Brecon and district
Victorian school days
  Trouble with the workhouse children  
 

The Brecon National Schools for boys and for girls both seem to have had problems with the children from the Union Workhouse.
The first Log Book entry below is from the girl's school in 1884...

  
31st October
1884
 School diary entry "On Tuesday I found two girls perpetrating an act of gross cruelty, and asked the Vicar to come to school and reprimand them, he accordingly came and publicly rebuked them and then wrote to the Master of the Workhouse leaving the punishment in his hands".
  We aren't told what the very cruel act was, but punishments given out in the workhouse would be much more severe than any in school. This entry is from the boy's school at Brecon...  
17th May
1895
 School diary entry "...Two Union boys were kept away by the Master. The attendance officer went for them but the Master refused to let them come saying he would not upset the arrangements of the House. The irregularity of the Union boys is intolerable"...
Pauper girl

Another entry in March 1896 reads - "Union boys returned today having been away since Oct 17th, with the exception of the 3 weeks after Xmas".Brecknock Workhouse map
There seem to have been disputes between the school authorities and the Master of the Union Workhouse in Brecon over who was responsible for the education of the children whose very poor parents had to live there.
The girls did not go to school regularly either. An 1891 entry reads "Mr Bircham examined the Registers, and finding that the Union children attended very irregularly, he told Mr Kettle to see that they attended school eighteen hours each week according to the Workhouse regulations".

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"The boys from the Brecon Workhouse have not attended this week on account of an outbreak of scarlet fever among the inmates".
11th September 1891

"Four of the Union boys were away 13 times this week. The Managers are writing to the Local Government Board to see if the irregularity is allowable as the Master avers it is".
17th May 1895
Brecon National Boys School

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