Roof Off The Dassett
There has been a school in Fenny Compton since 1833 and this year is the 180th anniversary of its establishment.
To commemorate and celebrate this anniversary we are going to hold a Victorian day dress up celebration in the Summer, with numerous themed activities and events surrounding it. We are also embarking, with the help of the children, on a rather major social project.
In 1947 and then again in 1967 a highly regarded survey was conducted by the children of The Fenny Compton School under the guidance of the then Headteacher W H Stubbings. It was a unique piece of social history, an extensive look at the village of Fenny Compton; The people and the place, where they live, where they work, how they travel, recreational facilities etc. a thorough in-depth survey looking at all the major aspects of life in a 1947/67 country village. So well thought of in fact was this survey that the Warwickshire Rural Community Council published it as a booklet ‘Roof Off Fenny Compton.’
Mr Stubbings in his foreword of the 1968 publication warned of the danger of so many changes having taken place between the two surveys so gradually and unobtrusively, so smoothly in fact that they could go unrecognised. The school itself had made the seismic shift from 6 buckets to 10 toilets alone!
Well, we wondered what he would make of the shift that has occurred in the subsequent 46 years. Not least would be the closure of the Fenny Compton, Northend and Farnborough Schools and their amalgamation into what we now know and love as The Dassett.
This in itself has obviously dramatically changed the dynamic of what a modern survey could and should look to achieve. We thought that we would embrace the spirit of the original Roof Off Fenny Compton surveys with a look at the history and background of the village itself, but rather than just restrict the questions to the villagers here in Fenny Compton we would make it more personal to the children of the school and make it a survey about them and their families, across all of the villages that The Dassett school serves and for it to become Roof Off The Dassett.
To achieve this we are working closely with local historians, the Parish Council and the Warwickshire Rural Community Council and we are involving the children by getting them to fill in the attached survey, with the help of their parents, to make sure that we can fully do justice to this project and make it a truly unique social commentary on our school and village over the past 180 years.
We intend to publish this and make a copy available to all of the children of The Dassett as a part of our 180 year celebrations.