It was a pleasure
to see nearly 40 people come to the village hall on Friday last to hear the
talk on ‘Education in Allensmore from 1824-1957’. As with the informal get
together in July, we were particularly delighted to welcome past pupils,
including a couple who were not there at the summer session. We heard about the
evidence for early charity schools in Allensmore and the transition from
voluntary education to a national system after the 1870 Education Act, which
led to the building of a school in Allensmore (now used as the village hall).
However, this transition did not go smoothly due to the terms and conditions
laid down by Evan Pateshall, who gave the land for the school in 1871. We read
the heated exchanges that took place over who would have control of the new
‘Board’ school ….. and thought that our modern politicians do not have a
monopoly on inflammatory language! The evidence from the National Archives at
Kew had also revealed lots of interesting correspondence at the Board of
Education about what to do when the school was failing its inspections between
1910-20; some of the internal memos would not have been out of place in the old
television programme ‘Yes Minister’! We heard about the recollections of pupils
at the school in the 1940’s and 50’s and then found out what happened between
1957-60 before the school was officially handed over to the community for use
as the Pateshall village hall.
The services of
Pam, Brigitte and Dorothy in serving refreshments was much appreciated, as was
all the help from those who put the furniture away at the end of the evening.
Yvonne Chapman, the speaker for this event, would also like to thank everyone
for the lovely flowers – they have pride of place in her lounge.
The next
‘Allensmore History Matters’ event will be after Christmas; this will probably
be another informal get-together over a ‘cuppa’, when different people can chat
about by-gone days. If you have any topics that you are particularly interested
in, do let Yvonne know [01432 806 414].
