A National School was a school founded in either England or Wales during the 1800's by the `National Society for Promoting Religious Education'. These schools gave basic education, according to Church of England teachings, to the children of the poor. National Schools were eventually absorbed into the state education system and became state schools.
Having been supplanted by Denbigh grammar school in 1727, the Blue Coat School relocated to a barn though its whereabouts are unknown. The Council in Education report on Schooling in Wales, 1846-47, describes the equally poor conditions of the new location;
'A school for boys, taught by a master in a barn rented for the purpose'.
'The children were dirty, which could not be a matter for surprise, considering the state of the schoolroom, which was dark, wet and filthy in the extreme. Although there were at one time more than two hundred scholars of both sexes, and the building is in the centre of town, no outbuildings of any description have been provided?
The report goes on to describe 'A large and handsome National School is being erected [and] to this building this Blue Coat School will be removed'. National Schools were founded over England or Wales during the nineteenth century by the `National Society for Promoting Religious Education'. These schools gave basic education, according to Church of England teachings, to children of the poor, their main aim to prove that large numbers of children could be educated at a low cost. This was achieved through a system where the older students taught the younger children what they had already learnt, thus reducing the costs incurred by hiring more than one master.
The Denbigh example was erected at Lenten Pool, a controversial decision owing to issues with a situation which was `low, and there is a stagnant pitch at a short distance, as well as a pool for watering cattle, and a stream which frequently overflows and floods the surrounding cottages'. It was designed by architect Henry Kennedy in 1846, responsible for a number of National Schools including Llanwrst and Llansantffraid Glan Conwy, in a Jacobethan, or Tudor Gothic style. This style had been recommended for any school with `architectural pretensions' from 1825, but was particularly popular with the National Schools due to the fact that `Gothic' had also been chosen as the ICBS's style of choice for Anglican churches, and was further cemented by the Committee of the Privy Council on Education's plans in 1845.
The cost of £1,168 was met by a grant of £150 by the National Society and £300 from the Committee of Council, the rest raised by public subscription and the Oldfield Trust. Opened on 4 October 1847, the building was representative of the work the National Society was also carrying out in creating a defined architecture for schools. As early as 1811, the National Society preferred to develop the ideas of Andrew Bell, a educationalist less regimented than Lancaster in his ideas of classroom layout, and their fourth annual report of 1815 promoted a reversal of standard seating arrangements, with forms arranged around the side walls, the central areas being left open for pupils to stand in their classes.
A National School was a school founded in either England or Wales during the 1800's by the `National Society for Promoting Religious Education'. These schools gave basic education, according to Church of England teachings, to the children of the poor. National Schools were eventually absorbed into the state education system and became state schools.
Having been supplanted by Denbigh grammar school in 1727, the Blue Coat School relocated to a barn though its whereabouts are unknown. The Council in Education report on Schooling in Wales, 1846-47, describes the equally poor conditions of the new location;
A school for boys, taught by a master in a barn rented for the purpose.
The children were dirty, which could not be a matter for surprise, considering the state of the schoolroom, which was dark, wet and filthy in the extreme. Although there were at one time more than two hundred scholars of both sexes, and the building is in the centre of town, no outbuildings of any description have been provided.
The report goes on to describe 'A large and handsome National School is being erected [and] to this building this Blue Coat School will be removed'. National Schools were founded over England or Wales during the nineteenth century by the `National Society for Promoting Religious Education'. These schools gave basic education, according to Church of England teachings, to children of the poor, their main aim to prove that large numbers of children could be educated at a low cost. This was achieved through a system where the older students taught the younger children what they had already learnt, thus reducing the costs incurred by hiring more than one master.
The Denbigh example was erected at Lenten Pool, a controversial decision owing to issues with a situation which was `low, and there is a stagnant pitch at a short distance, as well as a pool for watering cattle, and a stream which frequently overflows and floods the surrounding cottages'. It was designed by architect Henry Kennedy in 1846, responsible for a number of National Schools including Llanwrst and Llansantffraid Glan Conwy, in a Jacobethan, or Tudor Gothic style. This style had been recommended for any school with `architectural pretensions' from 1825, but was particularly popular with the National Schools due to the fact that `Gothic' had also been chosen as the ICBS's style of choice for Anglican churches, and was further cemented by the Committee of the Privy Council on Education's plans in 1845.
The cost of £1,168 was met by a grant of £150 by the National Society and £300 from the Committee of Council, the rest raised by public subscription and the Oldfield Trust. Opened on 4 October 1847, the building was representative of the work the National Society was also carrying out in creating a defined architecture for schools. As early as 1811, the National Society preferred to develop the ideas of Andrew Bell, a educationalist less regimented than Lancaster in his ideas of classroom layout, and their fourth annual report of 1815 promoted a reversal of standard seating arrangements, with forms arranged around the side walls, the central areas being left open for pupils to stand in their classes.
The National School at Lentern Pool instead followed the Lancasterian ideals closely in its layout of rows of desks, centrally placed facing the master and with `nearly one half of the width of the room for the ? to use alternatively with the desks'. Stoves were placed at the end of each room and high windows allowed the wall space below to be utilised for boards. The school also takes into account recommendations of the 1835 `General observations on the construction and arrangement of schoolrooms' published by the National Society; the schoolroom is divided down the middle by columns, the openings hung with sound-absorbing baize curtains which separate a girls' schoolroom from that of the boys, and a small dwelling-house is provided for the use of the master, built, as advised `on to one end of the school and not between the two schoolrooms for boys and girls'. Mirroring the master's accommodation on the opposite side of the main entrance was the provision of a smaller, separate, `classroom', in the 1840s a relatively new addition to the school accommodation but one quickly considered of great importance. The need for separate spaces had been highlighted by increased infant teaching, the idea recognised by Samuel Wilderspin that young children benefitted from a variety of activity and that `it is necessary to vary the scene because it pleases the children and they come to it with a greater delight' as well as allowing smaller groups from the main classes to be taught in rotation.
The school continued in use until 1976, and has since been converted to flats.
S Fielding RCAHMW October 2018
References:
Report by Henry Vaughan Kennedy for the Committee of Council in Education in Wales, 1846-47 in The National School, Lentern Pool, Denbigh 1846-1976 p.10
Malcolm Seaborne,`Schools in Wales 1500-1900: A Social & Architectural History. 1992
Seabourne, Malcolm & Lowe, Roy. The English School, Its architecture and organisation Vol I 1370-1870