University of Bradford eThesis This thesis is hosted in Bradford Scholars – The University of Bradford Open Access repository. Visit the repository for full metadata or to contact the repository team © University of Bradford. This work is licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN BRADFORD 1863 - 1903 J. C. JACKSON MPhil 2015 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN BRADFORD 1863 – 1903: A STUDY USING SCHOOL LOG BOOKS John Charles JACKSON Submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy Faculty of Life Sciences University of Bradford 2015 Abstract John Charles Jackson Elementary School Attendance in Bradford 1863-1903: A Study Using School Log Books. Keywords: Education, Bradford, Log Books, School Attendance, Nineteenth Century. This thesis examines the issue of elementary school attendance in later nineteenth century Bradford. It seeks to do this by means of a little used source: the school log book. The focus of the study is on the experiences of head teachers who faced a constant struggle to achieve and maintain an acceptable level of attendance in Bradford where child employment in the flourishing textile industry had long been an inherent feature of working class life. It investigates broader issues affecting attendance in the context of prevailing social, cultural, religious, and economic factors. While the significant and influential pressures on attendance in Bradford were to be found elsewhere (for example, parental apathy; hostility to compulsory attendance; child labour; health and welfare), this investigation discovers that the town’s problems were compounded and made difficult by its phenomenal growth and rapid emergence by the middle of the nineteenth century as the undisputed capital of the world’s worsted manufacturing trade. i It concludes that in the study of Victorian elementary school attendance Bradford deserves greater recognition in consideration of the tension between the demands of the most prolific half-time system of employment in the country, and prevailing attitudes to the introduction of universal elementary education in England and Wales. ii Acknowledgements and Dedications I thank sincerely Dr. Paul Jennings and Dr. George Sheeran of the University of Bradford for their help, guidance, support, and encouragement throughout the research and writing of this thesis. I also thank members of staff at the J. B. Priestley Library, University of Bradford; Local Studies Department, Central Library, Bradford; West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford for their generous assistance and forbearance on the occasions of my many visits. This study is dedicated especially to my late mother Sheila (1933-2014), and also to the remembrance of many generations of my forebears who experienced Bradford’s pioneering education system. iii Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements and Dedications ............................................................. iii List of Figures .................................................................................................. vi List of Tables ................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................... 10 The Education of the People .......................................................................... 10 2.1 Historiography........................................................................................ 10 2.2 The Education of the People................................................................. 20 2.3 Early Developments............................................................................... 21 2.4 Bradford’s ‘educational darkness’....................................................... 32 2.5 The Sunday School Movement in Bradford......................................... 33 2.6 The Establishment of Day Schools in Bradford.................................. 36 2.7 Education for All. The Bradford School Board Established.............. 39 Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................... 46 Log Book Case Study for the Topic – Attendance ....................................... 46 Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................... 59 The Battle to Secure Attendance in Bradford ............................................... 59 4.1 Elementary School Attendance during the Nineteenth Century........59 4.2 The Bradford School Board and Compulsory Attendance................ 62 Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................... 78 Problems Associated With Poor Attendance ............................................... 78 5.1 ‘This constant struggle.’........................................................................78 5.2 The Half Timer........................................................................................ 79 iv 5.3 Poverty.................................................................................................... 95 5.4 Parental Attitudes...................................................................................99 5.5 Illnesses and Weather..........................................................................110 5.6 Amusements and other Distractions..................................................117 Chapter 6 ....................................................................................................... 121 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 121 Bibliography .................................................................................................. 126 v List of Figures Figure 1 - Town Plan of Central Bradford 1873 showing location of schools...........................................................................................viii Figure 2 - Schools highlighted to identify log books referred to in thesis................................................................................................ix Figure 3 - Victorian school log book.................................................................55 Figure 4 - Extracts from the Revised Code 1862 stating the manner in which the school log book must be kept.........................................56 Figure 5 - Typical entries in an early school log book......................................57 Figure 6 – Typical entries in a late nineteenth century school log book..........58 Figure 7 - Feversham Street Board Schools, Bradford, opened 10 August 1874. Architects: Lockwood and Mawson, Bradford. Architects’ drawing of the infants’ and girls’ schools........................................68 Figure 8 - Feversham Street Board Schools, Bradford. Architects’ floor plan of the boys’, and the infants’ and girls’ schools...............................69 vi List of Tables Table 1. Increase in public money to provide for elementary education for elementary schools (thousands of pounds)...................................26 Table 2. Sunday Schools in Bradford, 1830................................................34 Table 3. The distribution and numbers of school age children in Bradford, 1871...............................................................................42 Table 4. Attendance at Public Elementary Schools, 1873-76.....................70 Table 5. Summary of School Attendance Officers’ work for three years ended September 1888 ................................................................71 Table 6. Average attendance at Public Elementary Schools in Bradford for the three weeks ended 24 April 1903......................................76 Table 7. Proportion of half timers in selected large towns, 1887................83 Table 8. Half-time pupils and their employers and day pupils at the Parish Church Boys’ School, Bradford, 1871...............................85 Table 9. Exemption levels for half-time and full-time employment in Bradford, 1875-1901....................................................................87 Table 10. Half-time employment of children in Bradford, February 1893....92 Table 11. Summary of cases investigated and results during the years 1877-79......................................................................................107 Table 12. Cases brought before the magistrates and consequent action during the years 1877-79...........................................................108 vii Figure 1 - Town Plan of Central Bradford 1873 showing location of schools. 12 18, 47 19 Town Hall 9 46 15 31 15 32 15 15 15 Source: National Archives, MR 1/1773 viii Figure 2 - Schools highlighted to identify log books referred to in thesis. * * * * * Not shown on original plan: 46 New Leeds Infants’ and * Mixed Board Schools (1873) * * * 47 Chapel Street Higher Grade Boys’ Board School (1891) * Source: National Archives, MR 1/1773. ix Chapter 1 Introduction This thesis investigates a key issue in the provision of elementary education in the later nineteenth century: the attendance of children at school. Its focus is the securing