whole attention to the organisation and development of large educational schemes. In 1862 he settled at Martyn Lodge, Henfield, which was his home until his death.
In working out his plans his ideas expanded, and a society was founded in 1848 to carry them out. It was stated that its purpose was to extend ‘education among the middle classes of her majesty's dominions, and especially among the poorer members of those classes, in the doctrines and principles of the church now established … by means of colleges and schools established, and to be established, in various places,’ with the permission of the diocesans and under the direction of clergymen and laymen in communion with the church. The colleges or schools were to be of three grades or classes: ‘the first for the sons of clergymen and other gentlemen; the second for the sons of substantial tradesmen, farmers, clerks, and others of similar situation; and the third for sons of petty shopkeepers, skilled mechanics, and other persons of very small means, who have at present no opportunity of procuring for their children better instruction than is given in parochial and other primary schools; the charges in all the schools shall be on as moderate a scale as the means of the society will allow; and particularly the maximum charges of schools of the third class shall be so fixed that the boys in such last-mentioned schools shall be boarded and educated for a sum very little (if at all) exceeding what it would cost their parents to provide them with food at home.’
The first school founded for the middle classes by the Woodard Society was St. John's, Hurstpierpoint. The corner-stone was laid in 1851, and it was opened in 1853. The first stone of the chapel was laid in 1861. Over 50,000l. was expended on the handsome buildings, which were designed to accommodate three hundred boys.
The second school was St. Nicolas, Lancing, where 250 acres were secured in the parish of Lancing and the first stone of the central buildings laid on 21 March 1854 by the founder. The first stone of the chapel was laid by Bishop Gilbert in 1868. The buildings form an imposing pile.
In 1869 Woodard published ‘The Scheme of Education of St. Nicolas College,’ in a letter to the Marquis of Salisbury. Woodard now proposed that there should be five centres of education for east, west, north, south, and the midlands; that each centre should be endowed with funds to support a provost and twelve senior fellows, who should give their whole time to carrying forward the work of education in the several districts; that twelve non-resident fellows should be elected from the gentlemen in the district, and be associated with the senior fellows. In accordance with these proposals a society of St. Nicolas Lancing was founded for the south district. Its educational establishments consisted at first of the two foundations of St. John's, Hurstpierpoint, and St. Nicolas, Lancing. To these additions were subsequently made. St. Saviour's school, Ardingly, for the lower middle class, which had been begun at Shoreham, was removed in 1870 to Ardingly, where buildings were erected to accommodate five hundred boys, on a property of five hundred acres. All Saints' school, Bloxham, Oxfordshire, which was founded in 1860 by the Rev. P. Reginald Egerton, and cost over 25,000l., was handed over by him, with its fine buildings, to the corporation of St. Nicolas College in 1896. Under the same society's auspices St. Michael's school for girls was established at Bognor in 1894.
The second divisional society, founded by Woodard on the model of that of St. Nicolas, was St. Mary's and St. John's of Lichfield for the midlands. A provost and body of fellows were appointed in 1873. They established St. Chad's, Denstone, for 320 boys of the middle class. The buildings, to the cost of which Sir Percival Heywood contributed munificently, were opened by Bishop Selwyn in 1873, and the chapel in 1879. The cost exceeded 70,000l. St. Oswald's, Ellesmere, and St. Cuthbert's, Worksop, were lower middle schools for those of narrow means. The first, with buildings for 190 boys, was opened in 1884 at a cost of 30,000l.; the second, with buildings costing 20,000l., for two hundred boys, on a site presented by the Duke of Newcastle, was opened in 1895. St. Anne's, Abbot's Bromley, a boarding school for a hundred girls, with day pupils, was commenced in 1873. St. Mary's, Abbot's Bromley, and St. Winifred's, Bangor, were lower middle schools for girls, boarders, and day pupils. The first was commenced in 1882, and new buildings were opened in 1893 at a cost of 4,000l.; the second was commenced in 1887. St. Augustine's, Dewsbury, a grammar school for two hundred boys, was opened in 1884.
A divisional society for the west, St. Mary's and St. Andrew's of Wells, was formed, with a provost, in 1897. King Alfred's College, Taunton, which had previously been purchased by Woodard in 1880, and carried on as a middle-grade school, was placed in 1897 under the government of the new divisional society as a school for those of narrow means, with accommodation for two hundred boys.
More than half a million has been raised
