Education in Elstow

Early Education

Elstow Abbey Sep 2007

The Bishop of Lincoln carried out visitations to Bedfordshire in 1717 and 1720 and for both of these a list of questions was sent out in advance, one of which enquired about the provision of schools in each parish. Unfortunately Elstow had no provision at all in 1717 and made no submission in 1720. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service holds a report by James Lilburne to Samuel Whitbread II in 1802 about a number of Bedfordshire schools, including Elstow  [W1/849], of which he says: "Buckle's Sunday School consists of between 25 & 30 Boys who are taught to Read; & is pretty well attended. The expence [sic] of it per Annum is about £5/12/-. Prigmore's Sunday School consist of between 25 & 30 Girls who are taught to Read; & is pretty well attended. The Expence of it per Annum is about £5/12/-. Both of the above Schools are Generally well attended, & there being no other school in the village, are of service".

In 1818 a Select Committee was established to enquire into educational provision for the poor. This was no doubt prompted, in part, by the recent foundation of two societies promoting education and specifically the building of schools. The Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor was established in 1808 promoting schools run along the lines pioneered by Joseph Lancaster, who had himself copied those of Dr.Andrew Bell, in which older children taught their younger fellows. The Society was renamed the British and Foreign School Society in 1814,. It was supported by a number of prominent nonconformists, Lancaster himself was a Quaker, and sought to teach a non-sectarian curriculum. In answer to this perceived nonconformist takeover of local education the National Society was formed in 1811 to encourage the teaching of poor children along Anglican lines, including the catechism. The Select Committee sent a questionnaire to all parishes in the country asking for: particulars relating to endowments for the education of children; other educational institutions; observations of parish needs etc. The reply sent from Elstow stated that there was neither an endowment nor a school, the parson noting "Several of the children of the parish resort to day schools at Bedford, which is one mile distant".

In the country generally the number of schools built continued to grow over the next fifteen years so that by 1833 the government agreed to supplement the work of the two societies, and local benefactors, by making £20,000 per annum available in grants to help build schools. It also prompted another questionnaire to be sent to each parish in England asking for details of local educational provision. The return sent from Elstow in 1833 noted: "Four Daily Schools (chiefly for Lace-making), wherein 16 males and 27 females are instructed at the expense of their parents. Two Sunday Schools, one (commenced 1833) in which are 28 children of both sexes, supported by the minister; in the other are 30 of both sexes; it is supported by the Dissenters. The number of children in these Sunday Schools include those attending the Daily Schools". In those days a Sunday School was just that, a school which met on a Sunday, usually in the church or nonconformist chapel or other similar building, teaching more than the religious topics with which they are associated today.

The next national enquiry was in 1846/7 when the Church of England made an enquiry as to all its church schools. This was against the background of a new Whig government which championed secular education and the increasing importance of nonconformists, particularly Wesleyan Methodist, and Roman Catholics in providing schools. Elstow reported that there was only a Sunday School, with an average attendance of 30 boys and 34 girls, and commenting, somewhat pompously: "A Daily school is a great desideratum".

 Elstow National then Board School

former Elstow National School Sep 2007

The first Education Act was passed in 1870 (more correctly it was known as the Elementary Education Act). It was a milestone in the provision of education in Britain demonstrating central government's unequivocal support for education of all classes across the country. It also sought to secularise education by allowing the creation of School Boards. These were groups of representatives, elected by the local ratepayers and the Board had the powers to raise funds to form a local rate to support local education, build and run schools, pay the fees of the poorest children, make local school attendance compulsory between the ages of 5 and 13 and could even support local church schools, though in practice they replaced them, turning them into Board run schools (known as Board Schools). Naturally, and luckily for local historians, the Act required a questionnaire of local schools in 1870. At the time Elstow had "no efficient school" and required a school for a hundred in the village: "If the school for which application for a building grant has been made be built and a certified teacher appointed, no further accommodation will be required".

Directories later call the new school a National School and certainly there are references to it in the vestry minutes for 1870 [P128/8/1] suggesting that the application for a grant had been made to the National Society. Be that as it may, a School Board was formed for Elstow on 29 May 1873, from which point the school became a Board School. Religious education was not, ignored, however as the School Board regulations [SB15] insisted: "The school shall be opened in the morning with prayer, and by the reading of some portion of the Bible. The school shall be closed in the afternoon with prayer, and the singing of a hymn".

 Early 20th Century Education

A land mark Education Act was passed in 1902, coming into effect in 1903. It disbanded the School Boards and gave day to day running of education to newly formed Local Education Authorities, usually the county council, as in Bedfordshire. The old Board Schools thus became Council Schools whilst the old National, British and other non-Board schools became known as Public Elementary Schools. Elstow Board School duly became Elstow Board School and, unlike some other schools in the county scholars of both sexes continued to be taught together along with infants.

Z50/142/105

The photograph above shows a school class at Elstow about this time, the individuals (left-right) are: top row: William Breed; unknown; unknown; Ethel Daisley, the teacher; Elsie Wells; unknown; unknown. Middle row: unknown; Lily Whitehouse; Leslie Pestell; Ernest Dickens; Winnie Horney; unknown. Bottom row: Ella Harding; Gladys Keep; gertie James; Maude Cirket; unknown.

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a scrapbook of cuttings of visits made to most Bedfordshire Schools by School Inspectors for a period from just before the First World War through the inter-war years [E/IN1/1]. The first inspection in the scrapbook dates to 1911, when average attendance was 149. The inspector found: "The School is in very good order and is most carefully and capably taught, the Head Teacher's supervision is methodical and thorough, the work is carefully arranged and prepared, and the general level of attainment is quite satisfactory. In the Infant's Division the Teaching of Reading and Number requires some further attention, and the discipline should be firmer". The headteacher mentioned was Thomas James. Two years later the inspector noted: "This school continues to be, in all respect, in a very creditable state of efficiency" he also noted that the infants had shown improvement.

The next inspection was not until 1919 when the inspector stated: "In its unostentatious way this School continues to do the good work that has long distinguished it. At each visit of inspection the Headmaster and his staff, whatever their difficulties may be, are found doing their duty cheerfully, and the children make adequate progress". He further noted: "It speaks well for the character of the Composition that an old boy who has been soldiering in Egypt and Palestine, has presented to the Head Master a voluminous memoir containing an exact account of his life with the forces. Gardening was begun in 1917, with great success…" The reason for gardening beginning in 1917 was that the country was close to starvation due to the effects of U-boats on merchant shipping and every opportunity was taken to produce food. The inspector's final remarks are revealing: "The school has long had a name for training intending teachers. The two monitoresses now on the staff have both done well in their examinations".

former Elstow Council School Sep 2007

It was all change at the time of the next inspection in 1923: "Since the last report a new Head Teacher has taken charge and new methods have been introduced, with success. The aims of the master, the care and thought evident in the teaching of all 3 groups in the Upper Department, and the awakened interest of the children are deserving of praise, and the outlook for the future is promising". The new headmaster was Robert A.J.Wadsworth. The inspection of 1925 was purely devoted to reporting on the buildings and their defects before expected improvements by the Local Education Authority. The next year the inspector recorded: "The curriculum of this school develops many valuable interests and activities, has been very carefully considered, and is well worked out. In the last 3 years the children have won many successes in open competition in Music, Elocution, Folk dancing, and in connection with the Wireless Broadcasting Lectures. The lessons in Gardening, also, have interested the boys. The tone is excellent, and the Head Master and his capable Staff deserve great credit for their very good work and the conduct of the school". Also in that year the inspector investigated the school garden finding: "The garden is on light, hungry soil and green manuring has been adopted as a means of increasing its retentiveness".

The final report in the scrapbook is a very log and detailed one from 1933, when average attendance had risen greatly to 267. The report gives the reason for this: "This school, situated in a village on the proposed new boundary of Bedford Borough, receives all the children from Elstow, and those of 11+ from the contributory schools of five villages and three districts - New Harrowden, New Fenlake and Shortstown - in which there is no school. Two of these are mainly interested in market gardening, the others are agricultural. Elstow itself, on the edge of Bedford, is influenced by the proximity of the town, as many parents of scholars work in the Borough. The others are mainly farmers, smallholders, engineers, mechanics on farms, or farm labourers. The school therefore has to cater for a wide variety of interests. This it does mainly through practical work, the conditions for which are far from ideal, as the building of rooms for practical work, plans for which were submitted by the Local Education Authority and approved by the Board [of Education], has not yet been carried out. the success in the training given is very remarkable in the circumstances, and the versatility, ability, and organising powers of the Head Master call for special recognition". There follows an interesting breakdown of numbers of children entering various walks of life since the increase in numbers, which were as follows:

- 57 to "rural occupations and domestic service";
- 28 to secondary schools [almost certainly to Harpur Trust schools] - 16 fee paying, 10 to free places and 2 scholarships;
- 24 to trades such as carpenter, cabinet maker and printing apprentice;
- 15 to factories including biscuit making [Peek Frean], crayon manufacture [Cosmic Crayon] and leather working [R.B.Sanders] "includes one boy operating a new press, the only one in England";
- 13 to engineering [presumably mainly to W.H.Allen];
- 6 as clerks and shop assistants;
- 3 to the Army;
- 2 to the Royal Navy. 

The School logbooks give a very clear snapshot of what life was like for children at school during the Second World War, all the following being obtained from one logbook [SDElstow1/4]. Children were evacuated from London and had to find somewhere to live: September 1^st 1939 "London children arrived at the school.  Several members of the staff came back from their holidays to assist the headmaster in the billeting of the children and teachers".

The children came from a junior school in Cricklewood.  There were 64 in total.  They were taught at Elstow School: September 11^th 1939 "three senior classrooms have been allotted to the London school children and they are working quite separate from the Elstow school proper".

Local families helped to make the evacuees feel at home; especially at Christmas: December  21^st 1939 "The Elstow parents have subscribed very handsomely towards the Christmas party we are giving to the London school children evacuees".

The curriculum was also affected by the war: September 13^th 1939 "war time syllabuses have been prepared by the handicrafts and domestic subject teachers". March 9^th 1940 ‘War time gardening.  Boys borrowed a seed drill and set the onions and carrots.’

 Late 20th Century Education

site of Abbey Middle School 1950s [Z55/1/25]

The third of the great Education Acts was that of 1944 which established the principle of County Primary Schools for children up to the age of 11, at which time they took an examination to determine the nature of the secondary school they would attend until they were 15, the most academically able going to grammar schools, the rest to secondary or secondary modern schools. Elstow duly became a County Primary School. In 1958 a second school was opened in Elstow, Abbey County Secondary School for pupils aged 11 to 15. It lies on Mowbray Road, which is in Bedford, but the parish boundary runs through the front grounds, making the school buildings themselves in Elstow.

Abbey Middle School Sep 2007

In the 1970s Bedfordshire County Council introduced comprehensive education, doing away with the 11+ examination and grammar schools and introducing a tier of school between the old County Primary and County Secondary Schools. Thus Lower Schools now taught children aged 4 to 9, Middle Schools from 9 to 13 and Upper Schools from 13 onwards. Elstow County Primary thus became Elstow Lower and Abbey County Secondary became Abbey Middle School.

Elstow Lower School Sep 2007

Since 1870 Elstow school, be it Board, Council, County Primary or Lower had been based in the old buildings in the High Street, very close to the northern boundary with Bedford. In March 2004 the school moved to new purpose built premises in the new housing development of Abbeyfields which includes Housing Association social housing as well as the normal owner occupied dwellings. As Bedford, as well as Elstow, has grown the school has accepted pupils from the Mile Road and Elstow Road areas across the parish boundary.

Sources

Early and General
- W1/849: report by James Lilburne of Samuel Whitbread's school: 1802;
- BY9/3: references to school supported by Bunyan Meeting: 1863

Board/Council/County Primary/Lower School
- P128/8/1: reference in vestry minutes to new school buildings: 1870;
- CDE101/1-4: plans for new school: c.1870;
- SB15: School Board records: 1873-1903;
- SDElstow1/1: school logbook: 1874-1893;
- SDElstow1/2: Logbook, includes small copy of photograph portrait stuck in at the front [the headmaster?]: 1893-1903;
- SDElstow2/1: Admission Register; includes alphabetical index of children's names in the front followed by a section arranged by child's number also giving: date of admission; date of birth; surname and Christian name; name and address of parent/guardian; occupation of parent/guardian; name of last school attended; whether the child had suffered from Measles, Whooping Cough, Chicken Pox, Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and Mumps [this ceases after 1914]; date of last attendance at school; and cause of leaving school. A further section at the back lists children receiving medical inspection: 1895-1922;
- SDElstow1/3: school logbook: 1903-1919;
- E/TE5/1: details of teachers: 1904-1908;
- CTM17/38: mortgage of school to pay for enlargement: 1905;
- E/TE5/2: details of teachers: 1908-1912;
- E/IN1/1: inspector's reports: 1911-1933;
- SDElstow1/4: school logbook: 1919-1941;
- SDElstow2/2: Admission Register: alphabetical index of children's names in the front followed by a section arranged by child's number also giving: date of admission; date of birth; surname and Christian name; name and address of parent/guardian; occupation of parent/guardian; name of last school attended; date of last attendance at school; and cause of leaving school: 1922-1949;
- SMM7: school managers' minutes: 1922-1974;
- CTM17/79: mortgage of school: 1927;
- CTM17/102: mortgage of school: 1930;
- Z160/571: programme for May Festival: 1933;
- Z274/117: photograph of senior class: 1935;
- E/SA4/2/4: general correspondence between LEA and school: 1937-1939;
- SDElstow6/1-19: Syllabus & Record Books: 1938-1948;
- SDElstow1/5: school logbook: 1942-1974;
- SDElstow4/1: summary register: 1943-1948;
- SDElstow3/1-17: attendance registers: 1944-1949;
- RDBP3/777A: plans for dining room and kitchen: 1947;
- SDElstow5/1: punishment book: 1948-1965;
- E/IN1/2: inspector's reports on school: 1950-1957;
- CA8/247: building maintenance file: 1964-1976;
- CA2/82: Craft Centre alterations: 1966;
- CA2/195: school and Craft Centre access road: 1970;
- SDElstow1/6: school logbook: 1974-1988;
- SMM38/1: reports to governors: 1975-1980;
- CA8/923: building maintenance file on school and Craft Centre: 1976-1984;
- E/CU4/5/1: correspondence of events to celebrate tercentenary of publication of Pilgrim's Progress: 1977-1980;
- CA2/856: alterations to school: 1977-1980;
- CA10/31: stonework repairs: 1980-1981;
- E/TE3/4: return of teaching staff: 1981;
- E/TE2/2/M13: details of school: 1984;
- E/PM6/2/4: school opposition to abolition of corporal punishment: 1985-1986;
- E/TE3/7: return of teaching staff: 1986;
- E/MS3/2/2: kitchen and other details: c.1987
- E/Pu4/4/101: prospectus: 1995;
- HT13/2/2: Harpur Trust grant to library: 1997

Abbey County Secondary/Middle School
- Abbey School, Elstow. the Early Years;
- Z55/1/25-26: photographs of site before building: 1950s;
- SDElstowAbbey1/1: school logbook: 1958-1987;
- CA2/115: extensions: 1962-1966;
- CA2/593: land drainage of playing fields: 1966;
- CA8/255: building maintenance file: 1966-1975;
- CA2/378: swimming pool: 1973-1976;
- CA8/720: building maintenance file: 1975-1981;
- E/TE3/2: return of teaching staff: 1981;
- E/TE3/7: return of teaching staff: 1986;
- E/MS3/2/2: kitchen and gerenal details: c.1987;
- E/TE2/2/M/13: details of school: 1987;
- CC/HS3/3/1: inadequate ventilation in CDT area: 1987;
- E/ME4/2/2: notes on approach to multicultural education: 1988-1989;
- E/Pu4/4/35: prospectus: 1995