Education in Norfolk

The present system of compulsory education for all children is the result of a whole series of parliamentary acts.

The most significant were:

• The Elementary Education Act 1870 (Forster's Act)
• The Education Act 1902 (Balfour's Act)
• The Education Act 1944 (Butler's Act)

Before the late 19th century, schooling was not compulsory, rarely free and varied enormously in quality and quantity.

A few children might attend a grammar school. Other children would attend a school funded by a charity, almost always a religious organisation.

Children might also be educated by the local clergyman, while others were taught at a dame school by an educated woman in the town or village.

Charity schools were often but not always free and many schools, such as the dame schools or day schools, charged a fee.

Very few records, if any, survive of such informal schooling in Norfolk.

Central government began to make treasury grants to charities which provided voluntary schools from 1833. 

After 1839 these grants depended on the school passing a government inspection.

Charities which received grants included the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (the National Society) and the British Foreign School Society.

The government later extended its involvement from giving financial support to directly providing the education services itself. 

Note on school records

In the following chapters, details are given of school records. Please note that any records which contain sensitive or personal information are not usually open to immediate access to the general public.

Where this is the case, it will normally be indicated on the catalogue entry.

The Norwich Charity Schools

These were established in 1707/8, but their surviving minutes do not begin until May 1711. They were supported by benefactions, subscriptions and a weekly payment of 1d or 2d from each child.

Annual subscribers of £1 and benefactors of £10 or more became trustees.

The charity initially ran nine schools, five for boys and four for girls, mostly in rented schoolrooms.

However one, the Mancroft School, was established in 1721 by Alderman John Risebrow. He left the rent of two properties in Walton and Walpole St Peter for its support.

There were also district schools which were an offshoot of the Norwich Charity schools and were maintained by associations of parishes.

The charity trustees were only able to build school premises after 1812. This was when the charity became affiliated to the Norfolk and Norwich Society, the local branch of the National Society.

According to the society's minutes of 23 July 1812, it was resolved:

"That the City of Norwich having antient established schools with funds provided for their support, the Trustees of the said schools be requested to connect them so far with this Society as to adopt the mode of education recommended by it and to consent to their being considered the Central Institution."

For minutes of the Norfolk and Norwich Society, 1812-46, see DN/NDS 137.

Papers of the Norwich Charity and District schools are found among records of the Norwich Diocese. They are mainly administrative, but do contain some records relating to individual schools.

• For records of the Norwich Charity schools, see DN/NDS 1-125
• For the District schools, see DN/NDS 126-136
• There is also a short history of the Charity schools, see DN/NDS 61
• For records of individual charity and district schools, refer to the card index to school archives available in our searchroom, or the online catalogue

The National Society and the Norwich Diocesan Society

In 1812, the National Society was founded. It began to take over schools previously set up by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and other organisations.

There were more than 17,000 National schools in Britain in 1851. However, the role of the National Society in school provision declined after the Education Act 1870, which provided free elementary education for poorer children.

The local branch of the National Society, the Norfolk and Norwich Society, was founded in 1812. It provided and maintained schools throughout the area.

The Society gave a £300 grant to build the central Boys' School in Norwich, formerly called the Boys' Model School. This was for 200 pupils and was based in Aldred's Court, St Peter Hungate.

Another local organisation, The Norwich Diocesan Society, was also founded in 1812. It provided schools and trained teachers in Norwich.

The Norfolk and Norwich Society and the Diocesan Society both distributed government grants to local schools, which continued up to the Elementary Education Act of 1870.

• Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Society are found among records of the Norwich Diocese. The records are mostly administrative, but there are some which relate to individual schools. See DN/NDS 137-290.
• For records of the Norwich Diocesan Teacher Training College, formerly in College Road and later at Keswick Hall, see list KHC. Please note some of these records are closed to public access. Where this is the case, it will be indicated in the catalogue entry.
• For a history of Keswick Hall, see The Story of Keswick Hall: Church of England College of Education, 1839-1981, ed. J Ball (Wymondham, 1981).
• Central records of the National Society are held by the Church of England Record Centre.

The British and Foreign School Society

In 1808 followers of Joseph Lancaster, a prominent Quaker, founded the Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor.

In 1814 it was renamed the British and Foreign School Society.

It fulfilled a similar role to the National Society, but its schools were non-denominational.

As a result many Nonconformists preferred to send their children to British Schools and by 1851 about 1,500 had been founded in the UK.

At the Norfolk Record Office (NRO) we hold a few records of former British Schools including:

• The Octagon Chapel day school for girls in Norwich, see list FC 77
• The Great Yarmouth British School, see Y/TC 86/11

For further information on individual British and Foreign Society schools, please refer to the card index to school archives or our online catalogue.

Central records of the Society are held by the British and Foreign School Society Archive Centre.

Sunday schools

Records of Sunday schools in Norfolk and Norwich are usually located with the associated parish records for Church of England churches (see PD lists), or with the chapel records for Nonconformist Sunday schools (see FC lists).

Records of some Sunday schools are referred to in the card index to school archives, but its coverage is incomplete.

The Elementary Education Act 1870 (Forster's Act)

In order to provide and maintain schools where existing elementary education was insufficient, this Act divided England into districts under the management of locally elected school boards.

In effect, these board schools were the first schools run by local authorities.

The Act allowed school boards to rule that children aged between five and 13 should attend school. It did not make all education free or compulsory but did order, for the first time, that a school be placed in reach of every child.

Board schools did not initially replace existing voluntary and endowed schools and a dual educational system developed.

Non-denominational board schools were supplemented by government grants, rates and fees. Voluntary schools, such as National Society schools, which had religious affiliation to the Church of England, received grants and subscriptions but not rate aid. They sometimes charged a small fee.

Under the Education Act 1902, board schools became council schools. Records of the school boards and individual board schools were therefore inherited by their administrative successors (the borough and county councils) and are found among their archives.

School board records

The main type of school board records are minutes, which give details of the administration of the board, its membership and responsibilities. Therefore, the minutes often contain references to:

• The building and maintenance of schools
• Supplies and insurances
• Inspections of school premises
• Staff recruitment
• School attendance
• By-laws
• Finances
• Arrangements for community events such as fêtes or jubilees
• Wartime preparations

The headmaster or mistress reported to the board and the minutes may contain references to these reports and any requisitions made.

In exceptional cases, the minutes may give details about individual pupils.

Records of the individual schools established by the school boards may include records such as log books and admission registers.

For records of individual board schools, please refer to the card index to school records or to the online catalogue.

Norfolk

• For minutes of Norfolk school boards, 1871-1903, see C/ED 3/1-247
• There are a few other records of Norfolk school boards, 1872-1903, including treasurers' accounts 1872-1903 and letter books, 1873-1903 - see C/ED 7/1-6

Norwich

• For Norwich School Board minutes, 1871-1903, see N/TC 2/1-34
• There are a few other records of the Norwich School Board, 1877-1903, including printed bylaws, 1893, and year books, 1877-1903, see N/ED 3/1-5
• There are also school manager's minutes for individual schools run by the Norwich School Board, see N/TC 44/1-7

Great Yarmouth

• For Great Yarmouth School Board minutes, 1875-1903, see Y/ED 1-5

Thetford

• For Thetford School Board minutes, 1889-1903, see C/ED 3/201
• For papers concerning the election of Thetford School Board members, including nominations and posters, 1875-1902, see T/SB 1-11

School attendance committee minutes

Each Poor Law Union was charged, under the Elementary Education Act 1876, with supervising the attendance of children at school in districts outside the jurisdiction of a school board.

The information in attendance committee minutes can vary in detail, but they sometimes include names of parents prosecuted for non-attendance of their children at school.

Minutes of a few of these attendance committees came into custody of the Norfolk County Council's Education Department, as superseded authority records:

• Depwade, 1877-1903, see C/ED 6/1-2
• Downham, 1889-1903, see C/ED 6/3
• Erpingham, 1889-1903, see C/ED 6/4

Minutes of other school attendance committees can sometimes be found in the records of the Poor Law Unions:

• Aylsham minutes, 1877-98, see C/GP 1/526
• Blofield parochial ledger, 1895-99, see C/GP 2/53
• Docking minutes, 1877-92, see C/GP 4/90
• Erpingham ledger, 1881-89, see C/GP 6/195
• Forehoe parochial ledgers, 1887-91, see C/GP 8/244-246 and 1896-1901, see C/GP 8/247
• Henstead minutes, 1877-96, see C/GP 11/116
• Loddon and Clavering minutes, 1878-97, see C/GP 12/161-169 and ledger, 1893-95, see C/GP 12/168
• St Faith's minutes, 1902-03, see C/GP 15/69
• Swaffham minutes, 1877-96 and 1896-1903, see C/GP 16/1-2
• Walsingham minutes, 1883-90, see C/GP 19/125

The following is a summary of legislation which followed the Education Act of 1870. 

• The Elementary Education Act 1876 (Sandon's Act)  - this advocated the principle that all children should receive elementary education, further restricted child employment and established school attendance committees. For records of these committees, see above.
• The Elementary Education Act 1880 (Mundella's Act)  - school attendance became compulsory for children aged from five to 10.
• The Education Act 1889 - this set up the Board of Education and allowed county councils to levy a 1d rate for technical education.
• The Elementary Education Act 1891 - fees for elementary education were abolished, making it free for the first time.
• The Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act 1893 - the school leaving age was raised to 11 years.
• The Elementary Education (School Attendance) Amendment Act 1899 - the school leaving age was raised to 13 years.

The Education Act 1902 (Balfour's Act)

This placed the provision of elementary education under local government control and created local education authorities (LEAs).

It put education in the hands of county councils and county borough councils, which had been established by the Local Government Act 1888.

The Act also abolished school boards. Therefore the majority of former board schools, along with most British and other Nonconformist voluntary schools, became provided schools under LEA control. 

LEAs gave maintenance grants to schools. However non-provided denominational schools, which were defined by the Act as church schools not funded by the rates, usually paid for the provision of their own buildings.

Norwich City Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council lost their education responsibilities following local government reorganisation in 1974. These were transferred to Norfolk County Council (NCC).

In the case of King's Lynn, education responsibilities appear to have been transferred to a district divisional executive committee under NCC in the mid-1940s. Thetford had already transferred to county council control by 1913.

Education committee minutes

The main records of the county and municipal borough education committees are their minutes, which give details of the administration of the committee, its membership and duties.

These include the building, maintenance and financial administration of schools, supervision of school attendance, the making of by-laws and staff recruitment.

The HMI (His or Her Majesty's Inspector) usually reported to the committee and the minutes sometimes include inspectors' recommendations.

Norwich

• For Norwich Education Committee, 1903-74, see N/TC 35/1/1-10
• For minutes of its sub-committees see N/TC 35/2-15. These include the Elementary (later Primary) Education Sub-Committee, 1903-58, see N/TC 35/6/1-6

Norfolk

• For minutes of the Norfolk County Council Education Committee, 1903-74 and its sub-committees, including the Elementary Education Sub-Committee, see C/ED 16/1-47

Great Yarmouth

• For Great Yarmouth Education Committee, 1903-18 and 1932-41, see Y/ED 6-9 and for 1941-65, see Y/ED 495-502
• For unsigned, indexed, sub-committee minutes, 1903-41, see Y/ED 10-47 and for April 1941-1954, see Y/ED 568-578
• For signed sub-committee minutes, 1940-74, see Y/ED 503-552

King's Lynn

• For records of King's Lynn Education Committee, 1903-45, see C/ED 130/1/1-15.
• From the mid-1940s responsibility for education in King's Lynn was transferred to a district divisional executive committee under Norfolk County Council. For minutes of the King's Lynn Advisory Committee, April 1945 to 24 June 1946, see C/ED 130/1/15.
• For the King's Lynn and District Divisional Executive Committee and its sub-committees, 13 June 1945-1974, see C/ED 130/3/1-20.
• For indexes to these minutes, 1950-61, see C/ED 130/4/1-12.
• There are also unsigned copies of the King's Lynn and District Divisional Executive Committee minutes, 1945-73, in C/ED 16/54-60

The education department became part of NCC's Children's Services in 2005. Some committee minutes for the Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel, from January 2009 to May 2014, are available through NCC's website.

Other education committee records

Records of the county and borough council education departments and their committees also include correspondence, reports and, very occasionally, registers of some staff and pupils.
For catalogues of these documents, please refer to records of the relevant education department:

• For Norfolk County Council, see list C/ED
• For Norwich City Council, see list N/ED
• For Great Yarmouth Borough Council, see list Y/ED
• For King's Lynn Borough Council, see list C/ED 130

Following The Education Act 1944, LEAs had to create development plans for primary and secondary education.

There is a printed copy of the Norfolk Education Committee's Development Plan for Primary and Secondary Education, c1947, which includes King's Lynn and Thetford, available on the searchroom shelves.

• For another copy of this plan, see C/ED 36/1/24 and, for a copy with maps, see C/P 12
• Norwich produced its own plan, a copy of which is also available on the searchroom shelves: for an archive copy of the plan, see PD 192/99
• For Great Yarmouth, there are area maps, reports and correspondence relating to the development plan, reference Y/ED 642-3

The Education Act 1918 (Fisher's Act) raised the school leaving age to 14 and increased restrictions on child labour.

It also allowed for the provision of ancillary services, including medical inspection, nursery schools and centres for children with special educational needs.

However, in practice the leaving age was not immediately raised and had to wait until the Education Act 1921.

A consultative committee on education chaired by Sir Henry Hadow made several influential reports during the 1920s and early 1930s and its findings led to major changes in the structure of education nationally.

The reports recommended education should be more child-centred in approach and class sizes should be reduced to under 30 pupils.

One of its key recommendations was that the term 'elementary education' should be abolished and redefined as 'primary education', which ended at the age of 11.

This was divided into an infant stage, from five to seven years, and a junior stage, from seven to 11.

Development of secondary education

There was very little secondary education available during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and post-elementary provision was often varied. It included higher grade elementary, grammar, technical, and private schools.

Responsible authorities for secondary schools were also diverse and included the Charity Commission for endowed schools, the Education Department for higher grade elementary schools and the Department of Art and Science for technical schools.

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a series of reforms which reorganised and gradually extended the provision of secondary education.

The Education Act 1902 set up two types of state-aided secondary schools under LEA control: endowed grammar schools and municipal or county secondary schools, some of which evolved from higher grade elementary schools.

Under this provision, which was not usually co-educational, boys were sent to state grammar schools and girls attended high schools.

The 1902 Act did not make secondary education free or compulsory, although it did allow LEAs to pay fees and award scholarships in some cases.

The Education Act 1944 (Butler's Act)

Fees for state secondary education were abolished by The Education Act 1944, under which the entire structure of education provision was reorganised.

This Act arranged the system into three stages, which are familiar today.

The first stage, primary education, consisted of two phases: up to seven years and from seven to 11.

The second stage, secondary education, was graded into modern, grammar and technical schools.

The Norfolk Education Committee's report, Education in Norfolk, 1950-1960, stated that during the past decade the number of places available for grammar school pupils had increased to more than 2,000.

It noted that traditional grammar school accommodation was provided for the county in single-sex schools at Thetford, King's Lynn, North Walsham, Dereham and Swaffham and on a co-educational basis at Diss, Downham Market, Fakenham, Wymondham College and Thorpe. There were also grammar school places in the City of Norwich and Great Yarmouth.

The third stage of the education system was further education and, from 1947, the school leaving age was raised to 15 years.

Following The Education Act 1964, which allowed transfer to higher education at ages other than 11, some LEAs chose to arrange their education system in stages of first, middle and upper or higher schools. In Norfolk, a dual system of both primary and first and middle schools developed.

Comprehensive reorganisation

By 1965, the programme of secondary school building in Norfolk was almost complete.

However, there was growing concern nationally that the system developed following The Education Act 1944 had sustained social inequalities and prevented some children from reaching their full potential. 

This led to reorganisation of education into the comprehensive system, which began when the Ministry of Education issued circular 10/65 in July 1965.

The circular requested LEAs to convert secondary schools into the new comprehensive system, which it hoped would support pupils of all abilities.

Following this request, most Norfolk comprehensive schools were built in the mid-1960s to 1970s.

Secondary/higher education committee minutes

For minutes of the education committees which had responsibility for higher, secondary and technical education during the period 1903-74, see the following records:

• For Norwich education committee minutes, 1903-74, see N/TC 35/1/1-10. For minutes of its sub-committees see N/TC 35/2-15. These include the higher, secondary and further education sub-committee, 1903-58, see N/TC 35/5/1-14.
• For Great Yarmouth education committee, 1903-18 and 1932-41 see Y/ED 6-9 and for 1941-65, see Y/ED 495-502.For unsigned, indexed, sub-committee minutes, 1903-41, see Y/ED 10-47 and for April 1941-54, see Y/ED 568-578. For signed sub-committee minutes, 1940-74, see Y/ED 503-552. For minutes of the higher, secondary and technical education sub-committee, 1903-41, see Y/ED 10/47 and for 1944-63, see Y/ED 539-548.
• For minutes of the Norfolk County Council education committee, 1903-74 and its sub-committees, including the higher education sub-committee, see C/ED 16/1-47. There are also minutes of the technical education committee, 1891-1903, see C/ED 16/48-51 and for the higher education sub-committee, 1904-07, see C/ED 16/52.
• For King's Lynn secondary/higher education committee, 1903-45, see C/ED 130/2/1-6. For details about records of the district divisional executive committee, under Norfolk County Council, see the section on education committee minutes above.

The NRO also holds records of a variety of Norfolk and Norwich secondary and comprehensive schools, for which you should refer to the card index to school archives or the online catalogue (opens new window) for details.

The following publications by the Norfolk education committee also give an insight into the development of secondary level education in Norfolk. They are available on the searchroom shelves:

• Norfolk Education Committee, Education in Norfolk, 1950-1960 (Norfolk County Council, c1960)
• Norfolk Education committee, Ten Years: a Review of Education in Norfolk, 1960-70 (Norfolk County Council, c1970)
• Norfolk Education Committee, Education in Norfolk, 1970: a statement of principles (Norfolk County Council, c1970)

Holt Hall

Holt Hall, a boarding school run by the Norfolk Education Committee, was established in 1950.

At first it offered short course places to children who had attended the same village school from the age of five and who would not otherwise have had any experience of education beyond elementary level.

Later, as the educational reforms of the 1950s progressed, Holt Hall also offered places to pupils from secondary modern schools and extended the length of its courses.

It was set in more than 80 acres of land, including 50 acres of woodland and parkland and six acres of playing fields. There were also two lakes for boating and swimming.

The curriculum at Holt Hall emphasised practical training, adventure activities and the development of skills for co-operative living.

We do not hold any records at the NRO relating to pupils at Holt Hall. However, it is mentioned in the Norfolk Education Committee's report, Education in Norfolk 1950-1960, which is available on the searchroom shelves.

For a published history of Holt Hall see Theodore W Fanthorpe, The Story of Holt Hall: Medieval Manor, Victorian Country House, Boarding School and Field Study Centre (Somerset, 2007).

Wymondham College

Wymondham College was based on the site of the United States Army Air Force 231st Station Hospital. This closed in June 1945 and was used from 1947 until December 1950 as an emergency teacher training college.

When the site first opened as an educational establishment in 1951, there were two state boarding schools based there: a technical and a grammar school.

At first, pupils were accommodated in Nissen huts, but later permanent dormitory blocks were built. In 1955, the technical and grammar schools merged to create a unified Wymondham College.

The Norfolk Education Committee's report, Education in Norfolk, 1950-1960, states that Wymondham College was a residential school serving the whole of the county. It admitted pupils at the age of 11-plus and 13-plus and, at that time, had 440 boys and 325 girls in residence.

In 1971, the College merged with the County Grammar School (a day school) which had already been based on the Wymondham site for about 10 years. From 1981, it became a comprehensive school. It is now a state day and boarding school and maintains its own records.

The Education Act 1973 raised the school leaving age to 16 and in 1988 another Act introduced the National Curriculum.

It also introduced the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examination to replace O levels and the CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education).

We do not hold records containing information on examinations taken by individual pupils.

For further advice, see our guide to exam results and pupil files.

• P B Cliff, The Rise and Development of the Sunday School Movement in England, 1780-1980 (Redhill, 1986). Available through Norfolk Library Service

• S J Curtis and M E A Boultwood, An Introductory History of Education since 1800 (London, 1966)

• T W Fanthorpe, The Story of Holt Hall: Medieval Manor, Victorian Country House, Boarding School and Field Study Centre (Wellington, Somerset, 2007). Available through the Norfolk Library Service

• P Horn, The Victorian and Edwardian School Child, (Gloucester, 1989)

• A Longcroft and S Wade-Mardins (eds), Building an Education: An Historical and Architectural Study of Rural Schools and Schooling in Norfolk c1800-1944, Journal of the Norfolk Historic Buildings Group, volume 5 (2013)

• S Maclure, The Inspectors' Calling: HMI and the shaping of educational policy, 1945-1992 (London, 2000). Available through the Norfolk Library Service

• A Morton, Education and the State from 1833 (Kew, 1997).

• Norfolk Education Committee, The Handbook of Education Week held in Norwich from September 27th to October 3rd, 1925 (Norfolk County Council, 1925)

• Norfolk Education Committee, Education in Norfolk, 1950-1960 (Norfolk County Council, c1960)

• Norfolk Education Committee, Ten Years: a Review of Education in Norfolk, 1960-1970 (Norfolk County Council, c1970)

• Norfolk Education Committee, Education in Norfolk, 1970: a statement of principles (Norfolk County Council, c1970)

• J Richardson, The Local Historian's Encyclopaedia (New Barnet, 1993), pp 141-146

• J Sperandio, 'Secondary Schools for Norwich Girls 1850-1910: demand or benevolently supplied?' in Gender and Education, volume 14, no.4, pp391-410 (Abingdon, 2002)

• W B Stephens, Education in Britain, 1750-1914 (Basingstoke, 1998). Available through the Norfolk Library Service

• W B Stephens and R W Unwin, Materials for the Local and Regional Study of Schooling, 1700-1900 (London, 1987)

• D Stranack, Schools at War: A Story of Education, Evacuation and Endurance in the Second World War (Chichester, 2005)

• J Bull (ed), The Story of Keswick Hall: Church of England College of Education, 1839-1981 (Wymondham, 1981)