The earliest school in Deal of which we had any record was the Deal Charity School. A public meeting held at the Town Hall on April 12th,1792, resolved on its foundation. It was to accommodate 25 boys and 25 girls, who were to be nominated, as vacancies arose, by subscribers of one guinea annually. The first president was the Rector, Rev. E. B. Benson, vice-president, Adm. Bray, and treasurer, Rev. P. Brandon. The master, Wm. Child, was appointed in May at a salary of 50 guineas, for which he had to provide a mistress {his wife}, a school-room, coals and materials. The school was duly opened on July 5th, and to distinguish the scholars the boys had to wear a uniform cap and the girls “leghorn hats tied and bound with dark green ferret.” Besides free education, the scholars were entitled to cakes four times a year, and the boys to a “haircut” once a quarter. Those whose conduct and progress were satisfactory also received on leaving, “a Bible, a Prayer Book and the Whole Duty of Man.”
To assist the finances of the school, an “Annual Charity Sermon” was preached at the Parish Church and St. George’s Chapel every summer. This custom of preaching a special sermon in August for the support of the parish schools has been maintained at St. George’s until very recent years.
The earliest location of the school is not known. The house in which it was held was taken on a lease of 7 years from Mr. Hulke in 1797. In 1802 a house was bought in Broad Street, near it’s N.E. corner, and converted into a school. Here the school remained until the year 1813. In this year the Trustees resolved to adopt Dr. Bell’s System, and the house in Broad Street being unsuitable for the purpose, they cast about for a new site. A boat builder’s shop at the North End, the “Old Assembly Rooms,” and land in Union Row were in turn surveyed, and found unsuitable, and in the end the site on which the Central Schools now stand was purchased.
This was held on lease from the Archbishop until 1868, when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners made a free grant of it to the parish of St. George’s, and in 1871 added to this land extending to St. George’s Passage. In 1842 the term “Charity” was changed to “National,” and a charge was now made of three halfpence a week. The present school, Deal Central, was built in 1871, and opened by the Dean of Canterbury on August 30th.
A school into which a considerable number of scholars from the Charity School passed was the Deal Nautical School. This was founded in 1834, under the superintendence of nine Naval Officers, and was situated in Broad Street. Its object was to train boys for the sea, and in the first seventeen years of its existence, over 250 of the 353 pupils admitted to it, entered upon a seafaring career. The school seems to have closed before 1858. (Written by John Laker)
