Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. Nelson Mandella. There are lots of inspiring quotes about education, another is a Chinese Proverb - Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. This month I am looking at some of the Teachers that the School Attendance Officer mentioned in his book of the late 1870s. Some were the village school teachers, some were running private schools of various sizes and styles. The officer put many down as "Dame Schools", some were , but others were teaching more than just the basics of reading and counting. This is called The Dame School by Frederick George Cotman [1850 - 1920] Ipswich and Colchester Museums and is on the ArtUk website. This is the typical idea of a Dame School, a woman of mature years in her own house with very small children. A little boy is writing at a table, and two little boys seated on the left have books, and she may be hearing the little boy read who stands at her side, but the spinning wheel in the corner may indicate she teaches a craft as well. On the bench in the foreground is an open book and some material. The action of the little girl with her back to the artist indicates she could be sewing. I rather like the cat on the bench. This is called The New Girl by Felix Schlesinger [1833 - 1910] at the Mercer Art Gallery , Harrogate, on the ArtUk website. Before the 1870 Education Act the provision of elementary education was mostly in the hands of voluntary bodies linked either to charities or a religious denomination. Charity Schools were sometimes called "Blue Coat" or "Grey Coat" schools because they provided a uniform of that colour. The National Society for the Promoting of Eduction of the Poor provided schools and were linked to the Church of England, sometimes termed "National" schools. The British and Foreign School Society was linked to non-conformist denominations. Government intervention was slow, and it was the various denominations that began to train teachers. By the middle of the 19th century many Anglican diocese had teacher training colleges. There was also the opportunity for a bright pupil to become a Pupil Teacher and stay on at school to teach the younger children and receive instruction from the head teacher. After five years they could take an exam and receive a certificate. Some could go on to a teacher training college. After the 1870 Education Act any new schools built were called "Board Schools" as they were governed by a locally elected board of governors. So I am going to look at some of the teachers mentioned in the Attendance Officer's book. First Joseph Sleightholme. This is Horsehouse School which has the lovely plaque with a poem composed by Ralph Rider of Deer Close to record the benefactors John Constantine and William Swithenbank. Rider referred to education as "seed sewn upon a fertile soil" - see Coverdalehistory for the full inscription. In the Book the teacher is named as Joseph Sleightholme. In the 1881 census he was a certificated teacher born in 1849 at Seaham in County Durham. His wife was an uncertificated teacher born in 1850 in Ravenstonedale. They had two small children, one born in Ravenstonedale, one born in Coverdale, and a ten year old servant from Ravenstonedale who went to school part time. Joseph and Mary's marriage was in the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald. She was the youngest daughter of John Herd of Sandbed, Ravenstonedale, and they had married at York on the 24th December 1876. By 1879 they had moved to Horsehouse. The school was inspected in the summer of 1879 and the report published in the local newspaper. The report of Mr H W G Markheim Inspector of Schools upon the School at Horsehouse …. Good report of building erected by George W Wray … with the report … The report reflects great credit on the teacher Mr Joseph Sleightholme who previous to this appointment was an entire stranger in the valley. However, he was not there long. Joseph was buried at Horsehouse on the 23rd September 1886 aged 39 years and Mary went to Reeth to be the innkeeper at the Shoulder of Mutton. Joseph had previously been a school teacher in Sunderland, but must have gone to Ravenstonedale where there was a school of ancient foundation which had a very good reputation in the North of England. This gives an idea of the terrain at Horsehouse. There were a number of children who should have gone to Horsehouse School who did not attend. Some were just "not at school", others went elsewhere. The Robinson children at Coverhead went to Kettlewell, which is amazing considering the moor they would have to cross and the very steep hill of Park Rash. Some children went to a school run by "Craddock" at Horsehouse. This could have been James Craddock, who by 1881 was in Colsterdale as a schoolmaster, but whose family had lived at West Scrafton. The School Attendance Office noted that 21 children went to Craddock's school. James Cradock [sometimes it had two ds, sometimes one d] was born at Hartforth and baptised at Gilling West in 1847, his parents were from Preston under Scar and then after living at Hartforth moved to West Scrafton in Coverdale. James must have had this little school in Horsehouse at the end of the 1870s, but by 1881 he was a schoolteacher in Colsterdale and lived at Gownley (or Gollinglith) Foot. Part of Colsterdale was in the parish of East Witton, which is referred to in this incident. In 1882 this same James Cradock was arrested and tried at the West Riding Summer Assizes for shooting John Henry Wintersgill with a revolver ! All the local Yorkshire newspapers covered the story as he was a schoolmaster. Evidently Wintersgill, who was 20 years old at the time, was larking around with some other lads throwing sods at each other near Cradock's house, Cradock passed by and they started throwing them at him. He went into his house and came out later with a revolver. He said he fired it into the ground, they said it had made a bullet hole in Wintersgill's coat. He said they had made the hole on purpose. Cradock was found Not Guilty by the Jury and was immediately released to applause from those in the court. He stayed in Colsterdale for a while and in 1885 played the harmonium at Fearby Wesleyan Sunday School Anniversary to accompany the choir singing Sankey & Moody hymns. James continued with his career as a schoolmaster in the Yorkshire dales moving to Thornton Rust and then Worton, both in Wensleydale. However by 1911 he was in Yeadon (where Leeds airport is now) and was a Private Tutor of Mathematics and Classics. However, that position may have been short lived as once again he was in the newspapers. This time he was accused of dabbling in the law and acting as a solicitor's agent without any qualifications. He was sending out headed letters to debtors threatening them with a summons if they did not pay up to him. It sounds like a very modern "scam" but he made the mistake of using a form in 1913 which had become obsolete by a change in the law in 1860! Back to other school teachers in the dales. This painting is called The Incorrigible by John Burr [1831 - 1893] at the Manchester Art Gallery. Many paintings depict the schoolroom as a very bare and poorly equiped place. Some of the teachers mentioned by the attendance officer had a long career in education, some seemed to be just passing through. In Carlton in Coverdale, just a few miles from Horsehouse, there was Charles William Klein. He and his wife were both born in Manchester, and although he was a teacher in the dales in 1881 by 1891 he had returned to the other side of the Pennines and was a cashier in a print works in Ashton under Lyne, before taking a job as a municipal clerk. His daughter Mary became a teacher. The Klein family had come from Moravia about 1850 when Charles was born, he had two siblings born in Austria and Bohemia. This is the 1881 census for Thornbrough School House in Leyburn where the school teacher was John Thomas Bacon born 1841 in Colchester, Essex with a wife Emily, schoolmistress, born Marchwood, Hampshire, and a selection of children born in Hampshire and then Leyburn. John Bacon was a son of a stone mason, had done a stint in the army before becoming a stone mason himself on the Isle of Wight. How he then became a school master in Leyburn is a mystery, but he remained in that post until the 1891 census. By 1901 he had disappeared and his wife was selling fish in Middleham. By 1911 John and Emily were back together again and in Gateshead, but note that John had as occupation "Lavatory Attendent" for Newcastle Corporation. A very odd career change. Meanwhile the parents in Leyburn had plenty of choice in educating their children. John Bacon seemed to have a very good attendance but there were also several "Dame Schools". Some I think were of a higher standard. A number of children went to the school of "Dame Hughes". Miss Hughes was the daughter of a Methodist Minister and she advertised her school in Leyburn between June 1876 and June 1879. Her father, George, was originally from Liverpool, was ordained about 1836, and as was the norm, moved around the country every few years. The Miss Hughes was his daughter Mary who was born in Shropshire. She had been a governess at a private boarding school in Louth, Lincolnshire. In some of her advertisements she claimed to have been a pupil of the London Academy of Music. Her premises on St Matthew's Terrace were in a very large and very new house. St Matthew's Terrace did not exist in 1871. At one time her father was the minister in Bedale, which is when she possibly came to Leyburn, but did not stay long, by 1881 she was in Bishopwearmouth. The last teacher I will look at this time is Henry Arthur or Arthure. He was born in Hull in 1827 and claimed to be a teacher of languages and educated several children in Leyburn. His own children were born at Gayle, right at the top of Wensleydale. In 1861 he was in Hawes as a Schoolmaster and teacher of Languages. In 1871 he was still in Hawes, still teaching, and with four children born in Hawes and two boarders - Oswald and Francis Whaley who were born in Kilburn, Middlesex. By 1881 he had moved to Railway Street, Leyburn , one daughter had joined him as a teacher and he had six boarders but all were from local villages in the dales. This painting is called The Schoolroom by Charles Junior Hunt [1829 - 1900] at Stockport Heritage Services. I am not sure why one boy is in a wheelbarrow, but the rest do look as if they are attending to their lessons. In conclusion I think that the teachers of this era achieved amazing things given the limited books and facilities. I will end with a report from the local newspaper of 1878 which gives an idea of what could be achieved. This is for Arkengarthdale school, outside the area of the School Attendance Officer's book, and sadly a school which only recently closed because of the falling number of children in the dale. Church of England School. The managers of this school have received Her Majesty's Inspector's annual report which is as follows :- The new infants' room is a great improvement and the discipline has greatly improved in consequence. The results of the examination show a certain amount of progress last year, especially in the upper standards; the arithmetic is still a weak point, and will require very careful attention. The singing and needlework are satisfactory. Some pictures of animals should be provided in the class room. On the whole the school is in progress. One of the boys has won an honour certificate, namely Simon Caygill, son of Mr Joseph Caygill, Whaw; another boy, Joseph William Parkin, should have also gained one, having passed the fourth standard. His failing to do so is simply owing to his not having made the required number of attendances. It is much hoped that parents will be particular in seeing that their children regularly attend the school and not keep them at home for the most trifling of reasons ..... the average attendance for the past year was 114, the highest weekly average being 169.9. The number present at all during the present quarter has been 200. All of these , except 23, have been admitted since the April of 1875 . If all parents would do their duty, as well as the worthy and painstaking master and his teaching staff, it would not only encourage their exertions, but raise the school to a high standard of excellence ..... Indeed. I am astonished at how they could shoe-horn 200 pupils into Arkengarthdale School. There are many more teachers in this book whose interesting lives illustrate our educational past. Perhaps more another time.
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