The steps into the churchyard to the left of Glebe Cottage are all that is left of an ancient lane. Up until the 1880s there was a road from here which ran to the east of the church to the main Uttoxeter Road (at about the point where the garden of the modern house, The Spinney, abuts the churchyard). It connected the lane from the river to the fields on the north side of the present A522 and also to the road leading northward from Checkley up over the ridge on to Winnothdale and the Hollington road. During the 1880s it was decided that it was necessary to extend the churchyard and this lane was closed and another road, New Road, was constructed about 50 metres further east.

Endowed School
In April 1734 it was agreed to build a school to teach the children of Checkley and to pay the sum of £5 per annum for a schoolmaster. At this time the building, the Endowed School, was at the edge of the churchyard behind the Old Rectory. However the arrangement was short lived and by the early 1800s the building had fallen into disuse and there is no sign of that building today.

The National School
In 1840, a year after the Rector William Hutchinson’s arrival in the village, he arranged for the building of a small school behind Glebe Cottage. It was supported entirely by the Rector and used as a Sunday School until 1874 when it became the Checkley National Day School. In 1879 a new, larger school was built on the opposite side of the Uttoxeter Road from the churchyard and the following year compulsory education for 5 to 10 year olds was introduced. This new school was named The Hutchinson Memorial School.

The National Day School ceased to function on the opening of the new school and the building stood empty for many years. It was later demolished and in 1903 the bricks were used to build an extension to the Reading Room at Lower Tean.