Houghton Regis School
In 1654, Thomas Whitehead of Repton, Derbyshire left money and land to build and run a school. There was to be ‘some honest and painful schoolmaster….to teach 20 scholars freely’, 15 from the town, 5 from surrounding hamlets. The school was still running in 1720. There were about 16 boys who learnt reading, writing and arithmetic, with the church catechism. The fall in numbers was put down to parents not sending them because even very young children could earn money plaiting straw at home.
By 1833 there was one infant school, 2 daily schools and 3 Sunday schools. The first Sunday school was started in 1826 by the Church of England, it taught 51 boys and 50 girls; the second was run by the Wesleyan Methodists and was started in 1828, 30 boys and 25 girls attended; there was also a third Sunday school with 60 boys and 99 girls. All the schools were supported by contributions.
In 1864 there was a report into conditions on straw plait schools in Bedfordshire. In Houghton Regis they inspected Mrs Poulton’s StrawPlaitSchool describing it as follows: ‘The mistress and 30 children would have a fraction over 21 cubic feet of space each. If there were ever, as one boy stated, 36 children each person would have a fraction over 18 cubic feet, the children had not all returned from dinner at the time of my visit. Of 12 girls and 4 boys present, none of the boys and only three of the girls had ever been at a weekday school, though all went to Sunday school.’ Mrs Poulton said that the children were often ill and away from school; she had in the past taught reading but found that it had become ‘too much’ She also described how the straw cut their fingers and mouths as the straw had to be damp or it would break. The conditions were crowded, damp and cold so it is no wonder that so many children became ill.
Extracts from the logbook show that the teachers at the Daily school were frustrated with the tiredness of the half-timers. This was because they attended plaiting school in the morning. A typical entry reads: 7th August 1874 ‘Education is little valued here, children are kept at home to work at a very early age.’ (Ref: SD Houghton Regis British 1/1)
The logbooks also give a flavour of what lessons were like in the Victorian period. The Approved plan of work for the year ending June 30th 1898 included object lessons for Standards I & II such as the four seasons, how plants grow, a candle, a hare, and the silkworm. The lessons for Standard III included the three Kingdoms, sugar producing plants, iron smelting, the Post Office, ploughing and sowing.
Other schemes of work in the logbook include that for Geography in 1900. Children would learn about topics such as ‘The Sea Coast, Fisheries (cod, herring, pilchard), A River Basin (The Thames), Lakes (how formed, the Lake District) and Internal communications (railways, ManchesterShip Canal)’ (Ref: SD Houghton Regis British 1/1)
In 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, children were officially evacuated to Houghton Regis from a London school and others came from London and places on the south coast with their parents. This greatly increased the number of pupils in the school. The logbook also records that extra supplies had to be ordered to cope with the influx. More children arrived as the war continued: May 14th 1940 ’19 children from the OpenAirSchool, Euston Square, until recently accommodated in the Old National Schoolroom were added to the number of official evacuees now in attendance at this school.’ (Ref: SD Houghton Regis Whitehead’s 1/1)
The BritishSchool opened 1871; it became a BoardSchool in 1878; a CouncilSchool in 1903; a CountyPrimary School in 1946 and finally a LowerSchool in the 1970s.
Whitehead's Free School opened in 1654 and the NationalSchool opened in 1856. The two schools were amalgamated to form Whitehead's FreeEndowedSchool in 1876. The school became a Public Elementary School in 1903; a County Primary School in 1946 before becoming known as Whitehead Voluntary Primary School in c.1967; Whitehead Church of England Lower School in the 1970s and finally as Thomas Whitehead Lower in the 1980s.