views of Humanitarians, it had been decided to provide schools, churches and public libraries. Four years later the proprietors were advised that the Company were obliged to collect at Wolverton a population from every part of the country [3], without any local attachments and it was reported that they are now orderly, largely due to the social services provided [4]. The remainder of this paper is concerned with the establishment of these schools.

On 9^th July 1841 the Chairman (Carr Glyn) reported that the clergyman should have control of the Schools. Thus in effect they became ‘church’ schools.