Can anyone provide information regarding the Beckley Industrial School, Oxon, please. My great grandfather Thomas Yeates (born Benson 1849) appears in the 1861 Census as a boarder/ scholar at the Beckley Industrial School. I understand that generally Industrial Schools were established by the 1857 Industrial Schools Act for "the care and education of vagrant, destitute or disorderly children". I do not believe Thomas fitted into any of these categories or if he did, he clearly benefited considerably from the experience, since he later became for 40 years the headmaster at Sutton Courteney School, Berks. It would appear there are records for Beckley school from 1863 but I have so far been unable to find anything about the Industrial School. Any information would be much apprectaied. Michael Kempson

> > I understand that generally Industrial Schools were established by the > 1857 Industrial Schools Act for "the care and education of vagrant, destitute > or disorderly children". I do not believe Thomas fitted into any of these > categories It was usually the case that only children likely to benefit were selected for these schools. Mostly they were adrift through nio fault of their own, but were orphans with no family to turn to, or put on the streets because their parents drank or were feckless. Often the court rescued the child from a bad situiation, when they were either begging or stealing food to stay alive, not hardened criminals or part of an irrecoverable underclass. or if he did, he clearly benefited considerably from the > experience, since he later became for 40 years the headmaster at Sutton Courteney Well, you can be really proud, for he was obviously intelligent and prepared to work. So the school gave him a start he might never have had with his birth family. It is worth trying newspapers, since most public institutions at some stage had a report published. EVE Author of The McLaughlin Guides for Family Historians Secretary, Bucks Genealogical Society

Hello Michael, You may have seen this website With information of Cowley Industrial School http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=101882 >From which I quote: There was no education provided for poor-law children until 1831, when an industrial school was opened on a site near the present Cowley works. The regulations for its government issued in 1854 by the Poor Law Board reveal something of the rigour and austerity of the reformed poor law. The children were segregated into three classes, girls and boys over seven and infants under seven, between whom all communication was forbidden. They received eighteen hours' instruction a week in reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion, as well as some training in agriculture, industry, or housework. More.......... ====== My husband's grandfather was sent to Bristol Industrial school. After research the only reason given was that he had missed school on various occasions. This 12 year old boy was sent from Derby to Bristol - miles and miles away for such 'offence'. He was there until he was aged 16 years. I cannot imagine that his family would have been able to visit him, so many miles away. Compulsory education to age 10 was established in some areas from 1870, and in all areas from 1880, but enforcement was patchy. He had obviously started school in 1880 after the Education Act August 1880 and as the 'enforcement' obviously didn't work it may have been that the Derby authorities wished to make an example of him. We used his family's place of residence in 1881 to track down his likely school and then looked up the Attendance Register for that school in the Derby Record Office. This is where we found the reason for his removal from Derby to Bristol. We had searched newspapers as Eve suggested but unfortunately this time, we didn't come across anything that helped us. If Eve has anything to add to my story, and where we may look further, I would be really pleased to hear, as I fee that we haven't quite got to the bottom of this yet. Sometimes these children were sent by magistrates to industrial schools and I wonder if we should take this route? Sorry Michael, I am going off your original query to my own! ;-)) My best wishes, Jill See website for 3 lines of JONES, KNIGHT and DAVIES http://www.muirfamily-genealogy-online.co.uk/ -----Original Message----- From: oxfordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:oxfordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Bfc712@aol.com Sent: 06 September 2011 12:51 To: oxfordshire@rootsweb.com Subject: [OXF] Beckley Industrial School Can anyone provide information regarding the Beckley Industrial School, Oxon, please. My great grandfather Thomas Yeates (born Benson 1849) appears in the 1861 Census as a boarder/ scholar at the Beckley Industrial School. I understand that generally Industrial Schools were established by the 1857 Industrial Schools Act for "the care and education of vagrant, destitute or disorderly children". I do not believe Thomas fitted into any of these categories or if he did, he clearly benefited considerably from the experience, since he later became for 40 years the headmaster at Sutton Courteney School, Berks. It would appear there are records for Beckley school from 1863 but I have so far been unable to find anything about the Industrial School. Any information would be much apprectaied. Michael Kempson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OFHS Open Day - 1 October in Woodstock www.ofhs.org.uk ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to OXFORDSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message