Education in Milton Bryan

 

 
Milton Bryan church around 1818

Early Education

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. It was reported to the Bishop that the poor in Milton Bryan had no access to education, the Rector being moved to write: "No public or charity school, God help us!"

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. It was recorded that Milton Bryan had a school in which 18 girls were taught and clothed, supported by a private charity. In addition a Sunday School taught 16 boys and 30 girls. This Sunday School would have been just that, a school taught on a Sunday with such subjects as writing as well as the religious instruction which is the sole purpose of a Sunday school today.

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 for Milton Bryan recorded an improvement with two daily schools one, which had commenced in 1832, had 35 boys, supported in part by the Inglis family, owners of the Milton Bryan Estate and partly by payments from parents. The other school, for 25 girls, was wholly supported by the Inglis family and had a library attached to it. There were now two Sunday Schools, one for 37 boys, supported by the Rector the other, for 40 girls supported by the Inglises.

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. The return for Milton Bryan recorded the two daily and two Sunday Schools continuing and all were now supported by Sir Robert Harry Inglis.

The old school - now the Village Hall - in February 2007

Milton Bryan School

It is not quite clear when the school began. It is certain that it was a school endowed to the tune of £80 by the Inglis family and was known, to begin with, as Lady Inglis' School. The first mention of the school in a directory is in 1869, however, the Victoria County History states that the trust deed endowing the school was dated 26 Nov 1853, that it was a church school and that it held 95 children.

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. In the return under the Act it was recorded that Lady Inglis' School in Milton Bryan accommodated 106 children.

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. Milton Bryan remained a church school and was therefore known as a Milton Bryan Public Elementary School.

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a scrapbook of reports by the School Inspector for most schools in the county for a period from just before the First World War through the inter-war years [E/IN1/1]. In 1911 the Inspector recorded that work during the year had been interrupted by a serious epidemic. In 1913 the Inspector reported that "The history of the school during the last two years has been a very chequered one owing to frequent outbreaks of epidemic sickness amongst the scholars necessitating the closure of the school. These interruptions to the continuity of work have had a marked effect upon the efficiency of the school and its present condition as regards the children in the department for older scholars is as a whole, barely fair and in the lower section it is very poor indeed". The School Correspondent then wrote to the Education Committee: "The Managers of this School desire me to say that they have at last received a Report from Mr.Colson, with which, on account of parents and children, they are much dissatisfied".

The next report was not until 1923 when it was reported: "This School has a very pleasing tone, and is quite conscientiously taught. The children, too, show considerable interest and appear to try, yet there is not much of the work that can be described as really good, and in one or two respects it is weak…It is felt that, with a determined effort, the general level of the work could soon be quite considerably raised". In 1925 it was noted: "The teaching is very painstaking and the School has a pleasant tone…The interest of the children seems to be roused, but they should put more determination into their efforts". In 1928 the Inspector recorded that the school, which had a total of eleven children, contained three children "of unusual ability" and the other children "have made very rapid progress in the short time they have been in the school. The Mistress has every reason to be proud of the work these little children are doing".

In 1930 the inspector reported that the Head Mistress had been off sick for some time but: "It is to her credit that the work of the little school was so unusually well advanced…" The final report, from 1935, noted that the few children attending the school were getting "a really good foundation for such post-primary instruction as may come their way…The Mistress practically acts as a private governess, apportioning her time and her special attention with most successful results. On the whole she has been fortunate in the calibre of the children, and in the appreciation of the parents: but, none the less, she is doing in an unostentatious way work which is always good, and, in some cases, remarkable". It is interesting to note the average attendance figures over the period of the inspections: 1911: 47; 1913: 36; 1923: 36; 1925: 20; 1928: 15; 1930: 13; 1935: 12.

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. The act also created two types of successor to the public elementary schools - the Voluntary Aided and Voluntary Controlled schools. Voluntary Aided schools are those in which the Local Education Authority funds the school but the governing body is independent, they are usually Anglican or Roman Catholic schools. Voluntary Controlled schools own their own buildings whilst the staff are employed directly by the governors. Milton Bryan became a Voluntary Aided County Primary School.

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. Milton Bryan Voluntary Aided County Primary School became a Voluntary Aided Lower School; never a large school, Milton Bryan was closed by the LEA due to the low number of pupils on the roll in 1983. The building now serves as the Village Hall

Inglis Certified Home for Boys

The 1894 Kelly's Directory entry for Milton Bryan notes that this institution had removed to the parish from London in 1885 and that it had space for 13 boys and was intended to train them for industrial purposes. There is no such reference in the 1898 directory or in subsequent directories.

Sources

- SFM3/267: correspondence noting that the infants' mistress was leaving: mid C19th;
- E/SA3/1/1: tabulated return of pupils under Factory & Workshop Act 1878: 1879;
- SDMiltonBryan2: admission register: 1894-1983;
- SDMiltonBryan1: school logbook: 1902-1983;
- P15/29/1: school managers' minute book: 1903-1962;
- E/TE5/3: details of teachers: 1904-1908;
- E/TE5/4: details of teachers: 1908-1912;
- E/IN1/1: inspector's reports: 1911-1935;
- P15/29/2: Inglis School Foundation Trust account book: 1930-1951;
- CA8/892: building maintenance file: 1947-1983;
- CRT130MB1: notes on school and its origins: 1951;
- Z889/2/8: improvements to school, including plans: 1956-1968;
- CA2/441/6: "isolated classrooms": 1968-1973;
- P15/29/3: Inglis School Foundation Trust accounts: 1971-1980;
- P15/29/4: school managers' minutes: 1971-1983;
- E/TE3/4: return of teaching staff: 1981;
- E/SC1/Gen5-6: details of school and proposals for transfer of children on closure: 1981;
- E/SC1/MB1-3: closure of school: 1982;
- E/SC/Gen7: announcement of school closure: 1983