Secondary Education
Before the middle of the 19th century the availability of secondary education was limited. Where opportunities existed they were most likely to be open to boys of the middle and upper classes of society.
Under the Act of 1764 that created the Harpur Trust, the Bedford grammar school (Bedford School) was joined by the Bedford Writing School (later known as the English School, the Commercial School and, from 1873, Bedford Modern School). This second school was designed to give boys an education suitable for entering into the professions. It should also be remembered that as well as the schools the Harpur Trust provided money for apprenticeships. Although the intention was that the charity should support the education of the poor, and the exact social standing of recipients should be further investigated, it is likely that those who attended the schools or received money towards their education were not of the labouring classes. The archives service holds records of the Harpur Trust and applications and registers for the various schools can be found under reference HT9. There are also a number of histories of the schools in the searchroom library. The Bedford Modern School collection (BMS) contains no records dating from before 1852.
In 1871 the Bedford Middle Class Public School was set up just outside the Borough boundary in Kempston, to provide a boarding education for non-Bedford boys not available at the Harpur Trust Schools. The School was later confusingly known as Elstow School. It closed in 1916. The records held by the archives service are reference X271.
In Dunstable the Ashton Grammar School owed its 18th century origin to William Chew, his sisters, (specifically Frances Ashton, who died in 1727) and co-heirs, (see X585). However, it was not until 1888 that a school was erected to educate up to 100 boys. The boys were the sons of professional men, tradesmen and others and their education was to be a moderate expense to their parents. The archives service holds various records relating to the school.
The 1880s also saw the first large scale secondary education provision for girls. 1882 saw the opening of Bedford High School, Bedford Girls’ Modern School (later Dame Alice Harpur, see reference DAH) and the Bedford Training College (aimed at teaching middle class girls to be kindergarten teachers, see reference BTC).
In addition to the schools named above Bedford in particular had a number of other fee paying secondary schools, which unfortunately have left few records.
The 1896 edition of ‘The Town of Bedford and Its Schools’ gave the cost was of a term at Bedford Grammar School or the Girls’ High School as between £3 or £4. It was £1.6s.8d to £3 a term at the Modern Schools. These amounts confined the education provided to the children of ‘retired Officers, widows of clergymen and professional men’ actually living in Bedford. The 1910 edition of ‘Bedford Town and Bedford Schools’ declared that ‘The influx of parents bringing their children to the famous Secondary Schools of the Harpur foundation, has directed and determined the development of the town, and the presence of a large, leisured class, with tastes and habits in common, has necessarily made its social life very different from that of the ordinary provincial town.’
Following the 1870 Education Act there was improved access to elementary education for those lower down the social scale with the setting up of the School Boards. In some areas the school boards formed schools of science or higher grade schools for the older pupils but there is little evidence of this in Bedfordshire before the 1890s, in 1890, for example, Waller Street school, Luton became a boys’ higher school. In Bedfordshire a number of elementary schools (Arlesey, Heath, Leighton Buzzard, Ravensden, Silsoe and Kempston Up End among others) ran evening schools. However, the night and Sunday schools designed to provide technical and continuing education were often short lived. In Luton the Chapel Street Continuation School lasted only from 1896-1900 and the Surrey Street Evening Continuation School ran for only two terms (1898/99).
One way for a bright child to obtain a good education and a better job than his or her parents was to become a pupil teacher. The British and Foreign School Society had started a number of teacher training institutions and after the British schools were taken over by the school boards in 1870 the society concentrated its efforts on teacher training. However, it was also common for each school to educate its own pupil teachers. The archives service holds a number of agreements with pupil teachers, details of examinations taken and successes among the records of individual elementary schools.
When it gradually came to be recognised that if Britain was to compete abroad some form of post elementary education was needed for working class children, there was some debate as to how this should be achieved – by increasing the higher grade elementary schools, for example, or building new schools – and who should control it. The narrowness of the curriculum in the higher grade schools and the restricted training enjoyed by teachers led to a demand for better secondary education, although others feared the cost and the swamping of traditional middle class preserves.
The 1902 Education Act, which placed the control of schools under Local Education Authorities, comprised of local politicians, administrators etc., led to new growth. It was at this time that the Luton Secondary School was founded (see class SGM31 for the Governor’s minute books). In many areas the provision of scholarships for bright children to existing secondary schools was preferred to the building of new schools. Secondary education for all came about with the 1944 Education Act. This led to the setting up of secondary grammar, secondary modern (and in some cases) of secondary technical schools providing an education for all children up to age 15. In her ‘A History of Bedfordshire’ Joyce Godber states that 69 new primary schools and 35 secondary schools were built between 1944 and 1969. These developments are described in much more detail by Gordon Vowles in his ‘A Century of Achievement - A History of Local Education Authorities in Bedfordshire 1903-2003’, Bedford, Bedfordshire County Council, 2003.
Much of the information about publicly provided secondary education needs to be sought in the Education Committee minutes of the appropriate County or Borough Council. Secondary schools were not required to keep logbooks and it may prove surprisingly difficult to find out details of curriculum or the day to day activities of a school. In many cases all the archives service holds are the Governors’ minutes, usually post 1955.
For some schools, particularly the Harpur Trust schools and other fee paying schools, the school or old boys/girls magazines are the most useful and easily accessible sources.
Little or no information exists regarding individual students or of their school career or qualifications. In the few cases where pupil information is held by the archives service, such as Dunstable Boys Grammar school (SDDunsG) or Luton Grammar School (SDLutonSFC1), access is restricted in line with current data protection legislation.
