"The principal teacher must make ... an entry which will specify ordinary progress and other facts concerning the school or its teachers, such as the dates of withdrawals, commencements of duty, ... illness etc. which may require to be referred to at a future time, or may otherwise deserve to be recorded."
For well over 100 years, children in Glemsford have been making their way to the village school. Despite many alterations, inside and out, the building is easy to recognise as the three schools which were built as a result of the Education Act of 1870: Infants, Boys and Girls. The story of education which has developed on Lion Road since the 1870s allows many insights into life in the village, for the school has been a focal point for generations of villagers.
Two of the original log books of the Glemsford Board Schools still exist. In the same way that archaeologists look for "shadows in the soil" of the sites they investigate, the historian may hear, in these records, "echoes from the past". The teachers who made their weekly entries seem to have been scrupulous in avoiding making statements of their own opinions. In listening to these echoes, I have concentrated on the experiences of the Infants' School, firstly because that log book seems to give the most com prehensive description of the school in the village, secondly because the Boys' School log is missing and cannot be used to balance the contemporary Girls' log, and thirdly because there had to be some limit.
Where possible, I have compared notes between the Infants' and Girls' Schools. I have also referred to the minute books of the Board in an attempt to provide an extra dimension where log book entries have been unusually curt or veiled.
Although carefully worded, the logs are in no sense uncommitted. What shines through is the care and concern of the 19th century teacher. Frequently, there are insights into the educational thinking of the day, into the problems which faced the staff workin g under the new system laid down in 1870, the realities of life in a village like Glemsford. There are the moments of panic, the worry about the visit of the inspector, the frustrations of working with uncommitted and ill-attending students:
"Many of the absentees are over 5 years ... and have not returned since Christmas. They have been enquired after almost daily but with no result. It is quite impossible to carry on the work of the School satisfactorily with so few present - one teacher having only 8 in her class. ..." (Amelia Hammond, 22 February, 1887).
Above all, there is a clear view of a school and a teaching staff far removed from the stereotyped picture of the cane-wielding uncaring brute of Victorian fiction.
This is not a full history. In many ways it is not a history at all. Inevitably, much is left unsaid in the log books and there is little chance of checking. If all this work does is throw some light on the real world of the Schools, the teachers and the ch ildren at the end of the last century, it will have served its purpose. These were people whose experiences in this corner of Suffolk "deserve to be recorded".
Keeping Warm: problems with the heating
In praise of the Victorian Schoolmistress
Eleanor Bowrey: a real teacher
This text is Copyright (c) Steve Clarke
Feel free to contact meCopyright(c) . Created: 29/06/98 Updated: 26/03/2002