Education in Bolsover

The history of education in Bolsover falls into several well-defined phases.   Until the passing of the Elementary Education Act in 1870, a few years before the opening of the first modern colliery in the parish led to an increase in population and thus a need for more school places, the only schools in Bolsover were a Church school, established c.1756, and various small private schools.   Between 1870 and 1902 the Church tried to meet the rapidly increasing demand for places by enlarging its existing school in Bolsover itself and erecting new buildings in the colliery villages elsewhere in the parish. Their efforts were supplemented by those of the Bolsover Colliery Company, which built a large block of schools (also used as a community centre) in their model village at New Bolsover, and by an elected school board, which provided a school at Whaley Thorns in the east of the parish.   In 1902 responsibility for education in Bolsover passed to the newly established education committee of Derbyshire county council (although both the Church of England school and the Colliery Company school retained a measure of autonomy). The education committee worked energetically to fill gaps in provision and by 1914 the worst of the problems they had inherited had been eased. In the 1930s the education committee, as elsewhere in Derbyshire, created a network of senior schools in Bolsover, although the nearest grammar school was at Staveley.   After 1944 the senior schools became secondary modern schools and provision was gradually concentrated on a new, purpose-built school at Mooracre Lane, opened in 1955, although this failed to develop a fully fledged sixth form, as had originally been hoped. As the number of children in the community fell towards the end of the 20th century, some of the smaller primary schools were closed, and those that remained sought to play their part in combating the poverty and deprivation that affected Bolsover following the end of coal mining in the district.