Henry Raine

Henry Raine & Raine's Foundation Schools

COME IN AND LEARN YOUR DUTY TO GOD AND MAN

hursthouse Henry Raine (1679-1738) was a wealthy local brewer and devout churchman, born into a Wapping family of brewers, where he became proprietor of the Star Brewhouse at New Crane Wharf. He married Sarah Petre, daughter of a Mile End sea captain. In 1714 he built Hurst House (pictured) at Woodford in Essex - anticipating the move of many later East Enders who made good! - which was also known as 'The Naked Beauty' because of one of its statues. (It was here that Sir Winston Churchill, the local MP, heard of the peactime sinking of Thetis in July 1939.)

In 1719 Henry Raine re-organised a charity school (founded three years earlier in Fawdon Fields) to provide education for 50 boys and 50 girls from the neighbourhood of Wapping-Stepney, with a resident master and mistress, in Charles Street, Old Gravel Lane. His money was supplemented by donations and charity sermons. He wrote rules for pupils and staff - of which the parish holds a copy.

raines1736 In 1736 Raine's Asylum, or Hospital, [pictured] was established nearby as a boarding school for 40 girls, selected after two years education at the charity, or lower, school and trained by a matron for four years for domestic service. The Asylum was endowed with freehold lands in Blackfriars and Castle Street, Stepney and stock from the South Sea Company; this was to provide for the board and clothing of the girls, together with £210 annually for two marriage portions and two wedding festivals (see below).

rainesoriginalschool The Trustees (46 of them!) were incorporated by an Act of 1780, and there was much complicated documentation. By then, the area was changing rapidly and becoming increasingly populous; the construction of London Dock in 1802 forced the Asylum to sell large amounts of freehold property. At the same time many of the school's patrons were moving away from the area. A new building was erected at the rear of the Asylum in 1820; at the same time St George's National School was founded within the site of Raine's schools. From 1780 there had been St George's Scholars within the boys school and close links were maintained with the parish branch of the National Society, in association with the Middlesex Schools Society. This school amalgamated with the boys school in 1877. $rainescannonstreetroad\$

Under the 1870 Education Act the state took up the running of elementary education; so the Trustees (whose duty was to provide free education unavailable elsewhere) decided to raise and extend the education given by the foundation. Because the Docks had separated the schools from the parish, the boys school moved in 1875 to 125 Cannon Street Road, and the girls school moved in 1880-85 to the former National School buildings. The Corporation of Governors and Trustees of Raine's Charities was dissolved and a new governing body, served by a Clerk, was created to administer the Foundation in 1880; the Asylum was closed in 1883. A few years later, the schools became secondary schools - boys in 1897, girls in 1904, to create a 'dual secondary school' from 1904-1913. The endowments now maintained 100 free scholarships focused on technical training, with close links to the London Technical Institute's City and Guilds College. From 1877 to 1904 there was also a preparatory school.

The school buildings soon proved inadequate and were condemned by the London County Council. Faced with losing its funding, the school opted to move again, to Arbour Square, Stepney (1911-1913) where a new building was designed by H.O. Ellis. The schools now functioned as separate entities. Wartime evacuation took the boys school to Varndean School, Brighton in 1939, the Junior School to Egham in Surrey, the Senior School to Camberley in 1940, and the girls school to Hurstpierpoint in Sussex.

With the re-structuring of the 1944 Education Act the schools became voluntary aided grammar schools, and in 1964 co-educational, as Raine's Foundation School. In 1976 the Upper School merged with St Jude's Church of England Secondary School and moved to Approach Road, Bethnal Green (buildings of the former Parmiter's School). The Lower School is now at Old Bethnal Green Road - and there are plans to move again in a few years! The school returns to St George's each year in May for a Founder's Day service, when a blue and white wreath is laid at the memorial in St George's Gardens.

Further historical details about Henry Raine and his schools can be found here. See also C.M. Rose Raine's Foundation: an East End Charity School 1716-80 (University of Bristol thesis 1985), and Raine's Prospect 1719-1969 (Raine's Foundation 1969).

TMARRIAGE PORTIONS - THE 'HUNDRED POUND SCHOOL'

rainedraw rainedrawticket In his will, Henry Raine provided for two marriage portions of £100 to be drawn by lot each year (the school still has the canister, pictured), for girls aged 22 and above who could produce certificates of good character from former masters and mistresses, and whose husbands were suitable members of the Church of England from the parishes of St George-in-the East, St Paul Shadwell, and St John at Wapping.

rainedrawequipment The weddings and the draws for the next portion took place on 1 May and 26 December (later 5 November); the school marched in procession to the church, a breakfast was provided for the bridal party, the girls sang odes traditional to the occasion, and the trustees and other notables attended a dinner at which subscriptions were solicited. The tradition continued until 1892, though by then the number of applicants was much-reduced.

For more details see C.M. Rose Raine's Foundation: An East London Charity School, 1716-1780 and THIS .pdf extract from William Quekett's My Sayings and Doings which provides the music for the ceremony, written at his request by the Revd Dr Henry Gauntlett (1805-76).