The former Workhouse in June 2008
The workhouse contained not only men and women but children too. When they were old enough the boys were apprenticed out but until then they had to be educated. Children were often sent to local elementary schools but Leighton Buzzard Union Workhouse had its own school in the 1840s and 1850s. The school provision in the workhouses was regularly inspected In the Bedfordshire Schoolchild in the Nineteenth Century (Bedfordshire Historical Records Society Volume 67 of 1988), David Bushby picked out the following inspection reports of the school at Leighton Buzzard Union Workhouse carried out by H. G. Bowyer and contained in Parliamentary Papers (not deposited with Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service):
"Leighton Buzzard Union School, 2 July 1849. Separate schoolrooms, and a master and mistress. Irish books and maps &c. John Wickstead, Probation Section 1, salary £30. Mary Ann Wickstead, Probation Section 1, salary £24. Both schools improved, but boys' school more so than girls'. This school has suffered from a succession of bad teachers. The present ones, however, promise well".
"Leighton Buzzard. 11 June 1850, 6 February and 4 October 1851. Separate schoolrooms and a master and mistress. John Wickstead, Competency Section 3, salary £28 16s. Mary A. Wickstead, probation Section 2, salary £19 6s. The answers of both boys and girls were inferior to what they have been, and very middling. Reading of boys moderate, of girls very fair. Writing fair. Arithmetic of boys fair; of girls imperfect, notation bad. Spelling of slate exercises fair, but no composition".
"Leighton Buzzard, 6 May 1852. John Wickstead, Competency Section 3, salary £28 4s. Mary Wickstead, Probation Section 3, salary £16. School stationary. The certificate of the Schoolmistress was lowered on account of her incapacity to teach arithmetic properly. She is assisted by the schoolmaster".
"Leighton Buzzard, 15 February 1853. Staff - as in 1852. the children in both schools had made fair progress, considering the short time they had been under instruction. But the character of the instruction is stationary".
"Leighton Buzzard 12 May 1854. The school was much the same as usual, and fair enough considering its composition".
"Leighton Buzzard February and July 1855. A fair school, on the whole, but stationary. The girls are inferior to the boys, especially in arithmetic, but write better. The boys work in the garden. The girls receive the training usual in workhouse schools".
"Leighton Buzzard May 1857. 11 boys, 34 girls and infants. November 12 boys, 31 girls and infants. This school is a fair one when there are a sufficient number of permanent scholars, but it has been some time very fluctuating in its composition. The girls' school consists chiefly of infants. The boys work in the garden. the girls receive the training usual in workhouse schools".
Directories give schoolmasters as below:
Schoolmaster
- 1847: Thomas Culverhouse
- 1853: John and Mary Ann Wickstead
- 1854: Thomas Inns
- 1861: John Wickstead
- 1862-1864: Charles Elliott and Ann Elliott