Pupils Lives Teacher Resource Pack

Pupils’ Lives
A teachers’ pack from the British Schools Museum
Headmaster William John Fitch and his pupil teachers circa 1890.
1
Contents
Introductory notes ................................................................................................................................ 2
Hitchin in 1899 ...................................................................................................................................... 3
William Abbiss....................................................................................................................................... 4
James Charles Cook .............................................................................................................................. 5
Annie Maria Males/ Moles ................................................................................................................... 6
Augustus Males/ Miles ......................................................................................................................... 7
Louisa Pestell ........................................................................................................................................ 8
Sarah Jane Spicer .................................................................................................................................. 9
Laura Lucy Taylor ................................................................................................................................ 10
Isaac Williams ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Everyday Life in Hitchin ...................................................................................................................... 12
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ 14
Hitchin and the British Schools Museum ........................................................................................... 15
www.britishschoolsmuseum.org.uk
Introductory notes
This pack contains information, supporting images and maps relating to the lives of eight pupils that attended the
Hitchin British Schools in the 1880s.
This information can be used as you wish but is particularly suitable for:
preparing for a visit
as a basis for follow up activities after a visit
to support a local history study based on Hitchin
to inspire creative writing
as a starting point for further investigation and use of research skills
The information on individual pupils and their families was obtained from the schools’ admission registers, from
census data and from marriage and death records where they could be found.
Additional information about general living and working conditions and the social customs of the time has been used
to put the factual information obtained in context.
The photographs and images included are representative of the pupils and their lives but do not include photographs
of the pupils themselves.
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Hitchin British Schools from the corner of Queen Street and Bridge Street circa 1880
www.britishschoolsmuseum.org.uk
Hitchin in 1899
Approximate location of Periwinkle Lane
to Pirton
Ickleford Road
Union
Workhouse
Whinbush
Road
Workhous
Bedford
e Street
3
Grove Road
Dacre Road
Old Park
Road
Chapmans Yard
to Great
Wymondley
Bridge
Street
Lyles Row
Queen Street
Park Street
Piersons Yard
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British Schools Hitchin Folly
William Abbiss
Childhood
William was born in 1874 in Hitchin and lived on
Whinbush Lane. Whinbush Lane was about half a mile
away from the school and in a better part of town. The
houses were larger than those in the poorest yards and
there was lots of countryside around. However, it
might not have smelt very nice as there were a
gasworks and tannery nearby. William had a younger
brother and 2 younger sisters. He attended Hitchin
British Boys’ School between the ages of 7 and 11.
Before this he attended St Saviour Infant School.
Parents
William’s parents were called William and Fanny
Abbiss. His father was a butcher. As a tradesman
William’s father earned more money and was more
respected than labourers (e.g. those that worked on
farms or did manual jobs on the railway) but less so
than professionals such as teachers. While a wife and a
mother Fanny worked as a laundress. Women didn’t
usually work once they were married. However, Fanny
may have brought people’s laundry into her home to
supplement the income from their business.
4
Job & marriage
In 1891, when William was 17, he was living in
Tottenham, Middlesex, as a lodger with a florist called
Mr Bower. He worked as a florist’s assistant.
By 1901 William was back at home with his parents
working as a gymnastics teacher. In 1908 he married
Edith Pemberton who was born in Dublin, Ireland. It is
possible that William was living in London at this time
because they were married in All Souls Church,
Marylebone, London and many people travelled from
Ireland to London to find work.
Girls doing drill: a form of gymnastics taught in schools
Starting a new family
William and Edith settled down in Hitchin and lived
together at 36 Ickleford Road. In 1910, they had a son,
William Pemberton Abbiss. Edith died in 1916 when
her son was only 6. Mortality (death) rates were higher
than they are today and people died younger. Women
of this time were more likely to die in childbirth and it
is possible that this is what happened to Edith, we
don’t know. William re-married in 1920. He was 46 and
his wife Florence Course was 25. We don’t know if they
had any children. William died in 1959.
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James Charles Cook
Childhood
James Charles was born in 1874. He was the oldest
child and had 10 younger siblings; 7 brothers and 3
sisters. The family lived at Nine Springs, a rural area
near Hitchin. Houses in rural areas were often larger
than those in towns but would still have been cramped
for a family of 13. As an infant James went to school in
the nearby village of Great Wymondley. He attended
Hitchin British Boys’ School from the age of 9 and left
when he was 12.
Parents
James Charles was named after his father James, who
married his mother Jane in May 1874. James began his
working life as a labourer but moved to working on the
railways in the 1870s. He started as a railway fireman
but had become an engine driver by the end of his
career. Jane worked as a straw plaiter and then a
general domestic servant. There is no record of her
working once she is married but with so many children
to feed she may have plaited straw to supplement the
family income.
5
Job & marriage
We don’t know anything about James Charles between
1886 when he left school and 1897 when he married
Alice Louisa in St Mary’s Church, Hitchin, because he
cannot be found on the 1891 census. By 1901 they lived
at 19 Radcliffe Road and James Charles was working as
an engine stoker (someone whose job was to keep the
train’s coal furnace at the right temperature). Alice had
worked as a servant before marrying James but there is
no record of her being in employment once she was
married.
Starting a new family
James Charles and Alice had a small family by Victorian
standards. Their first child, Winifred May, was born in
1898 but died the same year. They went on to have 2
more children, a son and a daughter, who both lived
into their 80s. Just like his father, James Charles
worked his way up to being an engine driver by the end
of his career. By 1911 James, Alice and their 2 children
had moved to 25 Periwinkle Lane. James Charles died
in 1957, 18 years after Alice.
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Annie Maria Males/ Moles
Childhood
Annie was born in 1871 and grew up just outside
Hitchin Folly, a hamlet (very small village) on the
outskirts of Hitchin. In some records her surname is
Males, in others it is Moles. Annie had a big family: 3
older brothers, and an older sister plus 2 younger
brothers and 5 younger sisters. Two of her older
brothers died when they were very young. She
attended Hitchin British Girls’ School from the age of 8.
Previously, she attended Sunnyside Infants’ School
which was closer to where she lived.
Parents
Straw
plaiters
6
Annie’s parents were called Thomas and Fanny.
Thomas worked as an agricultural labourer (on a farm)
and a mole and rat catcher. Since they lived in a rural
area it is likely most people around them worked in
agriculture. None of these jobs would have paid very
well so Annie’s mother became a straw plaiter. This
was a popular job for women in Hitchin who needed to
support their families. There was a thriving hat
industry in nearby Luton and plaiting could be fitted in
around the work needed to run a house and look after
a family.
Job & marriage
In 1891, when Annie was 20, she was working as a
servant for a family in St Ippolyts (spelled Ippollitts
then). Life for servants was very hard and they were
poor. Annie was not a servant with a specific job, she
was a ‘general servant’ or ‘maid of all work’. This
meant she would have been the least important
servant in the household, doing the worst jobs. She
would have worked long hours and earned very little.
Annie married George Nicholls from Harpenden in
1899.
Maid of
all work
(general
servant),
W.H.
Pyne
Starting a new family
George Nicholls worked as a general labourer straw hat
machinist. This would not have been a well-paid job,
and it is likely they would have been quite poor. They
lived in Harpenden together and Annie stopped
working. Their first child died when he was 5 years old
but they went on to have 6 more children with another
daughter dying when she was a baby. Their youngest
son died in 1942, at 31 years old. He was of
conscription age (he had to be in the military or do war
work) so was probably killed fighting, training or as a
result of other enemy action. Annie died in 1944.
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Augustus Males/ Miles
Childhood
Augustus was born in 1872 in Pirton, a village northwest of Hitchin. He lived at Wet Lane. Augustus had
one older brother, William, a younger brother, Charles
and a younger sister, Kezia. Augustus’ father died in
1878 and by 1879, when Augustus started at Hitchin
British Boys School, the family were living in the Union
Workhouse in Hitchin. We don’t know when they
moved there or whether it was before or after his
father died but Augustus attended the workhouse
school as an infant.
Parents
Augustus’s father Underwood worked as a servant and
then as an agricultural labourer in Pirton. This would
have been a difficult and poorly paid job and for the
last few years of his life he was unemployed. While
Underwood was unemployed Augustus’ mother
Elizabeth worked as a straw plaiter to support the
family, we don’t know what she did before she married
Underwood. Inside the workhouse she worked as a
charwoman (cleaner). Workhouses were places where
poor people who had no job or home lived. They
earned their keep by doing jobs in or for the
workhouse. Conditions were often very difficult and
unpleasant.
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Job & marriage
Augustus joined the army in 1888 and was a member
of the Bedfordshire Regiment, formerly the 16th
Regiment of Foot, based on Kempston Road near
Bedford. We don’t know how long he spent in the army
or what he did but by 1891, at the age of 19, he was a
private in the Royal Marines and was a patient at the
Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham. Ten years later he
had returned to Hitchin and is described as naval
pensioner. It would seem that his injury or illness
meant that he was unable to return to the navy.
Starting a new family
Augustus never married. When he returned to Hitchin
he lived with his uncle, a sewage farm labourer, and his
family at 2 Bedford Street. His mother still lived in
Hitchin but was boarding (renting a room in someone
else’s house) at a house in Old Park Road so he would
not have been able to live with her. None of his siblings
lived in Hitchin anymore. Augustus died in Hitchin in
1951 at the age of 79.
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Louisa Pestell
Childhood
Louisa Pestell was born in 1871 in Hitchin. Her parents
were Arthur and Ellen. They lived at Lyles Row. Lyles
Row was off Queen Street and was one of the poorest
areas of Hitchin in which people lived in dirty, diseaseridden conditions. Large families, like Louisa’s, lived
crammed into tiny houses. Louisa had 12 siblings, 3
were older, and 9 were younger. However, one of her
brothers died when he was only 7. Louisa attended the
Hitchin British Girls’ School from 1877, when she was 6.
Lyles Row
Parents
Typical
yard,
similar to
the one in
which
Louisa and
her family
would
have
lived.
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Louisa’s father Arthur worked on the railways. The
railways were very important in Hitchin and provided
work for a large proportion of the population. Louisa’s
father started as a Railway Carriage Engineer but by
1891 he was a Carriage Examiner General and the
family had moved from Lyles Row to Grove Road in a
better part of the town. In 1901 he was a Railwayman
Wheel Tapper (wheel safety inspector), advancing to a
Train Examiner General by 1911. There is no record of
Louisa’s mother Ellen working outside the home.
Job & marriage
When Louisa was 20, in 1891, she worked as a kitchen
maid for a wealthy family who had 9 other servants.
Louisa lived with them in Windsor. In 1901, when she
was 30, she was working as a servant and cook for a
family in Hampstead. In 1903, when she was 32, Louisa
married Arthur Chamberlain. He also worked on the
railways but in London. He was born in Potton,
Bedfordshire so it is likely that he moved to London to
work on the railway.
Servants
of a
wealthy
family
Starting a new family
In 1901 Arthur was a Railway Engine Fireman, living
with his sister at St Pancras. When he married Louisa,
the two of them lived together at 11 Gillie Street,
Kentish Town, London and Louisa stopped work to look
after the house and family. Louisa and Arthur had 3
children, however one of them died in infancy. Arthur
did well at work and became an Engine Driver. Louisa
died in 1953, at 82 years old but we don’t know
anything about her or Arthur after the 1911 census.
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Sarah Jane Spicer
Childhood
Sarah was born in 1871 in Hitchin. She lived on Bridge
Street (right) with her parents, 3 younger brothers and
5 younger sisters. She had a 9th brother or sister but he
or she died when they were they were young. This was
not unusual in Victorian times, particularly in poor
families. In a poor area like Bridge Street large families
like Sarah’s were crammed into tiny houses. 4 or 5
children per bed was not unheard of. She attended
Hitchin British Infants’ School and then the Girls’
School from 1877 (the age of 6).
Parents
Sarah’s parents were John and Emma Spicer. John was
a maltser (a brewer who sold malts). There were lots of
pubs in Hitchin he could have supplied and there were
malthouses on Bridge Street where they lived. After
being a maltser John worked as a labourer before
finding work on the railways as a plate layer (looking
after the train tracks). Emma began straw plaiting to
help support the family after John lost his job.
However, once he found a job on the railways Emma
stopped working again.
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Job & marriage
Sarah married railway worker Frederick Day in 1890 at
the age of 19. The railway was extremely important
and employed many men in Hitchin. Frederick was an
engine cleaner but became an Engine Fireman soon
after they were married. Eventually he became a
Railway Engine Driver. Sarah never had a job but would
have had to work hard to look after her house and
family.
Auto-train to Bedford, Ben Brooksbank
Starting a new family
When Sarah and Frederick first married they lived at 24
Dacre Road. This was a part of Hitchin near the railway
where many railway workers lived. They had 4
children, 1 boy and 3 girls. When Frederick became an
Engine Driver the family moved to Whinbush Road.
This was a more pleasant part of Hitchin. However,
Frederick died in 1905 and Sarah moved back to Queen
Street (left), the poorest area of Hitchin. She lived with
her son Henry who worked as a printer.
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Laura Lucy Taylor
Childhood
Laura was born in 1870 in Hitchin. By the time she was
11 she and her family lived at Hitchin Hill. Hitchin Hill
was at the very edge of Hitchin and would have been
surrounded by fields.
Laura had one older sister and 2 younger half-brothers
and 2 younger half-sisters. She would have had 2 older
sisters, but one died as a baby. She attended Hitchin
British Girls’ School from 1877 in a class like this one.
Previously, she attended Sunnyside Infants’ School.
Parents
Laura’s parents were called William and Sarah Ann.
Sarah Ann died when Laura was 1, so she grew up with
her stepmother Hannah. William worked as a cattle
dealer. Hannah was a laundress and then became a
straw plaiter. This provided extra income to support
the family. By the time Laura was 11 William had
become a slaughterer/ knackerer, an unpleasant and
smelly job. Hannah died in 1882. In 1887 William
married Theresa and the family moved to Chapman’s
Yard. Life was difficult for this family but this was not
unusual for the time.
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Old Cattle Market, Bancroft, Hitchin
Job & marriage
Laura was 17 when her father married Theresa. Laura
would still have lived at home with them, as women
often did until they were married. In 1890, when Laura
was 20, she married George Haggar. He was a plasterer
and they lived at 100 Queen Street, in the poorest
district of Hitchin. It is recorded that 90 people shared
just 2 outside toilets and the sewage went into the
river, which was also drinking water. Laura is not
recorded as having a job but it is likely that she would
have earned money straw plaiting.
Starting a new family
By 1901 Laura and George lived at Chapman’s Yard
(left) where Laura’s father and stepmother lived. Other
siblings of Laura’s also lived there. Laura and George
had 10 children. 4 died before they became adults. This
was not unusual and would have been even more
common in the yards, which were dirty, cramped, and
disease-ridden. Two of their sons later died during
WWI. Harry was killed in action at Beaurain in 1918 at
the age of 21. George died in 1816, also aged 21, and is
likely to have been killed in action. Laura died in 1938.
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Isaac Williams
Childhood
Isaac was born in 1874 in Hitchin. He lived in Piersons
Yard at the end of Park Street. Piersons Yard would
have been a difficult place to live. The ‘yards’ were
poor areas of Hitchin where people lived in cramped
and dirty conditions. Families with 8 members, like
Isaac’s, would have shared 2 rooms. Isaac had 3 older
sisters, 1 older brother and a younger sister. He
attended Hitchin British Infants’ School and then the
Boys’ School between 1880-1885 (the ages of 6-11).
Piersons Yard
Parents
Isaac’s parents were called Thomas and Emma
Williams. The family business was fruit and fish selling.
Unusually, Emma worked full time in this business with
her husband. Married women tended not to work
outside the home: the fact that she worked as a fish
and fruit hawker (seller) suggests that the family were
struggling to make enough money. When Isaac was 17,
the business had expanded to metal dealing too, and
they now lived in a yard off Bridge Street.
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Job & marriage
After leaving school, Isaac worked as a marine store
dealer. This was a shop which sold equipment to
mariners, however in reality many were simply junk
dealers as the sketch drawn at the time shows. Isaac’s
father, Thomas, died when Isaac was 25. Isaac lived
with his mother, and both continued the family
business of metal dealing. Men often lived at home
until they were married. Isaac and his mother and
younger brother moved back to Piersons Yard after
Thomas died.
Illustration
of a marine
store
dealer’s
shop.
Starting a new family
By 1911, Isaac was still working as a metal dealer. He
had moved out of his mother’s house and became a
boarder at Bridge Street (left) in the house of Herbert
Frost, a furniture dealer. Isaac never married and had
no children. He died in 1918, when he was 44. Since
metal dealing had become the family business, it is
possible that his younger brother Henry went on to
found H. Williams and Sons, a scrap metal dealership in
Hitchin but it could also be a completely different
family’s business.
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Everyday Life in Hitchin
Gas
Before 1834 there were practically no street lights in Hitchin, and apart from the houses of the more well-to-do, few
oil lamps.
Hitchin Gas Company built works at Benge Mead near Starlings Bridge in 1834 to provide the town with street
lighting. By 1866 the amount of gas produced per day had increased and the cost of production had also dropped.
Gas lighting was now within economic reach of most households in the town.
The penny-in-the-slot gas meter was invented in 1888 and gas sales increased rapidly. To meet this new demand a
new site was developed near the railway bridge in Cambridge Road in 1896.
In Jill Grey’s notes there is a reference in 1841 to ‘Gas Bill paid’ (Boys’ School) - this is the first reference to gas
installation at the British Schools.
Electricity
The Electrical Supply Company was established in 1906 in Whinbush Road. By 1918 there were only 6 electric street
lamps and it made slow progress before being bought by the Urban District Council in 1931. Gas lighting in the main
streets continued until the winter of 1937/8 but was then gradually replaced by electricity.
Public Health Act
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Hitchin was among the first towns in the country to adopt The Public Health Act of 1848. An inspection of the town
revealed that the occupiers of over half the houses in the town had to fetch water from various distances; 92 houses
obtained water from wells, some of which were polluted. The number of privies was totally insufficient for the
number of people using them, and their condition was unspeakable. The town lacked proper street cleaning,
drainage, water supply and lighting. A local Board of Health was appointed and things gradually began to improve.
By 1854 the town had a new water supply and sewerage system, which led to improved and cleaner housing and a
fall in the death rate and amount of sickness. In honour of the reigning monarch, Dead Street’s pessimistic name
was changed to Queen Street.
Waterworks, Queen Street
The town’s first sewage system was built and opened in 1853, draining into the river near Grove Mill. The
demolition of Port Mill was part of this scheme. Water was taken from a spring in Priory Park and pumped up to a
reservoir and engine-house at the top of Windmill hill, relying on gravity for dispersion into the town. Constant
problems were only resolved when the sewage works were built at Bury Mead in 1877. The town waterworks are
shown on the 1898 OS map to the west of Queen Street on the River Hiz (now redeveloped).
Swimming Pool, Queen Street
Hitchin was one of the first towns in the country to have a public swimming pool. It was an open air pool refilled
from the river once a week. It was built by public subscription and opened in 1860 south of the Queen Street
waterworks. It was much used until the larger new pool opened in 1938 in Fishponds Road. The old pool was
converted in 1941 into a reservoir.
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Hermitage Road
In 1874 Frederic Seebohm made a free gift of
land from his Hermitage estate to the Local
Board, to improve access to the railway station
from Bancroft. The road officially opened in
July 1875.
Site of Hermitage Road
The Railway
On the 10th August 1850 the first train steamed
into Hitchin. The cost of a single first class single
ticket to London was 5s 9d. The station was
rebuilt in 1910.
Population Totals
At the beginning of the 19th century Hitchin was larger than many other towns in Hertfordshire. In 1801 Hitchin
parish had 3161 inhabitants living in 674 houses and this population doubled over the next 40 years to 6125 in 1841.
Private ownership of land around the town made expansion difficult and led to overcrowding. In the second half of
the century moves were made to improve living conditions in the town.
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1801
1821
1841
3161
4486
6125
1851
1861
1871
7077
7677
8159
1881
1891
1901
8434
8860
10,447
1921
1931
1951
13,528
14,374
19,959
Straw Plait
Plaiting was generally done at home by women and children and was an important source of income. The lengths of
plait were taken to market and sold on by dealers to the hat makers.
In Hitchin plait was sold in the Market Place and the Corn Exchange until 1874 when a Plait Hall was built in Hollow
Lane by C A Bartlett. By the end of the 19th century local production was failing to compete with cheaper foreign
imports and the Hall was sold in 1898.
These notes were compiled by Fiona Dodwell from various books about Hitchin, Jill Grey’s notes and Extensive Urban
Surveys, Hitchin, published by Hertfordshire County Council.
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Acknowledgements
All maps and the following images have been provided courtesy of North Hertfordshire Museum:
Louisa Pestell – Parents
Sarah Jane Spicer – Childhood
Laura Lucy Taylor – Parents
Isaac Williams – Parents and Starting a New family
All other photographs are from the British Schools Museum’s photograph collection or as cited.
14
Mr Fitch Headmaster of the Boys’
School 1854 - 1899
Miss Wilkins (seated) Headmistress of the Infants’
School 1867 – 1873 with her assistant Miss Cook 1867
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Hitchin and the British Schools Museum
Hitchin holds a unique place in the history of education
as it boasts the world’s last remaining purpose-built
Monitorial schoolroom. The grade II* listed building
opened in 1837, but the school was founded in 1810, a
full 80 years before the government finally provided
free elementary education for all.
Educational pioneer Joseph Lancaster visited Hitchin in
1808 and inspired William Wilshere and a group of
like-minded philanthropists to set up a school where
children of the working poor could be taught cheaply
and effectively through Lancaster’s ‘Monitorial
method’, which involved one master teaching as many
as 300 children in one large schoolroom.
At a time when Britain was still at war with revolutionary France, the idea of educating the ‘lower orders’ was highly
controversial. Even more so was the fact that girls were taught also! Nevertheless, the school thrived as even the
poorest families were willing to pay the ‘school pence’ to help their children to gain an education and escape the
desperate poverty in which they lived.
The site developed and further classrooms were built in 1853, 1857 and 1905. Amazingly, the school stayed open
until 1969 and then became an annex of Hitchin College. However, by the late 1980s the College no longer needed
the site and it fell into disrepair. When all seemed lost, a charitable Trust was set up, the buildings were saved and a
museum created.
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Public opening: The Museum is open to the public on Tuesdays, Saturday
mornings and Sunday afternoons from February half term until the end of
November.
Activities and events: We have a busy schedule of events and activities for
all ages. Visit our website at www.britishschoolsmusuem.org.uk to find out
what’s on.
School visits: The British Schools Museum offers a variety of hands-on educational sessions to support and extend
knowledge, skills and key aims of the curriculum for children and students of all ages from year 1 up to university
students. Through role-play, object handling and demonstration lessons children and students are given the
opportunity to explore and discover what life and education would have been like at different times in the past.
Investigation using historic objects, photographs, documents and environments provides a tangible link to our past,
offers excitement and stimulates curiosity and discussion.
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16
External view of the historic classrooms at the British Schools Museum
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