They use entries from the official School Log Books or diaries of local schools. These can often tell us quite a lot about home life in the district in those times as well as about the routine of the school itself.

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, and often missed lessons to help with farm and other jobs for their parents.
By the end of the Victorian period free schools were provided and it became compulsory for all children to go to school.

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