Our Wiltshire Community History website is one of the Local Studies section's ongoing projects to place a history of each Wiltshire parish online. One of the subjects looked into is that of Victorian schools. The establishment of schools in the parish is researched and, where Victorian school log books survive, they are looked at to give an account of school life. Also included are early surviving photographs or plans.


Wilton National School, early 20th century

Extract from the Community History entry for Lydiard Millicent:
The main subjects taught in Victorian schools are very similar to today, being reading, arithmetic, writing, grammar and geography. A large emphasis was also placed on scripture and religious education (often taken by the Reverend who visited frequently). In October 1872 the older children contributed and bought four scripture prints for the school. The girls were taught needlework and the boys drawing, and there was also dictation. Singing was important; the children learnt songs and did repetitions. Songs included ‘The Canadian Boat Song’, written by Thomas Moore following his year long trip to America, Bermuda and the West Indies. It was published in 1805 and begins:

 “Faintly as tolls the evening chime

  Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time... [Please 'read more']

  Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time

  Soon as the woods on shore look dim

  We’ll sing at St. Ann’s our parting hymn

  Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,

  The rapids are near and the daylight’s past

  The rapids are near and the daylight’s past”

The infants had ‘object’ lessons in which they were taught about objects such as elephant, coal, needle, snow, cotton plant, chalk, glass, coffee tree, brick maker etc... In May 1881 two of the exam questions for Standard II were 56.804 x 57 and the subtraction of 25.648 and 2.739 (only 5 children worked it out correctly which was deemed poor). In May 1884 Standard V commenced their new reading book ‘Robinson Crusoe’.

 
Schools in the 19^th Century suffered a lot with low attendance by the children .There were only 79 out of 103 on the books attending in March 1872. In February 1872 the older children were beginning to leave to work in the fields. By July 1876 attendance was good although five of the students in the upper classes had left. The mistress seems disappointed that none of the children on the books are more than 12 and a half years old. This fact can also be seen on the 1861 Census which records that there are 7 boys aged 12 to 14 with the occupation of ‘plough boy’. In 1881 average attendance in June was at 132.1.  In May 1883 ‘Enquiry Absence Sheets’ were sent out and only two parents refused to fill them in (they were reported to the School Attendance Committee). Attendance was much better with an average of 139.7 after this. During November 1885 the average was down to 102 but it is not known how many children were registered to attend. The school reopened after the Christmas holidays in 1895 with 52 out of 161 present, and in November 1897 average attendance was 131.3. Of course there were many reasons for poor attendance other than working in the fields, for which children  were absent for periods to do potato planting, hay making, gleaning, potato picking, pea picking and collecting holly to sell.

Bad weather proved a major obstacle for children getting to school, wet and snowy weather being the worst. The parish of Lydiard Millicent is quite large and many children had quite a distance to walk to school. When the weather was bad, as in January 1871 when snow fell, many could not walk the distance to school and so attendance was low. Snow also had an effect over two days in March 1872. In January 1881 the roads were completely blocked and it took 5 days before they could return to school. Heavy snow in February 1873 meant there was only 66.3% attendance. Floods prevented the school opening in October 1882 and there was heavy snow again the following month. Throughout January 1886 heavy snow fell. Seven children turned up on the first day but were immediately sent home again. A similar situation occurred in the early part of January the following year and in March 1887 the children were sent home at lunchtime. There was no school the following day. In February 1888 the roads were blocked by snow so ‘no children presented themselves’ and the following week the school was closed because attendance had been so poor. During March 1891 heavy snow closed the school for two days. In November 1894 only 56 children made it to school and these were fetched home in carts at 12 o’clock owing to the floods. Heavy rain prevented the children from returning to school the following day. February 1900 saw heavy snow followed by heavy rain resulting in flooded roads and reducing attendance. Wet weather also increased the likelihood of illness; the children would remain damp all day with no heating except a small stove in the classroom and could easily catch chills or worse.

The children were allowed two weeks holiday for Easter, two weeks for Christmas and four to six weeks for the harvest holidays in the later Victorian period. The children did get more time off too. A half day was given in April 1871 to attend the Wootton Bassett Fair. A day was always given for the annual Club Feast. In 1872 there was also time off for the Harvest Festival and Thanksgiving (parents were given tea in the new schoolroom in 1873). The children always received a half day’s holiday following the HM Inspection. Time off was also given for days when the school room was needed for polling purposes or managers’ meetings. In June 1897 the school was closed for two days because of the Diamond Jubilee Day of Queen Victoria. There was a visit to Barnum Bailey’s show in Swindon in April, 1899. There was also no school on the annual GWR ‘Trip’day.

Some children also took time off when they shouldn’t, though. Absences were noticed when the GWR works in Swindon closed for their holiday; many parents from the parish worked there. In April 1891 one child was absent for part of the day collecting the Census Returns in part of the parish...

If you would like to read further on this topic, please also see the following link:

Victorian School Life: Some things never change!

To take a look at the whole Community History entry or to have a look at the other parishes covered, please go to: http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/