On the 5th of July, 1871 a deed was executed whereby the president of Scholars of Corpus Christi College, Oxford conveyed the site to the vicar and churchwarden of Saint Mary's Church Temple Guiting for a school - "for the education of children and adults and for no other purpose."
During 1872 the school and school house was erected for the princely sum of £800! There were two rooms, the 'school room' which was 39ft by 18ft and the 'classroom', 18ft by 12ft. And so Temple Guiting School was born and on the 6th of January 1873, the school was officially opened as a Public Elementary School under the headteachership of a Miss Mary Drury.
On the very first day there were 36 children present, and here is a quote from the very first entry in the school log book dated January 10th:
"This morning and afternoon the Reverend Witts examined the children - found them terribly backward in every subject. Many children 12 and 13 years knew something about figures but did not know what a figure was when I wrote one on the blackboard, few children could write or even spell their own names. They had no idea of reading with anything like expression, but read in a most monotonous style and they were very disorderly." - Thank goodness times have changed!
When William the Conqueror came over to England from Normandy, he gave many of the villages to his soldiers as rewards for good work. This included Temple Guiting. He took the land away form Saxon Britic because he had offended Maltida, William's wife. He gave it to Roger de Laci, who was one of William's soldiers. According to records, Temple Guiting was then called Gettinge which means gushing. The river Windrush does gush through the village.
In the Doomsday book, Roger de Laci's full name is Terra Rogery de Laci. The same record tells us that in Temple Guiting there were ten hides taxed, twenty five villeins, a priest, eighteen plough tillages, three mills, a salt pit and twelve seams of salt.
Because Roger de Laci plotted William Rufus's death the Manor was given to his brother Hugh, a monk. He was a leader of the Knight Templars and leased the land to them. Consequently Gettinge became Temple Guiting after the Knight Templars.