Crickhowell British School

This school was established in 1867 by the British and Foreign School Society and was just one of a great many run by the society across the country. The society was mainly nonconformist and in competition with the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (Hunt & Co.'s Directory 1849 lists a National School at Penydre). It was in the British schools that the monitorial system, later used in state education, was developed. This used older pupils to teach groups of younger children under the teacher's supervision.

The two images shown here are pages from the headteacher's Log Book. Education was not yet compulsory for children and one can see from the entry for November 1868 how difficult in must have been to establish a pattern of regular attendance in the face of rival attractions such as Brecon Fair and the need to earn vital income at harvest time.

Whether Annie Lewis' father objected to her working as a pupil/teacher on the grounds that it was not proper employment for a girl we will never know, but the entry for the 17th of November 1868 does indicate some resistance to the new system.

The entry for 17th November 1869 on the second page demonstrates that bad behaviour among some adolescent boys is by no means peculiar to our own time!

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Text and documentation supplied by Powys County Council Archive Office