Celebrations being held to mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of Cowgill church school

An exhibition of photographs and accounts of life at the school is currently on display at St John's Parish Church following a launch event on July 15 attended by more than 100 people, among them some former pupils.

The school was opened in 1866 with one classroom and one teacher to serve the local community plus the shanty towns set up by the navvies who built the Settle to Carlisle railway.

In 1868 there were 51 scholars, consisting of 31 boys and 20 girls. There was one teacher who taught reading, writing and arithmetic together with a "sound knowledge of religion" to children aged from five to 14. The teacher was helped by pupil teachers known as "monitors."

Inspectors tested the children verbally on these subjects leaving a report written in the school log book. Despite strict discipline some examples of mis-behaviour were reported. For example, Robert Mason was reprimanded for bathing in the school water tank, which also fed the vicarage. His father promised to punish him and clean out the tank - he did neither!

John William Lambert also threw an apple that struck a gentleman to whom the master was talking on the back, provoking a laugh from other rude boys. Lambert was barred from attending school from August 21 1868 to January 5 1869 when a new head teacher re-admitted him.

There was a great influx of navvy children in 1870 which boosted the school roll from 50 to 97. There was an outbreak of smallpox at the school in May 1871 when children from the railway workers' huts and nearby Dent were prohibited from attending.

On June 6 1895 when a new classroon was opened, the school held a celebration which took the form of a public tea and entertainment and considered a holiday for all involved. It could have been due to the extra grant given to the school for the inspector's report in the Sedbergh and District magazine 1893-1895 that said religious education was excellent with children graded as A or B.