Parents also had to pay for school books over many years, so the change to free books would have been very welcome...

This was from Llangyniew National School, in 1891 -
October 16th - "The average [attendance] for the week is 32, would now be larger but for wet weather. Books etc are now free, except what were bought prior to September 1st".

In 1887 the Log Book of Manafon School reported that "A new Clock and Harmonium were this day added to the School Furniture and Apparatus, obtained from the proceeds of a concert held at the School Room some time previously".
A harmonium was a small reed organ, invented in 1842.

This comes from the Llanllugan School diary for 1895 -
"A big patch of plaster fell from the ceiling. Fortunately, nobody was in that part of the school at the time".
As the above entry shows, another problem for the early schools was to do with the cost of trying to keep the buildings in a decent (and safe !) condition

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