Education in Woburn

Early Public Education in Woburn

 
Woburn Lower School in March 2007 - the entrance to Bedford Street used to be the Fire Station

The original Woburn School was built in 1582 by Francis, 2nd Earl of Bedford (d.1585) and continued to be supported by charities mainly run by the Earls, later Dukes, and others in Woburn. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a will of 1582 [ABP/W1582/60] in which William Stanton of Eversholt leaves "a blacke cow called Jenkins to the free schoole nowe buildinge att Wooburne". It was known as Woburn Free School. There was no original endowment but a yearly stipend was allowed for the schoolmaster, as a customary payment from the Duke. Lincoln Diocesan Archive has a nomination of James Tonge MA to mastership of the Free School on 2nd July 1603 [Lic.Sch.1/1]. At the beginning of the 19th century this stipend was worth £35 a year and the master taught 35 boys reading, writing and accounts. In 1808 the school changed to a different form of teaching called the Lancasterian System (after Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, who founded an elementary Freee School in Southwark [Surrey] in 1798), where as well as the headmaster, the older pupils helped teach the younger ones. This was encouraged by the British and Foreign Schools Society so after that the school became known as the BritishSchool. British Schools tended, though not exclusively, to be of nonconformist persuasion; their Anglican equivalents were known as National Schools. At Woburn there were 150 boys divided into 8 classes, each class taught by a monitor and his assistant, with the master overseeing them all. From 1808 the master's stipend was raised to £50 per annum. The Duke continued to maintain the school premises.

Private Schools

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a text book [Z742/38] of 1799 and an advertisement for the Woburn Academy "for young gentlemen" of 1805 which may well be one of these boarding schools. The academy was held in the brand house which still survives in Leighton Street, opposite the old fire station. Finally there were six Sunday Schools, 160 boys in three and 141 girls in the other three, all receiving free tuition.

 
Former British Boys' School in Leighton Street - March 2007

19th Century Public Education in Woburn

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 firmed 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 Free School is duly noted in this survey. Also noted on the survey is a lace-making school for 61 children and also a sewing school on Saturday afternoons for 82 girls. In addition there was an Anglican Sunday School for 66 children and one "belonging to the Dissenters" attended by 56 children. It should be noted that these Sunday Schools were just that, schools held on a Sunday, at which subjects such as writing were taught in addition to the religious instruction with which they are synonymous today. As a result of all these various schools the Vicar, Rev.J.Parry was able to record: "When the poor are desirous of education, every facility is afforded them".

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. It was recorded that Woburn had two daily Lancasterian schools, one for 131 boys and the other for 71 girls (which began in 1825). The master's salary was now £70 per annum whilst the mistress of the girls' school received £40, partly from subscriptions and partly from payments by parents. At this stage both boys and girls were taught in the same premises. In addition there were four boarding schools, two containing 50 boys and the other two 41 girls, respectively, all educated at parental expense.

In 1845 the Duke donated land for the opening of a two new schools known as the Woburn British Boys’ in Leighton Street, now a private house but recognisably once a school) and Girls’ Schools. The old Free School building, at the corner of the churchyard (still today's Lower School) was used as an infants’ school, and the new schools had separate buildings for the boys (room for 100) and girls. The Duke took great interest in the school, and an old Russell family trust fund provided prizes, school fees and apprenticeships for the children.. The cost of sending boys to the new school was about 3d a week, but richer parents were expected to pay a lot more. Most children left school when they were 12 or 13, but some of the boys at Woburn stayed on until they were 15. They were all taught reading, writing and arithmetic of course, but also music, singing, scripture studies, drawing, dictation, geography, history, algebra, geometry, science (including astronomy and electricity) and grammar. The boys also played football, and some did “domestic economy” and, later on, gardening. It’s likely the school was mainly for the better-off families. After 1891 education was free.

At the same time as the 1851 census and educational census was held and Woburn recorded four evening schools for adults in the district (not necessarily all in Woburn itself) and which 74 men and 39 women received education. Furthermore Woburn had a Literary & Scientific Institute with 62 men and 5 women as members; it had an impressive library of 330 volumes and met monthly. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service also has an advertisement of 1850 for Edward Henrie's Classical, Mathematical & Commercial Academy

1882 Ordnance Survey map showing the Union Workhouse (1835-1899)

Education was also dispensed at the workhouse. Woburn was the centre of a Board of Guardians District serving a number of other neighbouring parishes (at this date Aspley Guise; Aspley Heath; Battlesden; Chalgrave; Eversholt; Harlington; Hockliffe; Hulcote; Husborne Crawley; Milton Bryan; Potsgrove; Ridgmont; Salford; Tilsworth; Tingrith; Toddington; and Woburn itself). The union workhouse ran a school which, on 13 Mar 1848 contained 23 boys and 19 girls, the latter having their own schoolroom whilst the former were taught an an ante-room by the porter. The discipline was recorded as "apparently good", instruction, not surprisingly, as "very deficient"; it was noted: "This school is subject to all the usual inconveniences of small workhouse schools". By October of that year, boys were being sent to the Free School whilst the girls continued to be taught in the workhouse schoolroom, the education being "slightly improved". An inspection in 1857 revealed 14 boys and 23 girls and infants receiving education, the boys were now, again, taught in-house by a mistress formerly at Ampthill Parochial Union school. The inspector remarked "The boys were, till her appointment, instructed in the Free School, and whenever I examined I was struck by their ignorance and want of intelligence. The contrast they now present is a remarkable exemplification of the truth, that the school is the reflection of the teacher".

Around this time investigations were being made of the effect that earning a living was making on children's education and in 1864 J.E.White investigated the straw plait and bonnet trade in this respect. A letter from H.Veasey of Woburn gives a graphic, though balanced, idea of what this involved:

"Your inquiry respecting straw plait schools has awaited reply to admit of further observations.

The district immediately adjacent is not manufacturing, and young children are engaged in the plait under cottage teachers. The work is wholly voluntary, and rather resembles a plain working school. Overcrowding prevails occasionally, but as plaiting admits of out-door exercise, the children commonly execute much work as they walk in the open air.

Excoriated mouths, chiefly at each angle, are common, from a practice of drawing the straws through the mouth, and a weakly attenuated aspect may arise from this habit, and partly from bad air. Brimstone and vitriol are, I believe, used to prepare the straws, possibly something worse.

Regretting to serve the cause of humanity so feebly, I am &c…"

At the new school buildings all was not necessarily rosy; the headmaster thought the rooms stuffy, probably because they were heated by open fires and the windows were jammed shut. The playground was in poor condition in 1863.  A gas supply was laid on in 1898. Children stayed away from school with illnesses like measles, mumps, coughs, colds, influenza, scarlet fever and once in 1863 there was a case of smallpox. Other things occurred occasionally: in 1888 one boy “had a bad head – Ringworm” and was off school for months, another was sent home “to be made clean”. The school logbook notes some other reasons than straw plaiting for absences [SDWoburn1/1]:
- 17 Nov 1863: "Rifle shooting, many boys absent";
- 11 Dec 1863: "Hounds meet at Woburn Abbey. half yearly sale of fat stock at the Park Farm. Very few present";
- 11 Oct 1864: "Great Drakelow Pond fished. Very short attendance p.m.";
- 13 Dec 1865: "Many absent at the Great Pond Fishing, Woburn Park in the afternoon". 

Discipline was not severe at Woburn school and the cane was not often used, but there were some troublesome families. In 1864 the school log book records, “The Robinsons caned. C. Robinson escapes through window” [SDWoburn1/1]. Perhaps a case for punishment might have arisen from this entry of 27 Oct 1864: "In consequence of the dirty state of the playground the Boys play out in the fields too much. Am afraid of complaints about broken fences. Wish for fine weather and a football". This materialised in December as this entry for 15th reveals: "The football this week has cured hedge-hopping and late attendance p.m.".

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; that for Woburn revealed that the British School had room for 132 boys, 117 girls and 125 infants. On 12 Feb 1873 a School Board was elected for Woburn (only the seventh in the county to date), and the former British School thus became known as Woburn Board School. Religious instruction continued to be given by the teachers - from 9.10 a.m. to 9.45 a.m. each day.

 
Woburn Council Girls School group [Z252/3]

20th Century Education in Woburn

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. Woburn Board Boys, Girls and Infants Schools thus became Woburn Council Boys, Girls and Infants Schools.

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a scrapbook of School Inspectors reports for a period from just before the First World War through the inter-war years [E/IN1/1]. Thus in 1909, all three schools were visited and all were: "doing well and each year making steady and substantial progress in nearly all directions". Of the Boys School in 1910 it was reported: "The tone of the School is very good and the interest shown by the master and scholars in the School Gardening and outdoor observation work is a very pleasing feature of the School". The Girls School was similarly good: "The tone and discipline are most priaseworthy…The condition of the School as a whole reflects much credit upon Miss Smith and her Assistant".

In 1913, when average attendance was 79 at the boys, 48 at the girls and 46 at the infants schools, an epidemic of sickness was noted at all the schools, but in spite of this creditable work had been done. There was then a break in inspections due to the upheaval of the First World War. Inspections resumed at the Infants School in 1918 when the Inspector complained about the closing of the registers in the afternoon "25 minutes after the proper time for closing them". Otherwise inspections for all schools recommenced in 1922 and 1923, at the Boys School there was: "plenty of evidence of steady, painstaking work", the Girls School was "making really good headway" and at the Infants: "The teaching is quite industrious, and the methods of instruction are, as a rule, such as should lead to satisfactory results; yet the progress of the children is certainly not as good as it should be. This is chiefly due to the fact that order is lax, and a few of the brighter children are allowed frequently to call out and monopolise the teacher's attention". Both Boys and Girls Schools were also inspected in 1925/6 and progress was generally satisfactory.

In 1928 the three separate schools were amalgamated into Woburn Junior Mixed School, which had an average attendance of 70 at the time of its first inspection in 1930 when it was noted: "This school deteriorated under a Mistress who left rather less than 2 years ago. After an interval the present Head Teacher came in September 1929…the work at present is not too satisfactory, probably because each of the two lower classes has exactly the same teaching and tests for all its members in far too many subjects". In 1935 it was found the improvements had been made to the building and: "the standard of attainment is high throughout the School…children are well mannered and behave very well in School under discipline of happy friendliness…The Head Teacher deserves high commendation for her conduct of the School".

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. Woburn Council School thus became Woburn County Primary School.

 
1995 prospects [E/PM4/4/212]

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. Woburn is thus now a Lower School and still meets in the Free School buildings of 1582, which must be the oldest surviving educational buildings in the county

Sources

General
- AD3655-3662: School Board election papers: c.1875;
- SB51/1: School Board financial statement: 1903;
- SB51/7: School Board clerk's report to LEA: 1903;
- SMM26/1: school managers' minutes: 1903-1937

Woburn Academy
- Z742/38: Elements of Geography textbook written for the academy: 1799;
- Mic193: microfilmed copy books: 1805-1807

Free School
- ABP/W1582/60: will of William Stanton leaving a cow to the school "nowe building att Wooburne": 1582;
- CRT130WOB7: typescript of rules regulating the school: 1582;
- CRT130WOB12: notes on the school: 1582-1884;
- P30/12/1587: reference to buying Scapula's Lexicon to "remayne in the Scholehouse of Wobirne for the benefitt of the Schollers": 1587;
- X27/9: reference in a will to repayment of money belonging to the school: 1594;
- R5/79/2: Woburn Abbotts Manor cash accounts - partition to schoolhouse and stipends to scvhoolmaster and bellman: 1687-1688;
- RVouchersBox346: vouchers for school: c.1700-1708;
- R4/60: salary of schoolmaster: 1735;
- W1/851-852: report on school sent by Samuel Whitbread to Duke of Bedford: 1808;
- R2403-4: storage of coal: 1831;
- R3/4856: finances "falling off": 1844;
- R3/4860, 4862, 4865: correspondence of Duke of Bedford's steward with "dissenters" about school: 1844;
- A History of Woburn Free School: 1860-1902;
- R1/192 p.144: plan of site of school: 1880;
- PCWoburn11/2: copy of R1/192: c.1992

British/Board/Council Boys' School
- R3/4961: proposed site of school: 1845;
- R3/4972: house proposed for schoolmaster better than that for Ampthill: 1845;
- SDWoburn2/1-3: admission registers: 1850-1928;
- SDWoburn1/1-2: school logbooks: 1863-1928;
- R4/792: report to Duke on numbers, accounts etc.: 1867-1868;
- CCE/SB51/1: copy agreement between School Board and Duke of Bedford: 1873;
- E/SA3/1/1: tabulated returns of pupils under Factory & Workshop Act 1878: 1879;
- R4/938: children playing truant by gathering sticks: 1884;
- Fac87/1: exercise book of Horace Smith: 1900-1901;
- E/TE5/1: details of teachers: 1904-1908;
- E/TE5/2: details of teachers: 1908-1912;
- E/IN1/1: inspector's reports: 1909-1926;
- Z50/142/352: photograph of school: c.1911

British/Board/Council Girls' School
- R4/608/35: proposal for establishing girls' school: 1813;
- R4/792: report to Duke on numbers, accounts etc.: 1867-1868;
- CCE/SB51/2: copy agreement between School Board and Duke of Bedford: 1873;
- E/SA3/1/1: tabulated returns of pupils under Factory & Workshop Act 1878: 1879;
- R4/938: children playing truant by gathering sticks: 1884;
- E/TE5/1: details of teachers: 1904-1908;
- E/TE5/2: details of teachers: 1908-1912;
- Z50/142/350-351: photographs: c.1909-1911;
- E/IN1/1: inspector's reports: 1910-1925;
- Z252/3: photograph of girls' class: 1916;
- Z252: details about teachers at school: c.1917

British/Board/Council Infants' School
- R3/4951: old Free School buildings "sadly dilapidated"; 1845;
- R4/792: report to Duke on numbers, accounts etc.: 1867-1868;
- CCE/SB51/4: copy agreement between School Board and Free School trustees: 1874;
- E/SA3/1/1: tabulated returns of pupils under Factory & Workshop Act 1878: 1879;
- R4/938: children playing truant by gathering sticks: 1884;
- E/TE5/1: details of teachers: 1904-1908;
- Z50/142/349: photograph of school: c.1907;
- E/TE5/2: details of teachers: 1908-1912;
- Z252/2: photograph of schoolchildren with mistress: 1912;
- E/IN1/1: inspector's reports: 1913-1923;
- Z252: details about teachers at school: c.1917

Council Junior Mixed/County Primary/Lower School
- E/IN1/1: inspector's reports: 1930-1935;
- CCA9/7: correspondence with Bedford Estates regarding renewal of lease: 1947-1949;
- CCA9/9: correspondence regarding water supply: 1952-1970;
- CA8/717: building maintenance file: 1964-1981;
- CA2/837: proposed new site for lower school: 1975-1980;
- E/TE3/3: return of teaching staff: 1981;
- E/TE3/6: return of teaching staff: 1986;
- E/MS3/2/2: kitchen and other details: c.1987;
- PCWoburn4/6: lower school management committee to appoint representative to swimmking pool committee: 1987;
- E/TE2/2/L77: details of school: 1989;
- CCA311/5-7: external and internal alterations to school: 1993;
- PCWoburn26/2: letter about cleaning stonework: 1994;
- E/Pu4/4/212: prospectus: 1995