The Village School. The Rector and Church wardens were among the pioneers of education for children of ordinary village folk. This small building, now the famous Gingerbread Shop, was the village school for over 220 years from its opening in 1630AD. William Wordsworth and his wife and sister, who believed that universal education was the way for children to escape poverty and ignorance, taught here in the early 19th century. Village children today still attend the church priMary school, across the River Rothay from the Parish Church