Looker House Sitting Room

When Reverend William Page (the former headmaster of Westminster School), became vicar of Steventon in 1812, he founded a school for girls in the village which was run by two local spinsters.

Having also decided to set up a boys school in Steventon, Reverend Page sent William Looker, the son of a local farmer, to Roysse’s Grammar School in Abingdon (now Abingdon School) to be educated on the understanding that he would return as the boys school’s headmaster.

The new school for boys was run by William Looker in the barn of his father’s farm, No. 77 The Causeway – now Looker House’s sitting room.

William Looker died in 1863 leaving his son Richard to take over the responsibility of running the school. This arrangement only lasted until the end of 1864 when the girls and boys schools were combined to create a ‘National School’, on what is now Steventon Primary School’s current site.

Records show that Richard Looker was paid: “£2.10.00 for instructing 16 children in writing and reading from Michaelmas to Xmas following”.