As noted on the last page, there are many references to how well or how badly local industry is doing in the Log Books kept by schools in the area. (This is sometimes called 'The state of the local economy').
This entry in the diary of Ynscedwyn School from 1887 also refers to the 'fearfully wet' weather in early March of that year. (In Wales this is sometimes called 'normal').

This entry reads:
"The average attendance for the same period being 86. Had the weather not been so fearfully wet all the time and the state of trade so depressed it would have been much higher".
It was common in Victorian times for whole families to move to another part of the country in search of work if local jobs were lost, and children would be taken away from the school they had been going to.
A typical Ynscedwyn entry from August 1877 noted "This being the end of the year I struck off the names of 17 children, several of whom had gone to work and the remainder owing to the continued stoppage of the works had left the district".

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