Llanfyllin and district
Victorian school days
  The death of little Annie Davies  
Drawing by
Rob Davies
 Schools in Victorian times always went in fear of infectious diseases which could spread rapidly when children from a wide area came together in the schoolroom.
The most common of the illnesses mentioned in school Log Books were scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough and diptheria. Some diseases could be killers, and could become very serious very quickly.
The example on this page is from Bwlchycibau School in 1896. Poor little Annie Davies was absent from school with a sore throat which led to her funeral just 8 days later !		 Child's grave
13th November
1896
 School diary entry
17th November
1896
 School diary entry
21st November
1896
 School diary entry
 

These entries from the 1896 school Log Book read -
13 November - "Annie Davies, and Mabel Owen are ill suffering from sore throats and cold".
17 November - "Death from Diptheria. Annie Davies, the scholar mentioned above, died this morning".
21 November - "The remains of little Annie Davies who died last Thursday of Diptheria were taken to their final resting place".
Many Victorian families lived in cold and damp houses with poor sanitation, and had to survive on the cheapest food. It is not surprising that diseases often spread very widely in these unhealthy conditions.
The Log Book of Pen-y-bont Fawr School in June 1890 reported 'School closed 'entrythat "Influenza, mumps, and fever have each in their turn visited the neighbourhood". The same school had been closed from 17th January to 14th March in 1881 "by Medical Orders on account of an Epidemic in the Neighbourhood".

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