Image ID: 10637

Pupils at Front Street Boys School, Arnold, c 1890

Front Street
Arnold
England

A group of pupils at Front Street Boys School (formerly a British School and always known locally, apparently, as 'The British'). After a history of around a century, the school was closed about 1967 and later demolished, the site being redeveloped as Arnold Market. British Schools originated with the work of Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838) and were intended to provide for the education of boys from poor families. The system used was recursive in which older pupils passed down what they had learned to more junior pupils. The first Lancastrian elementary school was founded at Southwark in 1798 and 10 years later the Society for Promoting the Lancastrian System for the Education of the Poor was formed, the founders being Joseph Fox, William Allen and Samuel Whitbread with support from William Wilberforce among others. In 1814 the organisation was renamed the British and Foreign School Society for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion and based on a non-sectarian approach it started a number of 'British Schools' and also colleges for training teachers. There was a degree of rivalry with the Anglican 'National Schools' of the Church of England but gradually as the Government introduced an overall system of national education, the British Schools were absorbed.

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Arnold Library