In the early days many schools had great difficulty in finding the money to pay for school buildings and equipment. They often depended on help from the better off people in the district.
The Crickhowell British School diary for 1867 refers to a local man who provided the land for the school -
"Mr Jones of Victoria Place, the donor of the land for the school premises, visited the school".
In the following year, 1868, the same book records that the school was given a new blackboard...

This Log Book entry says :
21st January - "Received a new black board about 4ft by 4ft, the gift of Mr James Williams of Llangattock".
It seems strange today that schools once depended on gifts from local people to provide such basic items as blackboards ! And the children even had to pay extra for ink ! ...

This entry is from the Crickhowell British School Log Book, and it was written in 1867 -
18th November - "Ordered that pupils should pay 1d [one penny] per month for use of ink".
The Log Book entry on the next page shows how the teacher at the same school in 1891 did his best to help improve the look of the school by a bit of "Do it Yourself" or DIY...

Teacher gets to work with a paintbrush...