These pages help to show what it was like to be at school in the later years of Queen Victoria's reign. They use entries from the official School Log Books or diaries of local schools, which can often tell us quite a lot about life in the district in those times.
Most children did
not go to school at the start of Queen Victoria's reign. Wealthy
landowners would have their children taught at home, and some tradesmen
in the area would send their children to a private school.
The children of the poor
had to go to work as soon as they were old enough to earn money for the
family.
By the
end of the Victorian period free schools
were provided and it became compulsory for all children to go to school.
