Education1. Pre-1870 Education Act Before the 1870 Education Act voluntary schools made some provision for the education of girls. For example in 1781 a Free School for Girls was opened in Batley. The subscription list, started four years earlier, financed the teacher's salary and the education of fifteen girls in reading, knitting and sewing. Pupils were also admitted on a fee-paying basis. Although educated together as infants, boys and girls were separated from the age of seven, when girls received practical instruction in needlework, cookery and laundry. The York Mission School established sewing classes for girls, while those in workhouses were encouraged to practise domestic tasks including knitting, sewing and household work. In the 1851 Census two women are recorded as working in Ossett schools - Ruth Nettleton as a pupil teacher and Sarah Webster as a school assistant. The wife of the headmaster at the free school, Marianne Cullingworth, was also described as a schoolmistress.
Copyright 2004, John Hargreaves |
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