From the Darlington & Stockton Times of May 20, 1871

THE D&S Times of 150 years ago this week reported that the school at Thornton-le-Beans, near Northallerton, which dated from 1777, had recently been enlarged “through the liberality of Mr William Warcop Peter Consett” who lived at Brawith Hall.

The 38 pupils at the school had been examined by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools, the Reverend Ely Crabtree. “It is gratifying to learn,” reported the D&S, “that the whole of the number passed in reading, and that only two failed in writing and four in arithmetic.”

The inspector concluded that the schoolmaster, Mr Deighton, “had worked with great success and the children had done very creditably”.