Apart from illness, the main cause
of absence from school was the work that had to be done at different seasons
on the farms and smallholdings.
Parents needed help from their older children with the harvest,
sheep-shearing, potato planting and other jobs, and many could not afford
to employ other workers.
The summer break was known as the 'harvest holidays'
for many years, and the timing of it depended on the weather. This is
from the Llanfrynach School Log Book
in 1866...
|
"The
parents of many of the children are of the opinion that one quarter
a year is quite sufficient, hence at the end of the first quarter
many of the children were taken away some to labour on the farms
etc, and probably they will return next winter".
Trecastell School 13th April 1863 |
