Goytre School House
The School House was built at the same time as the school which was opened on July 13th 1868 by Col. Henry Bird, there were 170 parents and children attending the momentous occasion.
The first master was Arthur Hutchinson, Arthur was born in Lichfield, the son of James, a clock maker and Sarah his wife, on the census of 1861 when Arthur was 13 his occupation was given as pupil teacher, he didn’t remain long at Goytre British school as by 1874 the new teacher was William Pady.
William Pady came from Crewkerne, Somerset with his wife Eleanor and family but again did not stay long at the school.
By 1881 Henry England was the master, he was 26 born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1855, the son of John and Jennet Evans. He was married to Elizabeth and had a daughter Elizabeth Gertrude. He had left by 1883 to become headmaster of the school at Pontnewynydd.
William John Croot became the new master on the 1st June 1885, he remained at the school for many years. He was born in Bedminster Bristol in 1859, the son of William , a tanner labourer and Ann (nee Martin.)
William John Croot
He was apprenticed as a pupil teacher to the Bedminster Boy’s British School, Bristol in 1873 and in 1877 he gained a Queen’s Scholarship, First Division and proceeded in due course to Borough Road Training College, London, where he spent two years, after which he was appointed headmaster of Govilion British School and held this post for five years.
In 1885 he became the headmaster of Goytrey British School and in April the same year married Phoebe Ann Pritchard in Crickhowell.
Their son Benjamin William was born on 14th October 1889, he also became a school teacher and remained living in Goytre.
Benjamin married Margaret Ann Jones in 1916 at St Peter’s Church Goytre.
The census of 1921 says William John Croot is 62, Phoebe Alice is 61, William’s occupation is head teacher elementary school for Monmouthshire Education Committee.
William Croot retired in 1932 after 43 years of teaching in Monmouthshire. He moved to Llanvihangel, Abergavenny where his wife Phoebe died in March 1932, leaving her estate valued £4,136 to her son Benjamin. William John Croot died in 1945, also leaving his estate of £2505 6s 6d to his son Benjamin.
Benjamin William Croot died in a convalescent home in Redditch in December 1978, his wife Margaret died much earlier in 1941.
On the 1939 census Ernest Sobey is the master, he was born in Swansea in 1895, the son of Thomas a railway shunter and Ellen. On the 1911 census he is an elementary school teacher at Forest Vach, the following year he married Elizabeth Myfanwy Thomas.
He died at Goytre School house on the 9th December 1943 leaving £1501 to his daughter Nita Mary Kathleen Sobey, a spinster.
