Memorial to John Whitaker he opened a free Sunday School in Pickford Street, which accommodated about 40 children. In doing this he was inspired by Robert Raikes who had initiated the Sunday School movement, and by David Simpson, a local Anglican priest who had earlier provided schools for poor children in the town. Unlike most Sunday Schools, Whitaker's school was non-denominational. In 1814 he followed this by opening a much larger purpose-built Sunday School in Roe Street. The school was financed by public subscription and by the children paying a small weekly fee. Whitaker died in 1820, but the school continued to flourish, and
Robert Raikes (1765–1837) Raikes, at the north end of Welton Dale, approximately from Welton village and Welton House. The building is circular with a shallow domed roof on top of a frieze decorated with triglyphs, and stands on a circular plinth that originally was railed. The inscription:AEDIFICAVIT ROBERTUS RAIKES ARMIGER AD MDCCCXVIII<br><br> "Robert Raikes, Esquire, built this. 1818 AD" is above the entrance. Eight doric pilasters divide the exterior into bays, alternate bays are blind, the remainder decorated in relief with sarcophagii. The building is faced in light stone, and may have been modelled on an original Roman building. The building is round