Rev. Thomas Brocklebank

Rev. Thomas Brocklebank, curate of Bradshaw, became Vicar of Deane in 1818. He soon became greatly interested in the parish school. Built in the early years of the 17th century, it stood until recently immediately opposite the lychgate. It must have been an occasion of deep satisfaction to the vicar when a new school of two storeys was built in 1820. This was the stone building now used as an Infants' School. The present brick building- still spoken of as the "new school" by older parishioners- was erected in 1882. It is interesting to note in the Quarter Session Order Book that the vicar was appointed in 1823 to an office which required him to visit cotton mills where three or more apprentices or twenty or more persons were employed and to report in writing on the conditions which he found there. Rev. Thomas Brocklebank resigned the living owing to ill health in 1829.