Learning
The quality of education varied greatly in 19th century Wrexham. The infamous commissioners praised only the British School on Brook Street - a school "for the education of children of the labouring, manufacturing and other poorer classes" - and the Grammar School. No education was free and only the wealthy could afford to send their children to James Jackson's foundation, The Groves Academy, in Grove Park.
"The master has never been trained to teach, the monitors are incompetent and the children ignorant" The Royal Commission into the state of Education in Wales, 1847 on the Wesleyan School, Wrexham |
Religion played a powerful role. The Anglicans backed the National School by the Beast Market, while the British School on Brook Street was for Nonconformists. In 1871 a Local School Board was created to supervise junior schools, but the religious rivalry continue.
The School Board was more demanding. In 1882 they condemned the National School as wretched, so in 1885 the school moved to new premises on Madeira Hill. The Grove Park County School for Boys opened in 1895 and for girls a year later. In 1901 the British School moved to new premises - the Victoria Board School on Poyser Street.
Education fourished in 20th century Wrexham with the opening of the Denbighshire Techical Institute, now NEWI; Cartrefle College - the post war women's teacher training college; Ysgol Morgan Llwyd - Wrexham's first Welsh language secondary school and Yale College - Wrexham's Sixth Form college. All a far cry from the Treason of the Blue Books as that 1847 Report was known.
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