School Log Transcriptions

The Bishop Burton school log provides fascinating insights into village life, the education of our children, and the impact of external events on the village. It’s also a valuable source for family history. However, in its present form the log is not easy to use. I have photographed each page of the log and I am looking for help in transcribing it, with a view also to annotating the entries. If you would like to help in this project please contact Bryn Jones on 01964 550255 or bryn99jones@gmail.com. All you need is the ability to decipher handwriting, and a computer to view the original and store your transcription of the pages allocated to you.

The school log contains names of pupils, staff and visitors of the school. This document contains information about some of them.

School Log – Who Was Who

Bishop Burton School Log – Terms

This document explains some of the unfamiliar terms and archaic practices that are contained in the school log. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Diptheria Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity. It has now largely been eradicated through vaccination. In the USA in the 1920’s some 100,000 – 200,000 cases were estimated and led to over 13,000 deaths.

Hirings The Hiring Fairs of Martinmas, held in November, were the annual opportunity for farm and domestic workers to have a new job or recontract for their existing one.
Farmhands had a fortnight free at the end of their working year, and flush with a year’s pay – less any deductions – they would troop into town to spend their wages. When all that merriment was done with, the will¬ing, and not so will¬ing, workers lined themselves up for the highest bidder. The deal, when struck with a prospective em¬ployer, was sealed by a handshake and the exchange of I/-, known as a Feste. The worker’s clothes, often housed in a tin trunk, were then taken to the new place of employment, ready for the start of the working year. A year that was to be faced without wages until the next hiring fair – unless of course the employer would agree to a ‘sub’ in advance.
inst the current month, short for instant

Martinmas Martinmas was one of the quarter days which were used to divide the year. It originates in a Christian feast observed in commemoration of the death and burial of Saint Martin of Tours. Martinmas was usually observed on November 11. This day was important in the agricultural calendar as it was the day from which agricultural and other workers were hired for 12 months at a time and also the date on which rents and other payments fell due.

Object lesson Although many of the lessons followed the same pattern of rote learning and repetition, children were given the chance to experience and learn by using their personal observations and their senses through an object lesson on ‘Common Things’ and ‘Elements of Science’.

Teachers were encouraged to keep three points in view when preparing these lessons:

1. The production of full and accurate information,
2. The arrangement of the matter in its teaching order,
3. The indication of the method by which the ideas are to be worked out.

In the selection of objects to be used, preferences were to be given to items that were likely to come to the children’s notice in their daily life stating that, ‘the study of which will help to cultivate observation and intelligent inquiry; the habits which will tend to make the individual exact [in] his statements, correct in his judgements, and useful in his future avocations.’

The object lesson was split into four subjects:
I Common things E.g. table, hair-brush, window
II Food substances E.g. tea, sugar, olive oil, water
III Clothing materials E.g. linen and flax, wool and woollen cloth
IV Animal and vegetable substances used in Manufactures and Domestic Life E.g. candles, horn, paper

Registers records of attendance by the children. They were verified and certified by members of the school board on their visits to the school and these are recorded in the school log.
scarlet fever Scarlet fever is a rash accompanied by a sore throat caused by the streptococcus bacteria.

The disease most commonly affects children, but can occur in any age group. The characteristic symptoms are a rash and a ‘strawberry tongue’. The disease is now treated with antibiotics and it is usually resolved without complications but before antibiotics its complications could lead to the death of children.

It is a notifiable disease in the UK. This means that cases are required by law to be reported to a health officer or local government authority.
singling the practice of separating vegetable crops such as turnips or cabbages that grow in clumps
standard, stds In 1862 a Revised Code was introduced outlining the curricula to be followed, much like the way the government introduced the National Curriculum in the 1990s. The Code only included the three R’s (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) and followed six standards. The code was revised in 1879 and again in 1890.

The average age for each standard was:

Standard I 6 years
Standard II 7 years
Standard III 8 years
Standard IV 9 years
Standard V 10 years
Standard VI 11 years

However progression through the Standards was by examination and not age. If a child failed the examination then the whole year was repeated, with many children being in the same groups as much younger children.

Tenting looking after crops usually to scare birds away

Whooping cough Whooping cough (pertussis) is still a very serious disease when it occurs in children under the age of one year old. But thanks to an an effective immunisation programme, it’s now quite rare. Before the vaccination against whooping cough was introduced in the 1950’s, there were more than 100,000 reported cases in England and Wales per year. Three out of four children caught the disease and some died every year.