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Agricultural Scholarships for Rural Youth in England and Wales, 1922–58

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Daniel A. Pigott
Daniel A. Pigott*
Affiliation:
Madeley College of Education, Staffordshire, and a Methodist minister
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Extract

One of the best-known comments on English rural education appears in James Fraser's evidence to the Newcastle Commission (1858$n61), in the course of which he states: “Even if it were possible, I doubt whether it would be desirable, with a view to the real interests of the peasant boy, to keep him at school till he was 14 or 15 years of age. But it is not possible. We must make up our minds to see the last of him, as far as the day school is concerned, at 10 or 11.”

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , Spring 1990 , pp. 17 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 by the History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1 Royal Commission on Popular Education in England (Newcastle Report), in Parliamentary Papers (hereafter PP), 1861, vol. 21, pt. 1, p. 243.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., 57.Google Scholar

3 Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons, and Women in Agriculture, 2d report, in PP, vol. 13, Appendix, pt. 2, Evidence, 14.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., 1st report, in PP, 1867–68, vol. 17, Appendix, pt. 2, Evidence, 12.Google Scholar

5 Full title: “An Act to regulate the Employment of Children in Agriculture” (36 and 37 Vict., ch. 67). For a detailed study of this act and an appreciation of its importance for the development of education in rural districts, see Horn, P. L. R. “The Agricultural Children Act of 1873,“ History of Education 3 (Summer 1974): 36–49.Google Scholar

6 The term Ministry of Agriculture is used consistently throughout the text, but both MAF and MAFF appear in the footnotes. Between 1919, when the Ministry (formerly Board) of Agriculture and Fisheries was created, and 1955, there was a separate Ministry of Food. By the Transfer of Functions (Ministry of Food) Order, 1955, the two ministries were merged to become the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food.Google Scholar

7 Middleton, Sir Thomas Food Production in War (Oxford, 1923), 203; Ernie, Lord (Prothero, R. E.), English Farming, Past and Present, ed. Hall, Sir Daniel (Chicago, 1961), 415–17; Bills, Public, 1921, 1, 206; Hansard, Commons, 5th ser., 145: 122. For a valuable study of these events, see Whetham, Edith H. “The Agriculture Act, 1920, and Its Repeal: The ‘Great Betrayal',” Agricultural History Review 22 (pt. 1, 1974): 36–49.Google Scholar

8 The word “solatium” is Hall's, Sir Daniel Ernie, Lord English Farming, 417.Google Scholar

9 MAF Scheme for Establishing Scholarships and Maintenance Grants for the Sons and Daughters of Agricultural Workmen and Others. Report of the Central Committee (London, 1927), 5.Google Scholar

10 Pelham, E. H. to a Chambers, Mr. 25 Oct. 1921, Public Record Office (hereafter PRO) Ed. 54/29.Google Scholar

11 MAF Scheme for Establishing Scholarships, 52.Google Scholar

12 Hall, Sir Daniel reporting on his discussions with the laborers’ leaders, 12 Oct. 1921, PRO Ed. 54/29; MAF, Scheme for Establishing Scholarships, 7.Google Scholar

13 Interview memorandum, 12 Oct. 1921, PRO Ed. 54/29.Google Scholar

14 Thomas, Wynn Ministry of Agriculture, to Pelham, Board of Education, 13 Jan. 1922, ibid. On Sir Auckland Geddes's committee, Taylor, Alan writes: “Geddes, himself embittered, swung his axe indiscriminately…. The Geddes axe was most devastating in education.” Taylor, A. J. P. English History, 1914–1945 (Oxford, 1970), 240, 241.Google Scholar

15 MAF Scheme for Establishing Scholarships, 9 10.Google Scholar

16 Agricultural Education Sub-Committee Minutes, 10 Oct. 1923, Shropshire County Record Office, Shrewsbury.Google Scholar

17 MAF Scheme for Establishing Scholarships, 54.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., 7.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., 8.Google Scholar

20 This would be in keeping with current thought on sex roles and job prospects for girls. The original committee appears to have had doubts about the wisdom of offering Class 1 scholarships to girls, who, they thought, would need to possess “capital” to establish themselves in a career of the type that these scholarships would open up for boys. In this matter it is obvious that second thoughts prevailed. PRO Ed. 54/29 (Ref. 5874/21), stamped 18. Ap. 22, para. 9.Google Scholar

21 This is the unique and most remarkable feature of the whole scheme which was, stated one Board of Education document, “the only instance in the field of education of a statutory preference being given to a certain section of the community.” Balfour, Sir Graham director of education for Staffordshire, had grave reservations about the wisdom of this kind of positive discrimination and feared that persons employed in other industries would claim “similar preferential treatment.” Appendix A to the First Report of the Departmental Committee, 21 Mar. 1922, quoted in an interview memorandum, 24 Mar. 1922, PRO MAF 33/73/TE428.Google Scholar

22 MAFF Final Report on the Scheme (London, 1959), 9.Google Scholar

23 MAF Scheme for Establishing Scholarships, 19 20.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., 5.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., 41, 52, 53.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., 15–18. In the typescript the last example was marked “not for publication.” PRO Ed. 54/29.Google Scholar

27 County of Lincoln, Parts of Holland, Education Committee Minutes, 28 July 1919, 20 Apr. 1921, 4 Mar. 1924, 29 Sep. 1925, 14 July and 12 Oct. 1926, Lincolnshire Archives Office (LAO), Lincoln. Letter from the Ministry of Agriculture to this authority reproduced in the minutes for 14 July 1926; Kirton Agricultural Institute Sub-Committee Minutes, 7 May 1924.Google Scholar

28 County of Lincoln, Parts of Kesteven, Agricultural Education Sub-Committee Minutes, 19 May 1920, 3 Mar., 16 May, and 4 Aug. 1922, 9 Jan., 24 Oct., and 12 Dec. 1925, 26 and 27 Nov. 1926, and passim, LAO. 1977 Questionnaire (Qu. 77); letters from the headmaster of Carre's Grammar School, Sleaford, and from one of the Class 1 scholars; Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture, pass lists.Google Scholar

29 County of Lincoln, Parts of Lindsey, Agricultural Education Sub-Committee Minutes, 4 Aug. 1922, 12 Sep. 1924, 6 Feb. 1925, 30 Apr. 1926, and passim, LAO and County Offices, Lincoln.Google Scholar

30 PRO MAF 33/24/TE 479/20, /TE 126, and /TE 93/21.Google Scholar

31 Norfolk County Council Agricultural Committee Minutes, 10 Sep. 1921 to 30 Apr. 1926, A Minutes, 24 July 1920, B Minutes, 3 May 1924 to 2 May 1925, Form A.E. 2/3, Advisory Sub-Committee's Draft Scheme, paras. 4 and 5, 3 May 1924—Pass details 1924 to 1926, Norfolk County Record Office and the Norfolk Education Committee Offices, Norwich; Hansard, Commons, 5th ser., 142: 54.Google Scholar

32 MAF Scheme for Establishing Scholarships, 21–31.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 47.Google Scholar

34 Professor Sir Frank Engledow's evidence (FE).Google Scholar

35 FE; Qu. 77; letter from the headmaster of Desborough School, Maidenhead, quoting from a letter from a school contemporary of the scholar.Google Scholar

36 FE; Qu. 77.Google Scholar

37 Qu. 77.Google Scholar

38 FE; Qu. 77; letter from the deputy headmaster of Carre's Grammar School, Sleaford, Lincolnshire.Google Scholar

39 Qu. 77; letter from the headmaster of Rendcomb College, near Cirencester, where this scholar had been a pupil. His name appears at the head of the list of “Academic Honours” in Osborne, C. H. C. James, J. C. and James, K. L. A History of Rendcomb College (Cirencester, 1976) Appendix 3. The attendance of this scholar at Rencomb is noted in the Third Report of the Central Committee, 1924, Appendix 1. (Rendcomb College was founded in 1920 by Noel Wills, a member of the Wills tobacco family. It provided a public school type of education for boys from primary schools in Gloucestershire.)Google Scholar

40 Qu. 77; details from the headmaster of Spalding Grammar School and the librarian of St. John's College, Cambridge; obituary in the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 28 Mar. 1966.Google Scholar

41 Qu. 77; details from the headmaster of Dauntsey's School, West Lavington. On Mr. Balchin, the committee commented in 1930 that “his natural bent seemed to be towards literary work.” Annual Report of the Central Committee, 1930, 23.Google Scholar

42 FE; Qu. 77; letter from the headmaster of Bedford Modern School.Google Scholar

43 MAF Scheme for Establishing Scholarships, 20; letter from the headmaster of County School, Tregaron, Cardiganshire; telephone conversation with a member of Mr. Edwards's family.Google Scholar

44 Report of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, 1971 (Harpenden, Hertfordshire, 1972) includes three tributes to Sir Frederick Bawden, written by Cooke, George W. Watson, Donald J. and Pirie, Norman W. Also included is a longer essay by Pirie, Norman W. entitled “Frederick Charles Bawden, 1908–1972, Elected F.R.S. 1949.” Address by Hodgkin, Sir Alan K.B.E., PR. S., Memorial Service for Sir Frederick Bawden, Thurs. 16, Mar. 1972, in the author's possession.Google Scholar

45 MAF Scheme for Establishing Scholarships, 40 41.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., 42–43.Google Scholar

47 MAFF Final Report on the Scheme, 9.Google Scholar

48 Ibid., 11. Migratory workers were in many cases those who moved from farm to farm every year, or even twice a year. One traditional date for such migrations was Michaelmas (29 September). For the duration of his agreement with the farmer, the laborer and his family lived in a “tied cottage.” In Norfolk and some other counties this frequent change of home was known as “flitting.” References in school logbooks to the damage done to the children's education as a result of it are often caustic.Google Scholar

49 Ibid., 12.Google Scholar

50 Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture 37 (Apr. 1930): 9.Google Scholar

51 MAFF Final Report on the Scheme, 12.Google Scholar

52 The motto of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, quoting from Virgil's Georgics—that poet's “great Latin textbook of husbandry in which he sings of the tillage of the fields and the tending of the herds and trees.” (College Prospectus).Google Scholar

53 Jefferies, Richard Hodge and His Masters (London, 1880), a classic in the literature of rural England in which the author paints graphic pictures of the various social classes within the Victorian farming community. Hodge, apparently a corruption of the French name Roger, has long been a familiar, even an affectionate, nickname for the English rural laborer.Google Scholar

54 MAFF Final Report on the Scheme, 3.Google Scholar