Dunn’s School in Crediton

Samuel Dunn started life as a Crediton weaver, but by the age of 20 he had gained many other skills and was even running his own school. 

Dunn wrote in his will:

‍  ‘In 1743, when the first great fire broke out and destroyed the west town [of Crediton], I had been some time keeping a school and teaching writing, accounts, navigation, and other mathematical science, although not above twenty years of age; then I moved to the schoolhouse at the foot of Bowdown [now Bowden] Hill, and taught there till Christmas 1751, when I came to London.’ 

In London Dunn had made a substantial amount of money from his teaching. When he died in 1794 he bequeathed an investment to cover a £30 salary for ‘an able teacher in writing, navigation, the luna method of taking longitude at sea, planning, surveying and all mathematical science.’ 

According to a  much later report in the Western Times, in May 1834, Dunn had intended his bequest to the Corporation of Crediton to enable ‘ nine Crediton boys and three Sandford boys to be instructed in mathematics.’ 

Initially the school ran well with Richard Gilbert as master, but a poor appointment was made by the Trustees when he died in 1814, aged 47, and under a Mr Webber the school failed to attract pupils although as master he still apparently received a salary. 

In July 1842 reports came in that ‘another of these disastrous fires (so frequent of late) broke out at the bottom of Bowden Hill’. It  had started in the thatched roof of Dunn’s schoolroom, opposite the church. Within a few hours 32 houses had been destroyed. 

By 1889 the school had recovered its reputation and, now called The Dunn Foundation School, it was offering a complete technical education. Prizes were awarded in December that year for Freehand, Shorthand, Model, Perspective, Mathematics, Geology, Physiography, Physical Drill and the Principles of Agriculture. With the re-enactment of a scene from Julius Caesar and a musical performance, the prize-giving was followed by a dance.

More is learned about the school in 1895 with a newspaper advertisement attracting boarders for £8 and day boys for 1/8d per term. Head teacher David Baker Harte M.A.T.C.D. and his wife lived at Camelford House which was fitted out for boarders. The school boasted modern appliances, a good playground and a play shed and Mr Harte was certified in 13 sciences under the Science and Art department of South Kensington. 

The Hartes seem to have been very popular with their pupils and numbers of pupils increased significantly. They treated them all to tea, games and a magic lantern show in 1894. Known as Mr Harte’s Dunn’s School in the town, a news report of that same year reported that the team beat the Crediton Church team by 2 goals in a friendly match.

The Dunn’s Endowed School was then amalgamated with the Crediton Grammar School. In 1910, a meeting at the Masonic Hall proposed the formation of an Old Boys’ Association which about 120 people would be eligible to join. Mr Harte, Head of the Grammar School, Camelford was put forward to be President of the Association.   

It is recorded that Dunn’s School amalgamated with Queen Elizabeth School in 1911 but the charity lives on in the Dunn and Thomas Foundation set up to promote the education of girls and boys resident in Crediton and in need of financial assistance.  

 Its full title was: ‘A General Map of the World, or Terraqueous Globe with all the New Discoveries and Marginal Delineations, Containing the Most Interesting Particulars in the Solar, Starry and Mundane System’

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