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Durham E-Theses Education, industry and the community; Jarrow secondary school, 1911 - 1944 Davis, Sylvia How to cite: Davis, Sylvia (1991) Education, industry and the community; Jarrow secondary school, 1911 - 1944, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6159/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Education, I ndustry and the Community : Jarrow Secondary School, 1911 - 1944 Sylvia Davis . B. Ed ., M. A. (Ed) A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Education University of Durham School of Education 1991 1 4 MAY ~992 CONTENTS Page. Abstract i Acknowledgements ii List of Illustrations iii List of Brief References iv Statement of Copyright v Chapter One. Jarrow Secondary School: the prelusory decade (1901-1911). l Chapter Two. Jarrow, between the wars. 19 Chapter Three. Educational Provision and its Effects upon Jarrow. 35 Chapter Four. Social Mobility. From School to Industry and the Community. 54 Chapter Five. Ethos of Jarrow Secondary School. 70 Chapter Six. 'Not by navvies alone'. 103 Chapter Seven. The Height of Ambition. 122 Appendice·s. 133 Appendix A 134 Appendix B 141 Appendix C 142 Appendix D 143 Appendix El 144 Appendix E2 145 Appendix EJ 146 Appendix F 147 Bibliography. 148 ABSTRACT Education, Industry and the Community: Jarrow Secondary School, 1911 - 1944 Sylvia Davis. This thesis investigates the relationship between Jarrow Secondary School and the socio-economic life of the district, between 1911 and 1944. In particular, it examines the effect the school had upon the social mobility of those people who passed through its system, and the influence their education had upon the vrelfare of the community. To study just what impact this secondary school had upon its community, it was necessary to look at the background of the area, along vdth the educational developments which led to the building of the school. Both documented evidence and text books provided this vital information. Personal interviews with ex-pupils who attended the school at that time, proved to be both an enlightening and enlivening source of evidence. These interviews not only corroborated documentation and shed light onto the internal mechanism of the school, but also gave tangible evidence as to what transpired once pupils were assimilated into the working environment of the district. The nature of the educational system operating in Jarrow, with graduated levels in the different educational establishments, mirrored the perceived needs of the district. This allows further research, not only covering the secondary school and its effects on the district but also encompassing the other forms of education available and the roles they fulfilled within the community. - i - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those ex-pupils of Jarrow Secondary School who gave their time so freely, who invited me into their homes, and shared with me their schoolday memories. In particular, I wish to thank the following people: Robert Allen, Joan Berry, Charles Neville Binns, Mabel Binns, Marjorie Brumby, Archibald Campbell, George Clouston, Agnes Corradine, Catherine Dunn, Irene Edgecombe, Muriel Ellis, James Forster, Doris Franks, William Franks, Isabel Gibson, Harold J. Jones, John Large, Nancy Large, Martin Lennon, William Main, Mabel Maughan, Joseph Nelson, Albert Overton, Hilda Pattie, Alfred Porter, Marion Scorer, Edmund Smith, George Stokeld, Frederick Thompson, Norma Walker, Mary Wardle and Edith Wright. I would also like to thank all those people ;..rho provided relevant information, especially the Local History Department of South Shields Library and members of staff at Springfield Comprehensive School who expressed interest and loaned me books and pamphlets. My thanks to Raymond Kitching y.rho did such an excellent job producing graphs, illustrations and photographs. To my typist, Pat Cummings, my appreciation for her thorough and proficient typing. My especial thanks to Professor Batho who guided and encouraged me throughout this study. I am greatly indebted to him for motivating me to an end result. And finally thank you to my mother and father for their help over the years, and to Colin whose patience is endless. - ii - ILLUSTRATIONS page. Jarrow Secondary School. ~. 1912 vi Housing Stock, Pre 1930s. Looking towards Spenser Street. 21 Scholarship letter. Jq/0. 73 Children making their way to school. c . 1'1 2 I. 80 Jarrow Secondary School Football Team, 1916-17. 82 Jarrow Secondary School Football Team, 1925. 83 Jarrow Secondary School Hockey Team, 1925. 85 Chemistry room. (... 1'\12.. 88 Botany room. c.. ,q 82. 90 Art room. c. \ G\12.. 92 Programme of 'She Passed Through Lorraine' performed by the Old Jarrovians' Amateur Dramatic Society, 1935. 99 - iii - LIST OF BRIEF REFERENCES Lowndes (1969) G.A.N. Lowndes, The Silent Social Revolution. An Account of the expansion of public education in England and Wales. 1895- 1965, second edition, Oxford University Press, London, 1969. McCord (1979) N. McCord, North East England. An economic and social history. The Region's Development 1760 - 1960, B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, 1979. Mess (1928) H. Mess, Industrial Tyneside. A Social Survey made for the Bureau of Social Research for Tyneside, Ernest Benn Ltd., London, 1928. Robinson (1986) C. Robinson, J'Accuse. The Autobiography of a headteacher in Jarrow 1934 - 1963, Peoples' Publication, London, 1986. - iv - "The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. " - v - JARROW SECONDARY SCHOOL .c..tqll. - vi - CHAPTER ONE Jarrow Secondary School: the prelusory decade (1901 - 1911) On the morning of 28th May 1908, a crowd of some seven hundred badly-clothed and ill-shod men, women and children gathered around the rear door of 'The Borough Arms' in Jarrow. They had been told that that morning there would be free food served, provided by the Newcastle Breweries, to relieve their hunger. The Newcastle Breweries Company had instructed their tenants at JarroH to make soup for distribution to the hungry. This soup was made Hith beef, hams, mutton and beef bones, all boiled Hith the best of vegetables. When the meat cooled it Has sliced and put into sandHiches. The crowd had been gathering from early that morning, as many had had little food for some time. When the time drew close, tempers became frayed, as people struggled and fought towards the front to gain a better position. At ll.JO a.m. the doors were opened and the distribution began; the children vrere served at a separate entrance. At the main rear doorway, it Has extremely difficult to hold back and control the crowd: all seven hundred people pushing and yYing to be served first. It took five strong men, working continuously, more than an hour and a half to supply over 400 sand"rrches and about 650 pints of soup.(l) In the crush, at least one woman fainted through hunger and the heat in the melee. This scene was an example of several such occurrences in 1908, due to the depression and lack of work in the Jarrow area. It was out of this time of depression that Jarrow Secondary School came forth- the building of the school was underHay, and it (1) Jarrow Express & Tyneside Advertiser, 29th May 1908. - 1 - was announced in October by the ~ucation Committee, that in approximately eighteen months they hoped the school building would be ready for occupation. The depression in 1908 in Jarrow was not the first that the people had experienced, nor would it be the last, but it serves as a prime example of what happened to a town when it was dependent upon one industry alone. In the case of Jarrow, that industry was Palmer's Shipbuilding Company. The town of Jarrow had grown around this industry, expanding from a village of some 4,000 people in 1851 to an urban community of 34,000 people by l90l.(l) People had flooded into the area to find work and the town had sprang forth. Indeed, throughout the North East region, in this period, there was rapid urbanisation; towns becoming highly populated with the development of heavy industry, some in fact increasing in population tenfold. Jarrow, in this respect was not unique but it was said that the town 'put all its eggs in one basket' by becoming so reliant upon the works by the riverside, Palmer's. The poverty experienced by the Jarrow people in 1908 was directly related to the fortunes of Palmer's, which had developed from the mid-nineteenth century along vdth the other major North East industrial concerns. Since the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century, the North East had become perhaps the most important industrial area for heavy industry in the country. By the end of the nineteenth century nearly a quarter of the world demand for shipping Has satisfied 2 by this region.( ) If Britain was the workshop of the world, then the North East was the engine-room.