Part 1 follows education in Laindon from the little school beside St Nicholas Church to the purpose-built Board School opened in 1877.
Some of the earliest organised education in Laindon took place in the small annexe attached to the west end of St Nicholas Church. The school became known as Puckle's Charity School and is recorded by local historians as having roots going back to the seventeenth century.
The ground floor of the Priest's House was used as the schoolroom. The upper floors provided accommodation, and during the nineteenth century the building was closely associated with the schoolmaster who lived and worked there.
Records identify a succession of teachers connected with the old school. Samuel Weald is recorded as schoolmaster in 1715, while James Mathews became schoolmaster in 1778 and remained for more than thirty years.
The best-known schoolmaster was James Hornsby, who taught at the church school for 48 years. He also served St Nicholas Church as sexton and parish clerk and lived in the Priest's House above the schoolroom.
Hornsby taught both boys and girls. Local history records that boys from the parish of Basildon could also lodge in the upper part of the building during the week. His long service made his name closely associated with education in Laindon, and more than a century later it was chosen for the modern James Hornsby School.
By the nineteenth century the tiny church school was no longer suitable for the area's educational needs. National reforms and the increasing expectation that children should receive regular schooling led to the creation of larger purpose-built schools.
A new school opened on Church Hill in September 1877. It was originally known as Laindon Board School and replaced the old school accommodation at St Nicholas Church.
The building is especially important because it survives and remains in educational use. It is regarded as the oldest surviving school in the Laindon area.
After the school-board system was abolished under the Education Act 1902, the school became Laindon Council School. During later decades it was also known as St Nicholas Lane Council School and St Nicholas Lane County Primary School.
In 1957 the school adopted the name Laindon Park County Primary School. It later became Laindon Park Primary School and continues on Church Hill today, giving the site an educational history stretching back to 1877.
During the first half of the twentieth century the school was sometimes known informally as Donaldson's, after long-serving headteacher Margaret Donaldson. Informal names such as this show how closely the schools were connected with individual teachers and the local community.