User:Cindamuse/Workshop/7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Lord Shaftesbury, and the Ragged Schools, Shaftesbury Avenue W1, WC2. Also Ogle Mews, Ogle Street, W1. Shaftesbury Avenue was named in memory of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885). The Avenue opened in 1886, and while using the route of existing streets, it entailed the demolition, to the east of here, of some of the appalling slums that Shaftesbury sought to eliminate.

Whilst known as Lord Ashley, he became involved in factory reform and was responsible for taking three factory acts through Parliament (1847; 1850 and 1859); and the Coal Mines Act (1842) which stopped the employment underground of women and children under 13. He also piloted the Lunacy Act (1845); helped Florence Nightingale with her army welfare and nursing work, and was centrally involved in the YMCA and YWCA (see the later section on the YWCA). He was concerned with improving housing conditions for poor people (see the later discussion of his model housing in Dyott Street, just before the British Museum). Early ragged schools

Shaftesbury was one of the founders of the Ragged Schools Union and was its president for 40 years. The ragged school movement grew out of a recognition that charity, denominational and dames schools were not providing for significant numbers of children in inner-city areas. Working in the poorest districts, teachers (who were often local working people) initially utilized such buildings as could be afforded - stables, lofts, railway arches. There would be an emphasis on reading, writing and arithmetic - and on bible study (the 4 ‘R’s!). This mix expanded into industrial and commercial subjects in many schools. It is estimated that around 300,000 children went through the London Ragged Schools alone between the early 1840s and 1881 (Silver 1983: 20).

As the schools developed, many gained better premises and broadened their clientele (age wise), opened club rooms and hostel and shelter accommodation, and added savings clubs and holiday schemes to their programmes of classes. A good indication of the widening of the work is given by S. E. Hayward’s illustration The Ragged School Tree (an illustration in Montague 1904). Along the branches we find coffee and reading rooms, Bands of Hope, Penny Banks, refuges, men’s clubs and sewing and knitting classes. This stood in stark contrast to the narrow focus on the 4 ‘R’s that remained, for example, in the voluntary National Schools.

Some of the ragged schools developed into Evening and Youths’ Institutes - such as that established by Hogg, Pelham and others in Long Acre, London in 1870. (Pelham was very active in developing boy's club work.) Other Institutes developed from scratch. Early Institutes like the one established in Dover in 1858, utilized a mix of opportunities for reading, recreation and education. Tensions with the state system

After the passing of the Board School Act, there were a number of people wanting to sideline or crush ragged schools (Bready 1926: 158). Standards were variable, and there could be an emphasis on forms of Christian teaching that offended the more secular-minded. In 1876 there was a significant dispute around the Olge Mews Ragged School. Founded in the early 1850s, the school had been fairly successful. With the erection of a local Board School, things got rather heated. The directors were unable to fill it, yet the ragged school was flourishing. The ragged school came in for some difficulties. The Ogle Mews School Case

Its officials were summoned to court on the ground that "the education given did not satisfy the Board's standard." Warm scenes followed. The master of the new school "told the bench plainly that extermination, not efficiency, was the Board's object." But this object was scarcely charitable; and men who had sacrificed much for that particular school, and knew something of its work, were not inclined to accept insults lying down. Sir Robert Carden, an ex-Lord Mayor, was then a voluntary teacher in this very school; so he brought children to court for viva voce examination by the magistrate. A test followed; and all considered, the judicial examiner thought the youngsters passed through their ordeal quite admirably. The Board School's counsel, however, chose to think otherwise; his wrath was thoroughly roused, he had tasted blood and henceforth vegetable diet had no appeal. He still, therefore, quibbled about the inadequacy of the Ragged School standards, and Sir Robert in turn, checkmated him by insisting that children of the two schools be pitted against one another in public examination. High pitched excitement thus continued for some time, and several press articles appeared on the subject; but, fortunately, at this juncture peace-makers came to the rescue and the issue was quietly settled, though the mud thrown did no good to either side. http://www.infed.org/walking/wa-shaft.htm Bready, J. W. (1926) Lord Shaftesbury and Social-Industrial Progress, London: George Allen and Unwin.

Montague, C. J. (1904) Sixty Years in Waifdom. Or, the Ragged School Movement in English history, London: Charles Murray and Co.

Silver, H. (1983) Education as History, London: Methuen.