In 1604 a local farmer William Seckar left his house and land to his wife Alice for so long as she should survive, but stipulated that on her death the income from the estate should be used for "maintenance of one free school, to be kept for ever in the said house, while the world endure, in Scarning." After William's death on 1 November 1604, Alice married again on 3 December 1604, but he too died on 6 December 1608, and she married a third time on 7 January 1609. This husband survived until 1622. She died in 1638, but there were delays and litigation over the construction of the school. It eventually opened in 1645. By 1700 the schoolmaster was teaching the sons of the yeomen and farmers, many of whom boarded at the school. These boys were kept separate from the sons of labourers, to whom the usher taught reading, writing and arithmetic during the day. In the evening the usher looked after the master's boarders, who came from all parts of Norfolk and
Suffolk. Among them were the grandsons of Roger North of
Rougham, one of whom set the schoolhouse on fire twice. Another trying pupil was
Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow, who engaged in the sport of cock throwing, and developed a lifelong dislike for the master, Rev. Joseph Brett, refusing to acknowledge that he knew him. The master of the school and incumbent of the church in 1761–1789 was Rev.
Robert Potter, who became a prebendary of
Norwich Cathedral in 1788. He spent much of his time at Scarning pamphleteering and translating Greek drama. Among the school's pupils under Potter was
Jacob Mountain (1749–1825), the first Anglican Bishop of
Quebec. By 1800, the schoolmaster, Mr Priest, had attracted a large number of day boys to the school, as there was no room for them to board. They came to school on dickies (donkeys), which were turned out for the day onto Podmoor. Mischievous village boys took delight in driving the dickies a mile or two to Daffy Green, so that the young gentlemen had to chase and catch them before they could ride home. ==Village hall==