History of education in England that reading comprehension acquired through Bible study could be transferred to secular studies. Raikes used his newspaper to publicize the schools and bore most of the cost in the early years. The movement began in July 1780 in the home of a Mrs. Meredith. Only boys attended, and she heard the lessons of the older boys who coached the younger. Later, girls also attended. Within two years, several schools opened in and around Gloucester. Raikes published an account on 3 November 1783 of Sunday School in his paper, and later word of the work spread through the "Gentleman's Magazine", and
Tracy Park Robert Bush, a successful Bristol pewterer, who purchased the house in 1774 for £6,250. Bush's son, Robert, inherited the estate. Most traces of the 17th-century house were obscured when he rebuilt it and gave it a classical façade in "c". 1800. In 1820, Bush sold the estate to General Sir William Gabriel Davy (1780–1856) for £12,818, and it is his son, Rev. Charles Raikes Davy, who after inheriting the estate from his father in 1856, is responsible for the size and appearance of the house and estate seen today. Charles Raikes Davy began a program of rebuilding the mansion in