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William E. Fergusson has provided us a very informative account of the Liverpool School Board Industrial Truant School of Hightown.
Edwardian England, like the present day, had a problem with children who played truant. It was a consequence of the 1870 Education Act. This legislation made attending elementary school compulsory. It was designed to supplement the educational provision of the voluntary school sector. This became known as filling the gaps. Schools were built in areas were there were large child populations but inadequate school provision.
Liverpool is one of the most important British port and industrial city. It is located along the Mersey River on the western coast of England. It thus faced both Ireland and America. It was the most important port for trade with America. It also had some of the worst slums in Britain. Interestingly it was out of this environment that the Beatles came.
Edwardian England, like the present day, had a problem with children who played truant. It was a consequence of the 1870 Education Act. This legislation made attending elementary school compulsory. It was designed to supplement the educational provision of the voluntary school sector. This became known as filling the gaps. Schools were built in areas were there were large child populations but inadequate school provision.
If there were districts in a town with inadequate schools for the child population then the local authority created a school board to provide elementary schooling. New board schools were built.
Unfortunately there were still many children who did not go to school. Sir John Gorst, Conservative Vice-President of the Education Council told parliament that �nearly three quarters of a million children whose names ought to be on the books of some elementary school �do not appear at all. He went on to say further that of those children registered at a school, �one-fifth is continually absent.�
The way the truant problem was dealt with was to create a truant a special truant school. These schools like regular board schools were controlled by local school boards. The legislation used to set them up was the 1866 Industrial Schools Act. These were not schools every town had. They were most common in large cities. They were few in number and by 1914 only twelve Truant Schools had been established.
The total number of children admitted into them from 1878 to 1907 was 44,315 scholars. The children were not placed in truant schools permanently, rather there were fixed term detentions. The first time a child was detained for being a truant the length of stay was 14 weeks and 3 days. A child stayed 16 weeks and 5 days if he was caught truanting again. To be re-admitted a second time a child stayed for 23 weeks and 6 days.
Hightown is a coastal village near Liverpool in Merseyside. It is one of the places were a Truant School was set up by the Liverpool School Board. It was called �The Liverpool Truant School, Hightown.� The boys were brought to the school at Hightown on the train. I should think that the boys would have found the return journey more pleasurable then the one they took coming to the school.
Not only did Liverpool�s children attend but also other districts in Lancashire sent children there. Blackburn, an industrial town some 30 miles away sent children to the school in 1880 at a cost of 82p per week. These children would also have reached the school by travelling on the train.
The school was divided into two sections for Protestant and Roman Catholic children. Located near Ireland, Liverpool attracted many Irish workers. (In the 19th century, Ireland was still part of Britain.) Most of the Irish were Catholics. Thus Liverpool had a substantial Catholic population. There was regular church attendance. The C of E boys walked 3 miles to Great Altcar Church. The R. C boys also walked the same distance to Little Crosby Church. They walked in silence and would be caned if they spoke along the way
Each section had the following staff: a superintendent, a matron, a caretaker, an industrial master, a cook and a laundress. The school was designed to care for 80 children.
It was a school for boys.
The superintendent could read all letters that the children sent or received. It was at his discretion whether the boys received them or they were posted to the boy�s parents. The boys were not allowed visits from their parents. Each child had its own bed.
The curriculum included reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, music and other subjects that would be suitable. There was also industrial training. These were practical tasks and included, sack making, net making, wood chopping, paper bag making, printing and match-box making.
The school was self supporting. Most of the vegetables were grown in the school grounds or on land near-by. The boys collected bread, meat and fish from the railway station. They had a special truck for this purpose. Joe Bulman, who wrote an account of his youthful experiences, says he gave the two truant school pupils a helping hand to push the truck when it got stuck in the sand. The truant school boys also collected drift wood from the beach. The wood was stored in sheds inside the school. It was chopped up and bundled ready for Firth�s farm to collect and take to other institutions in Liverpool.
The school had a rigorous discipline and its code was laid down in the school�s rule book. It was in two parts and administered by the staff. There also punishments which only the Superintendent was allowed to carry out.
This was for boys of 9 or over. The boys were separated from their peers. They were placed in an individual cell for a certain length of time. They did more industrial work in their own room. They were with other children at morning and evening prayers, during lessons and at meals.
This was for children under 9 years of age. This involved being treated as in an industrial school. They were allowed no more than 2 hours daily for recreation. They were also taken out occasionally for exercise beyond the school boundaries. There was a teacher in charge of them in this activity.
Stopping a child�s rewards and privileges.
Meals: Deprived of or reducing the portion of a meal. No boy could be denied meals in succession.
Corporal punishment: Boys who violated school rules were whipped with a cane. No more than 5 strokes for a boy under 9. No more than 9 strokes for a boy over 9.
Confinement: Confined to separate living quarters. No more than 24 hours for a boy aged from 9 to 12. Above 12 the confinement was to last no longer than 36 hours. Boys below 9 were not to be confined to their individual living quarters.
Boys aged 9 and above who escaped or attempted to escape were punished on recapture. They would be caned for doing this. They could only be caned 12 times. They then were placed in the disciplinary stage at the harsher re-admission level.
The School food was plain but considered then to be a wholesome diet. There were three meals a day. These were breakfast, dinner and supper. These are examples of the meals served. Monday�s breakfast was 1 pint of thick porridge, � pint of milk and 2oz of bread. Tuesday�s lunch was 4oz of haricot beans 2oz bacon, � lb of potato, 2oz bread. Wednesday�s supper was � pint of sweetened tea, 6 to 8 oz bread with dripping.
They wore a uniform of corduroy long trousers, jackets and waistcoats, with red socks and for footwear clogs reinforced with steel strips. Joe says that most of the boys would have been running bore foot around the streets of Liverpool. The boys found that wearing clogs was very uncomfortable and almost unbearable.
The school was feared by Edwardian children.
Joe Bulman was a child then and he lived in North Liverpool. Many years later he wrote a book about his life. In it was a description of his schooling. He never attended the Truant School but some of his contemporise did. They told stories of harsh discipline and Joe says that none of the boys he knew were ever re-admitted a second time. The first experience was enough to discourage playing truant. It was also a way for school teachers in ordinary schools to maintain discipline. They used the threat to send children there as a way to keep the class attentive to their lessons. Joe became quite familiar with the school because a relative went to live in the village and he went on visits to Hightown to stay with them. His recollections are about the years up to World War I. Joe says that the school was only for boys who played truant. They had not committed any other offence and were not criminal children. [Bulman] The superintendent of the Church of England section was Mr. John Kerr Leitch, and his wife Janet was the matron at the school.
They came down from Scotland, and raised their family (2 boys, 1 girl) at the truant school. John Leitch died in 1924. [Smith] His deputy, Mr. George was in charge of the Roman Catholic side. There were also two officials who task was to patrol Liverpool�s streets looking for Truants. The name given them by the boys was �catchers.� The boys were brought to the school by train. Joe mentions the one roomed dwellings the boys stayed in while being disciplined. He calls them cells. They totalled 20 and he says that they were often in use by the school to punish the boys. They measured 10 feet by 6 feet. There was a window just below the ceiling. The doors were 2�pitch pine. There was a circular spy hole and a flap cover which was lifted up from time to time to check that all was well with the inhabitant. Joe says the school�s most notorious period was when the school was under the jurisdiction of Liverpool School Board and the superintendents were Leach and George. [Bulman] A reader comments, "I have just been reading about Joe Bulman's account of the Truant School at Hightown, Liverpool and whilst interesting is only hearsay as Joe was not a pupil. It has to be remembered that the boys at the school were truants and had to be disciplined in order to stop them from truanting." [Smith]
After the educational changes brought about by the education act of 1910 the board school administration was disbanded and the local educational authority was born. This had a direct effect on the boys. Their discipline was less harsh and the isolation rooms were pulled down. The boy�s parents were allowed monthly visits.
When the First World War started the school closed down. The staff joined the army.
The school re-opened after the war. It functioned as a school until it was demolished in 1963.
A reader writes, "According to the 1901 Census, my great-uncle (Thomas Farrell), was a scholar at the above school. The family seems to have been split up when their parents died in 1891, in Wigan, Lancashire. My grandmother and the rest of the family remained in Wigan, but boarded with another Miners family.
I assume that, as the family originated in Ireland, he was Catholic and your site information says that Protestant and RC were kept separately at the school. Who would have the records of the school? I'd be very interested to view the records as I'm hoping that it will help me trace his life and any decendents. My Mother (now 85) thinks he went into the Army but doesn't remember ever meeting him." [McGrath] We are not sure where the school records are archived, but if we find out, we will post it here.
In reference to school records, I found the original book in Southport library. The School was administered by Liverpool Education . Good places to start are: Wigan Library local education department, Liverpool Education Department, Liverpool Museum, and Southport Library.
Bulman, Joe. My Hightown 1897-1969 . This is the personal reminiscences of Joe Bulman. This is a history publication available from Southport Library, Merseyside, United Kingdom. The book is Joe Bulman�s memories of Hightown on the Lancashire coast, between Liverpool and Southport. The memories are of a way of life long past. This 3rd revised edition has extra appendices on aspects of Hightown history, including the Truant School and the War Memorials. Illustrated with over 40 photos, maps and drawings. ISBN 1-874516-10-3; price �5.00 plus �1.50 p/p).
Lee-Hart, Andrew. "The Truant School", Appendix 7 of the Bulman book.
McGrath, Ann. eMail message, September 4, 2007.
Smith, Colette. eMail message, March 3, 2007. (JK Leitch's was Smith's great great granddaughter)
Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 Edition.
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