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All the Goldsmith children who lived in Ponsonby Place attended the Burdett - Coutts and Townshend Foundation C of E School Westminster according to Charles Goldsmith.

Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, the grand-daughter and heir of Tom Coutts, the banker, was given a tract of land by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster on an area known as Devil's Acre, to use as the site for a new parish dedicated to St Stephen and in memory of her father, Sir Francis Burdett. The school had a place of importance in her vision in the realistic preparation of young people to meet the challenge of the adult world. In fact, many went out to the colonies to start new lives. One ex-pupil became the Prime Minister of Australia! Documentation and photographs remain in the school of Mr Hughes' visit to his old school when he returned to England for a visit.

She also established the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in 1883, the Westminster Technical Institute in 1893 and was closely involved with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). Angela also founded Columbia Road market in 1869 in Bethnal Green in the East End of London, the district where much of her work was carried out. Through her support of missionary and nursing efforts she was associated with Louisa Twining and Florence Nightingale.
On 12 February 1881, when she was 67, she shocked polite society by marrying her 27-year-old secretary, William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett, the American-born MP for Westminster. Her new husband changed his surname to Burdett-Coutts, not unusual for someone marrying an heiress, although he did not become a baron.

The original intention of the school was to provide education for the poorest children of the parish, but in the event, those who attended were, for the most part, children of small shopkeepers, craftsmen, mechanics - people who were aspiring to reach the bottom rung of the ladder, and who were averse to their children standing at the dolly-tub like so many servant girls. These people were poor by any standard, but they were working and were able to afford the few pennies a week needed to help the school to keep going. By the end of 1849, the boys' school was almost self-supporting, with receipts of £134 against outgoings of £14 0 for the year. School treats were paid for by the school. £20.14s was spent on a school feast on opening day, lst January 1849, and in 1852, 400 lbs of cake were bought at a cost of £10, together with 10 lbs of butter and 32 qts of milk. In the summer of 1851, the whole school of 445 children and nine teachers visited the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace.
By 1900, the Technical School in Vincent Square had developed at such a pace that the Trust funds were insufficient for its continued maintenance. It was therefore transferred as a going concern to the London County Council, together with the houses at Nos. 75 and 76 Vincent Square which were then producing an income of £120 a year. But as part of the St Stephen's Elementary School was accommodated in the Technical School, the Rochester Row building was enlarged at a cost of £2,000 so as to put all the St Stephen's children under one roof.

When Pansy Bird started courting Julius Rothermel (John Watson) it certainly went against the grain with the family. Not only was he a Pharmaceutical Chemist he was also educated at Public School....

Dear Janice
Hello, what a fascinating tale of changing names! I don't have access to the School Register just at the moment, but I can see that a J R Watson was a pupil here from 1920 - 1923 which might fit in with your dates, he was here as a junior pupil.
Archivist Wellingborough School

I think my mother suffered throughout her life through her lack of education and her vegetarianism, possibly all her siblings too. When we were children she never read to us at night my father always sang to us in a deep bass voice to get us to sleep. When I was growing up she bought Women's magazines but mainly only looked at the pictures. She could never hold conversations around the dinner table when we had guests about current affairs or literature. This was a disadvantage to her in their social life - Masonic Ladies Night- Rotary Club dinners - Pharmaceutical Dinners and her annual ballroom dancing club's Christmas Dinner Dance and numerous other functions. But she over compensated by being an excellent needlewoman and knitter and could decipher all the complicated patterns by attending tailoring classes. Janice

IAN'S SCHOOL MEMORIES

I was in Pembroke when I started school, East End School. The headmistress used to walk up Main street and collect a group of children to take to school. Rosemary Mendus, Hilton Brown, David Haggar and many others whose names I cannot remember.
We sat at desks in a class room with a coke stove with a big guard around it , this was decorated with the steaming underwear of pupils who were not yet continent. The floor was scrubbed bare boards and we all had slates a damp cloth and a slate pencil, we all scraped away occasionally the slate pencils gave a hideous shriek if we used them wrongly, We were taught to read write and to number with religious fables.
I was quite good so could fit in, I was often naughty but was indulged. When Heather two years later started school she complained that she was always told how clever her brother was and how hard she had to work to keep up with his reputation. The playground was asphalt with a limestone wall with high railings set into it, We were near the railway line and tanks came on low loaders. They roared round the corner and often hit the wall we were sitting on, they had metal tracks and slipped and slid on the limestone road surface. I can't remember much of school. We walked home calling in at the bakers for a bun, the cinema for the end of the matinee and Browns for a treat. Every body seemed to know me and I could wander the Main Street.
I remember parties at Rosemary Mendus's and tea with mothers friends. Mother met us from school and with Heather in the pram we wandered the country lanes there was no traffic so it was very safe. Most of the lanes were unsurfaced with open ditches, with clear running water, there were roadside wells with metal doors so that cottagers could draw water,few houses were connected to the mains. The verges were covered in flowers and lots of wildlife not the sterile strimmed roads they are now. Each roaad had a lengthsman whose job was to look after the road the verges and keep the drains clear. Each man had his own style and was proud of how it looked so for a small child at that level each road had its own appeal.On Sundays Uncle Tom went walking sometimes he took me. We went to Freshwater West after Sunday lunch everybody except uncle Tom, in a couple of taxis. A brisk walk across the beach, with a collie called Laddy who was otherwise kept in the garden and never allowed in the house. If it was fine we had a picnic on a rug, if wet we used the pull down tables in the back of the front seats in the car. One or two of the drivers came into drive us.
When we left to Coventry and East Bank School I was well up and was placed in the top stream.

West Bank School short trousers chapped legs in winter. Big black lace up boots which we used to cover the soles in Blakeys, studs so we made an noise when we walked could raise sparks when we kicked the pavement and could slide in the places on the pavements that little boys had made smooth over the years. I suppose as our house had been built in 1938 it was almost new, mother kept it shining and polished despite the five children. The fields started at the end of the street and there was a large Displaced Persons camp where the garage is now. The nearest shops were at South Bank our grocer was Mr Hill, mother had an account and at the end of the month was always overspent. everything they did or thought was given by God as mediated by Father would not give any more as she only gave it to the Christian Science Church to which we children were dragged every Sunday to sit in a large empty house with coconut matting floors rush seated chairs and hissing gas fires. We sat and listened to incomprehensible rubbish and grovelled to God, hammered into us was the idea that illness came from impure thoughts whatever they were, and read gobbledegook, made up by reading words from the Bible, never complete verses but chosen word by word, and from the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy and a weekly digest of these lessons. A publication, Science and Health and the Scriptures, absolute nonsense the science was blind faith and health was gained by only thinking positive thoughts and that you were responsible for the health of all around. If some one was ill someone was not thinking positive thoughts a most evil concept as any deviation could be seen as making loved ones ill. Members of the church paid to run the church with a levy to the Mother Church in America, every year they collected money for some pompous American to come over and patronise them to be treated with deference and to give a pious lecture on some abstruse subject in the poshest Hall they could book. Bilge and nasty with it, I soon with father opted out and hurt my mother dreadfully. Heather took it up hook line and sinker and in her later life became comfortable living on the life savings of old people who died in her care. No nursing no care just praying over and preying on , and ingratiating herself so that she was left money and goods so that she could care for her "girls"
Religion to me became self delusion creating something and somewhere to retreat to somewhere which made the the believers sanctimonious and self satisfied as Mary Baker Eddy.
Other members of the Clague family were Spiritualists, grandfather lived in Wallsall when we visited he sat us in his freezing unused immaculate front room harranged us about the other side and played his violin excruciatingly badly. His house was hung with his pictures, I only have one of my mothers brother Francis who died young. My mother was kept at home to look after the children and only escaped when she became pregnant with me and ran away to get married She was then working in Tenby, They were married in the Methodist Chapel at Carew with Arthur and Iiris as witnesses. That was when they left for Gillingham and father worked in the Dockyard

FROM THALIA CAMPBELL (CHILDS)

I taught General Studies in Scarborough Technical College in the early 1970s.
There were a few part time married women and a Vicar. The students were hairdressers, plumbers, electricians, Plaxtons coach builders, Bricklayers etc
I decided the only way to work with these potential disaffected students was to keep them interested as this was additional to their basic courses. They were allowed to choose which general studies classes they attended. The vicar normally got six students I usually had approaching 40 who would sit on the floor and window sills as well as the chairs.
They all called me "miss" even tho they knew I had four children. It was the 70s and I used to dress in interesting clothes so the classes always started with a bit of banter about what I was wearing. Not in my view disrespectful. The classes were serious we did poetry, analysed the advertising industry, discussed what was in the news papers, went to the local art gallery etc.
I must say I was shocked the boys/men bought the papers and only read the sport and the girls /women only read their stars!!! I think I changed that a bit! They said Miss I can't belive I'm doing this! My mum would think I am Mad.
On our outings I did not drive at the time and they were often the same age as me and it was seen as a great honour as to which car I went in on our cultural visits. Their behaviour was immpeccable in the art gallery , wheras the students from the local public school where Ian taught wrecked some of the valuable antique furnitue with penknives on their visits with their art teacher. This was covered up ..no police involved!!!
The Roman Catholic vice prinicipal must have heard about how I ran my classes he came in and created merry hell about how I ran the classes. He said the students had no respect for me when actually there was great mutual respect. He spread the married womens few hours a week throughout out the week so we all had to pay a full weeks child care for a few hours teaching and he was always trying to sack us....
In the end Margaret Thatcher put an end to General Studies and Russian language studies and much else.

It just hit me we were Children of the Empire, The Empire was not very obvious in our lives, not exactly celebrated in our house or at KHS school, nor at Torquay Girls grammar School either....The only way it impinged on my conciousness was the pink in the School Atlas and the Home and Colonial Stores which we never used

On Desert Island Discs, in Biographies and auto Biographies there is
so often an inspiring teacher who lifted a pupil to do great things in
their lives. These Teachers were mostly removed from the teaching force
after we saw the management by objectives promoted in the head teachers
course Ian and I were sent on in Scarborough in the 1970s.


...........................................................................................

During my two years teacher training at Matlock 1956-58 I had very mixed feelings about the experience. Two recent events have focused my thoughts. Ian was threatened by some ten year old children when he walked across The Green to buy a newspaper. They had no light of knowledge in their eyes! Also we watched the TV programmes about children in an East London primary school going through a very successful intensive year long reading process using phonics. As they became readers their behaviour improved, their eyes came to life (my poem) and they were able to sit and concentrate..... Attention deficit disorder..... medical problem? Needing medication OR a failure of education?
Of course homes are part of the equation .
I was treated very well at Matlock as a vegetatrian The others often were envious of my meals.

I was very shocked at some of the ideas and methods we were being trained to use in our future careers as teachers.As the course progressed I found my self comparing my own experiences as a pupil with methods we were being trained to use. Some of the course was excellent and some staff members inspiring. There were many practices I questioned but two I remember were 'look and say' in reading and 'family grouping' My first teaching post in a poor mining area involved a class of 46 children aged between four and eight years old. What with one desparately disturbed child and the large class I was forever on the edge of going to see the director of education to share my fears that what I was doing was crowd control not teaching. I felt those children were getting a very raw deal. Looking back I think the disruptive child was probably a victim of abuse. Years later I found there was a lower limit for numbers of children for the Family grouping system. Even that lower number I think would have been too many.
My own school experience of learning to read and write in a class of under 20 pupils was an ordered gentle progression using phonics and slowly learning to write enjoying the patterns made by the letters one letter at a time in long lines.Then combinng them into words.
One of the worst moments at college which took my breath away was when the oldish woman RI lecturer told us that we were here learning to "gentle the masses".I thought I was there to educate the people. She had already told us not to live near the school where we were employed.
'Gentling' is a process in the farming and veterinary community where you prepare an animal for a painful experience by speaking quietly and by gentle stroking (in a mildly sexual way ) and then tag, inject, castrate etc
She then began a campaign against me. I skipped all the RI lectures and spent time in the art room where she could see me from her windows. The Art Lecturer told me there were endless heated discussions about me in staff meetings.They never tackled my boycott of the RI course . I think they feared drawing attention to it because others felt the same way as me.

I 've just remembered how dramatic my show down was with the religious education lecturer at Matlock As soon as she reaslised I was boycotting her lectures and spending my time in the Art Department. She could see me painting from her window,.and sent for me to come to her office.
She was very distressed and angry. It was there we had the heated discussion about educating the people or gentling the masses. . She ended up screaming at me you are a hoyden! a hoyden! At that time I had no idea what a hoyden was so I flew upstsairs to my room to consult my large dictionary which all students had to buy in that time . I remember thinking Hoyden must be something good and positive It was a boisterious girl!!!! That wonderful victorian word, I remember thinking that the definition hinted at a deeper meaning .It made me so very proud, not the result she had expected. It was a turning point in my life.I did not attend one of her lectures over the two years...


With Miss Dibbs we were were taught to avoid too much anthropormorism with children As this created serious misaunderings of animal behaviour..I do like Beatrix Potter but I have tried to avoid anthromorpormism with my children. I also remember Miss Dibbs describing how children in an inner city school grew flowers to put on the tables at lunch time and how this improved self esteem and behaviour.. I was so lucky,in each of my 4 schools we had beautiful gardens and grounds .Grammar Preparatory school, in Oakfield Road had a knot garden lawns and trees it was a small manor house with french windows opening onto the knot garden .Two large victorian gardens at Knowles Hill school, with trees, shrubberies, rock gardens and lawns. My Torquay girls Grammar school with playing fields, tennis and net ball courts internal court yard gardens with sundials and ponds. Long before the web site Sue and I had a
nostalgia trip around Torquay ..it was gone after a short period as local gov offices, I never experienced a tarmac /concrete yard or a supermarket wharehouse kids have to put up with nowadays.

In later life I met many teachers including head teachers who hated the life long hypocracy that they were forced to teach religion whether they believed or not.
In the last week of my course, A notice appeared on the board that I had to go to see a speech therapist in Chesterfield as my voice was unsuitable for teaching. No one spoke to me about this.
I can't remember if it was signed by the RI lecturer but knew she was the cause. I think I checked it out with another lecturer and fellow student
I got the bus to Chesterfield and spent an hour with a very puzzled speech therapist whose parting words were that I a had a very good voice for teaching as it was deep expressive and not shrill.
Im sure this will chime with others who went thro teacher training at the same time as me

MORE FROM THALIA

When I was a mature student 1973-76 as part of our education strand we were supposed to read Herbert Spencer - Education . It was out of print and our tutor had a copy but we found
it difficult to borrow. We were examined on it even though we were not able to read it! Later I acquired a collection of the Thinkers Library from a Humanist friend when he died. I did dip into Herbert Spencer but spurred on by the site I've now read most of it and it so chimes in with our upbringing as well as Ghandi, Shelley and the rest of them. I'm so glad mother and Gertrude shared some of all this with me. Enough to point us both (Janice & I) in the direction to find out more...
Petra Kelly the German feminist peace and environmental activist had similar experience to me. Her very political grandmother read her the international newspapers instead of bedtime stories keeping her happy with nuts, apples and chocolate. Petra Kelly did the best sppech I ever heard on Feminism peace and the environment at the CND rally in October 1980? How
quickly women get forgotten!! !or even noticed in the first place!

Whilst looking after my grandchildren for a week, getting them to and from school and trying to ensure they did home work. I discovered that some of their disdain for the school and lack of respect for some teachers was the coercive religion and the rude dismissive behaviour of
teachers, (not neccessarily the Specialist religious teachers ), who would brook no discussion on Religion. The children felt a great lack of respect and that they would be discriminated against for not believing.
Autumn 2008

Whilst doing teacher training...1956 - 59 I worked in the holidays. I worked picking fruit in Essex at the Tipree fruit farm from late June until Sept... we picked strawberrires raspberries plums apples pears and mulberries etc...my picking partner was a French/ Algerian girl.
Late, long days in the hot fields often working in our bikinis,the old farmers with trousers tied at the knee with string prodded us with their walking sticks as if we were prize pigs...... we also pulled up fat hen in the sugar beet fields...falling over on our backs as we pulled the enormous weeds as big as xmas trees out of the heavy clay soil. There was a couple who had hitch hiked all the way from South Africa...their dire stories were a political education.
We were fed pretty basic food which I supplememted with mountains of free fruit. we were paid seven pounds a week.
We also worked in the packing sheds and the conveyer belts where we sorted out the bad fruit ...the large copper pans of marmalade with candy orange foam on top permeated the air with a sweet orange perfume
The international work force was a real education. French, German ,Ethiopean ,Dutch and Sudanese ....
I got punished for distracting the male students. they put me on the conveyer belt amongst the greengages... I was punished and put in the packing shed lifting heavy boxes...
In the evenings we had exciting discussions and dances with simple flashing green and red lights. At the week end Warren my cousin came to fetch me to show me London ...we went for mile after mile thro the east end's cobble streets.
Thalia

In 1961 after Ian finished his education year at Bristol University he took a job potato measuring for the Potato Marketing Board. They measured fields by chains with a real chain.We had an open Morris 8 and Angus was a few months old, he slept in the back in a wicker cot, made by the blind we had bought in the blind shop. It cost £2.10s. 0d .Whilst Ian and student friend were measuring the fields I breast fed Angus under the hedge in field margins or in the old Somerset farm kitchens. We had picnics. It was a warm sunmmer, great to be out in the open. We also gradually moved our belongings from our flat in the big old house overlooking Hotwells and the docks to the mews flat At Brymore Farm School where Ian would strart teaching in September. I was the only female in this house full of students so I did all the cleaning. Out of the back window we could see the hillside climbing up to Clifton.We had an old fireplace and had very hot coke fires.
Thalia

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