ThrelfallYorky, one year at the school where I worked, the top class had been particularly difficult (11 year olds) ,the Deputy Head was their teacher.
She and I had been to Grammar school together.
She had warned them that if behaviour did not improve she was not prepared to organise a school trip for them .
Rather too late to get a good trip organised they did start to behave much better.
She wanted to reward their eleventh hour improvement but it was too late really to get everything in place, cioach ,entrance fees ,insurance etc.
So we decided to take them to the opposite of what they would have experienced had they behaved better.Somewhere I knew well.
Charter Street Mission was founded in what Friedrich Engels described as “ The worst slum in Europe” —- the inappropriately named “ Angel Meadow”.
Bordered by. Charter St,Danzig St,Ashley lane.
The disgusting back to back houses with no water,sanitation and three families to one tiny house .each occupying one floor and attic in rooms 8’by 10’ .
The Mission had a school, Sunday School and out workers.
That was the institution that brandrd the free clogs given at Christmas to the barefoot children at a party.
There is quite a museum there and the original classrooms .
We sat at the long benches wearing clogs ,pinafores and mob caps the girls .
The boys barefoot and no socks either.
Did £SD sums on slates, , wrote copperplate handwriting on slates,with double lines to control the height of letters such as a e i o u .
The teacher smacked the desk in front of any child who talked ,she was really grim !
Then we went to the place known as St,Michael’s Flags, ,a flagged area which was an area over the 40’000 dead from the great cholera outbreaks the 19th century and an extension of St Michael’s churchyard.
We played,whip and top, skipping , singly and “ jumping in “,marbles, hop scotch , etc.
Went back to the mission and returned clothes and clogs ,got a “ bun “ and a drink of milk , as children many years ago would have.The only food in the day for some.
Said prayers and sang aSunday School chorus , “ I am H A P P Y “ —- and the day was over after looking at original photographs of the time when ragged barefoot ,starving children were the scholars there.
Do you know, they were upset but voted it the best school trip ever !
So not sure if they were really deprived of a nice school trip because of their behaviour , but they had a fairish old lesson in history and sociology.
I wish I could post photographs ,the one they were most impressed by was of the poor little children ,haggard young mothers, all waiting outside Charter St Mission for some posh Duchess to open the Girls ‘ Refuge.
I can understand how proud you feel Erato about your discovery that your ancestors were very early settlers.
Whilst my mother’s family never went barefoot they did wear clogs and were very poor, good for them by comparison, but a bit sad for me ,I can’t be proud of descending from fairly recent ancestors ancestors who did go barefoot .
I keep hoping someone of mine had lived in a dreadful back to back house with no water,sanitation etc.
Inverted snobbery
Viktoria.
