Gillingham's School and Almshouses, Little Pamphill, Dorset
In 1695 Roger Gillingham of the Middle Temple left property in Hackney, Stepney and Bedfordshire to trustees who were to 'lay out a sum not exceeding £400 in enclosing as much of one of the closes lying next to Pamphill Green, where he was born, for building thereon a convenient school-house, with chamber over it for a school master, widower or single person, also for building four convenient ground-floor rooms or almshouses for four poor men, widows or single persons, and on the other side thereof four other ground floor rooms or almshouses for four women, widows or single women, to inhabit'. He set up an endowment of £65 per annum: £20 of which was for the school-master, £5 a year to each alms person with £5 to repair and upkeep the fabric. After the last almshouse occupant died in 1971 the County Council bought the whole range of the buildings, modernising so that the almshouses became part of the school building. The school became a 'first' school for 5-9year olds in 1973 which it still is (2010).
