Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

EDUCATION IN BUCKDEN 171 appointed by the minister. There are usually 30 boys in attendance and they are instructed as free scholars in reading, writing and accounts and in the principles of religion, according to the doctrine of the Church of England. Among the nineteenth century schoolmasters were the James brothers, the sons of a Fenstanton butcher (their mother). Although still listed as the master in an 1830 directory, Charles James had died the previous year, aged only 20. He was succeeded by his brother Henry (himself not yet 17), who remained in post for the next twenty-three years. There is more about them under James in the A to Z Section. The National School Girls’ schooling was not mentioned by the Charity Commissioners in 1836, but it did not have to wait long for attention. In 1842, according to the Preliminary Statement submitted in 1870 concerning the existing schools, a Girls’ School was founded under the aegis of the Anglican National Society. 1 The ‘Endowed’ school for boys and the ‘National’ school for girls are listed in (among others) Kelly’s Directory for 1846 and the Post Office Directories for 1854 and 1864. That parents accepted the idea of schooling for their children is shown by the census enumerators’ returns of 1851. Under ‘Occupation’ the vast majority of children in the 5 to 11 age range are entered as ‘scholars’. There is no doubt that this is a grossly inflated figure. Some of the children had probably never so much as stepped inside a schoolroom, and others certainly would not have attended with any regularity; but it is indicative of the expectations of the enumerators (local men), and the social pressures on the parents. It might also be inferred from the figures that boys were likely to get their schooling early, leaving at about eleven to take up employment, while girls would start later and have more chance of staying on until the age of fourteen. It is difficult now to tell how effective the schools were, for example in teaching people to read and write. One rather rough and ready test has been devised, which is to examine the marriage registers. Here the bride and groom were required from 1754 to sign their names, or failing that, to put a mark. There are many reasons why figures derived from this source are not a reliable guide to literacy. For one thing people may be able to sign their names without being able to read or write. There have also been cases where the officiating curate obligingly signed for the parties (but not detectably in Buckden). It has been suggested too that a bride might have been reluctant to ‘show up’ the groom by signing when he could not—but again the evidence in Buckden does not support this. Bearing in mind all these reservations, it can be seen that in Buckden more people could sign their names than not from about 1850. Those who married in the 1850s would mostly have been at school in the 1840s (whether they grew up in Buckden or some other parish); this ties in neatly enough with the foundation of the National Schools. The Victorian Board Schools The 1870 Elementary Education Act, then, found Buckden already reasonably well-provided for. 2 A new school building was opened in 1871 for the National Girls’ and Infants’ School on land conveyed from the See of Peterborough and close to the schoolhouse that Bishop Green had given. The National School had previously been held in part of the Bishop’s Palace at the other end of Church Street. From the same year, 1871, there is an excellent source for the day-to-day running of the schools: the head teachers’ Log Books. The earliest and most detailed one is for the Boys’ School 1871-1932, and the first part of this gives a good idea of the many problems in running a village school at the end of the nineteenth century. For a start, numbers fluctuated a great deal: average attendance in 1871 was 45; by 1877 it had risen to 59; in 1878 it was 69; in 1884 it was 89 and there were 100 boys on the registers. The following year a reorganisation took place and the school became mixed boys and girls, with the infants and Standard I in a separate classroom. By 1889 there were 123 pupils ‘on the books’. To teach them the master had the assistance of a pupil-teacher and two monitors. But the experiment of a mixed school came to an end in 1890 when the Headmaster ‘reopened School as Boys Dept. Sent girls to Infants Dept.’ For the first twenty years, until free education became a right under the 1891 Education Act, pupils were expected to pay fees. Generally these were 4d. a week, but some ‘infant scholars’ paid 2d. a week, and in accordance with the endowments of Rayment and Green 30 boys were taught annually absolutely free. 1 Also known as SPCK, the Society was established in 1811 to promote the education of the poor. By the 1850s there were some 17,000 National Schools. 2 The act provided for genuine mass education on a scale not seen before. The State became more interventionist and encouraged voluntary action assisted by local authorities. Elected school boards were permitted to levy money for fees and given powers to enforce attendance of most children below the age of thirteen. By 1874, over 5000 new schools had been founded.