Littledean School & Crump Meadow Pit Records (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, April 07, 2014, 15:21 (3670 days ago) @ dent

Hi Christopher,
sorry for my getting my dates mixedup and posting the wrong one of the various Littledean School records that my Archive search produced. Did you try and click the link I posted for the extended search results ?. (I don't know if it works "outside" of my pc as the link may need those clever tinternet "cookies" now residing in my pc ?. I'd be gratefull if you could advise if the link does work for you, to simplify my future posts, thanks). Here it is again
http://ww3.gloucestershire.gov.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archiv...

Anyhow, two of the other results I found were about the National School which I GUESS (more to follow-see below) MAY have been the School Frank attended ??, I very much doubt such a small village had more than one school.

FindingRef: S110/2/2
Title: Admission register, indexed; Littledean National School
Date: 1891-1914
NumberofDocs: 1 volume
Use Restrictions: Closed until 1 January 2015 under Data Protection Act 1998: section 33 exemption applies; researcher undertaking needed

and

FindingRef: S110/2/5
Title: Admission register, indexed; Littledean National Infants School
Date: 1904-1916
NumberofDocs: 1 volume
Use Restrictions: Closed until 1 January 2017 under Data Protection Act 1998: section 33 exemption applies; researcher undertaking needed

Hoping this may help your researches, altho as said looks like you have to employ a researcher, more details on their website (I've never used or visited Glos Archives, much to my regret, I must remedy that).

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UPDATE ref Littledean School History.

"In 1848 a National school opened opposite the church in a new building on land provided by Joseph Pyrke. Funds for its construction were not readily forthcoming and for some years the building remained uncompleted. The school, with which Dorothy Pyrke's charity school merged, was managed by the incumbent and had a single department and an average attendance in 1863 of 60. A wing was added for an infants' school in 1871 and the building was enlarged further in 1896 and 1912. Some overcrowding had resulted from the entry in 1901 of children from Pope's Hill and Flaxley. The school, in which the mixed and infants' departments were amalgamated in 1916, had average attendances of 199 in 1910 and 148 in 1938. Problems in raising funds to maintain the school led the managers to apply for controlled status in 1947. More classrooms were provided in the 1960s and, as Littledean C. of E. Voluntary Controlled Primary school, it had 97 children on its roll in 1989.
Dorothy Pyrke's bequest had been invested by 1887, when its income for educational purposes was assigned as prizes for local schoolchildren. The educational charity was administered separately from 1906 and, under a Scheme of 1930, it paid the the primary school c. £30 a year in the late 1980s."

From: 'Littledean', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 159-173.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23258
Date accessed: 07 April 2014.

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Re School leaving ages, please don't forget the ages quoted are minimum ages, but even then it seems special exceptions occurred. I started looking this subject up when trying to workout when my own father started work just before WW2. I was surprised to find reports that even as recent as the late 30s children could leave school quite young (14-15), this was partly due to the continued effects of the Depression and general poverty levels which meant that many parents needed their children to be earning money as early as possible, this situation had started in 1918 due to the expense of the War. The various UK Governments recognised it was important in practical terms for children to enter work young, or not be constantly in trouble for "forced" truancy, while in principle also wanting them to be in school beyond 14 as they felt this was the best learning age.
??.
This detailed account is the best source I've found.
http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter04.html

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Re records for colliery employment, this subject's been raised several times, sadly it seems the records upto early C20th are almost non-existent for any FoD pits, and even for the big pits working upto the early 60s records are hard to find despite being within the age of National Insurance numbers etc. However circumstances do vary considerably from pit to pit, some records definitely do exist, the best source to research is the Gloster Archives and also the Heritage Museum at Soudley. Here's a fairly recent enquiry on those lines, the Museum were very helpfull indeed in this case.
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=42191

If you've not done so (I'm sure you have) then thorough searching of this forum for related old threads may help, eg
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=37701

http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=18531
This post apparently went unanswered, luckily it's writer was Harry Brook who I'm sure will clarify if he found any Crump Meadow pit records ?.

Re Crump Meadow pit history, I expect you've found these already.
http://www.dmm.org.uk/company/l1012.htm
http://www.lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/CoalCrumpMead.html

I've also found this old forum post from the same gentleman of Lightmoor, Ian Pope, which adds that the mine was in decline for some years upto it's closure around 1929, while your father was there.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GLOUCESTER/1999-10/0939035198

In this case I guess this means the existance of records relating to your father are even less likely. I read somewhere (possibly this forum) of boxes of paperwork being burnt when one of the big pits (Northern ?) was being demolished in the 1960s. To us interesting & invaluable historical records, but to them just handy tinder for their bonfires.