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Look back to the days when farm harvest came before school work
AS CHILDREN return to school next week after the summer holidays, new documents have revealed that truancy was rife 150 years ago as their Victorian forebears were too busy in the fields to show up.
The 19th century school rolls, which have gone on display at the Treasure House in Beverley, hark back to a time when children were not required to attend school by law.
The log book of Grimston Parochial School in Holderness from Monday, 26 September 1864 states: "To-day the school has been re-opened after the six weeks vacation – a very poor attendance." The following day it records: "The attendance as poor as yesterday."
On Friday, 30 September, the teacher closes the week's log with the words "A dull week is closed, with little prospect of a better next, for the scholars are mostly engaged in gleaning." The school's poor attendance was typical of many across the East Riding.
Sam Bartle, collections officer, said: "You have to remember that these schools were teaching children who lived in rural areas, and these children were needed to help on the farms during harvest time, or gleaning as the log puts it.
"These were very different times, and for farming people, the harvest took precedence over education."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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