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English school uniform: individual schools -- Westleigh School
Individual English Schools--- Westleigh School
Figure 1.--This cabinent card shows a class at the Westleigh School. We see the school name on the chalkboard the boy in the center is holding. The school is located in Bideford, Devon. Bideford is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon. The school is some kind of primary school. You can see it behinf the children. The children look to be about 10-12 years old. The boys wear suits. Some of the girls wear pinafores. One of the nost interesting aspects of this portrait is the hobnails that many of the boys have in their soles. A hobnail is a short nail with a thick head used to increase the durability of the sole. They are usually associated with boots, but were also used on the heavy high-top shoes children wore at the time. The term 'tackety boots' was also used, but more in Scotland than southern England. The purpose of course was to make the shoes last longer. Put your cursor on the images to see the hobnails in their soles.
This cabinent card shows a class at the Westleigh School. We see the school name on the chalkboard the boy in the center is holding. The school is located in Bideford, Devon. Bideford is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon. The school is some kind of primary school. You can see the building behind the children. The children look to be about 10-12 years old. The boys wear suits. Some of the girls wear pinafores, but not as many as we might have expected. One of the nost interesting aspects of this portrait is the hobnails that many of the boys have in their soles . A hobnail is a short nail with a thick head used to increase the durability of the sole. They are usually associated with boots, but were also used on the heavy high-top shoes children wore at the time. The term 'tackety boots' was also used, but more in Scotland than southern England. The purpose of course was to make the shoes last longer. The portrait does not look like the full school, but neither does it look like a single year form group. Perhaps the children were divided in a a younger and older group. The fact that boys and girls were grouped together suggests that it was a small school. The portrait is not dated, but we would guess was taken in the 1880s.
