Introduction

In the 19th century the number of schools increased as the state began to supplement private and locally raised money. Before 1833 local schools were funded locally (usually through charitable grants of money and/or land and buildings) and the central government had no real involvement in the provision of local education. From 1833 a small (£20,000) grant was made towards the education of poor children in Britain. From this time onwards, and particularly after the Education Act 1870, local schools began to provide for the education of an increasing proportion of British children.

Although the Taunton Commission of 1864-68 had identified secondary education as being inadequate and uneven, it was not until 1902 that the government made any effort to establish a system of secondary education. The Education Act of 1902 provided for two types of state-aided secondary school: the endowed grammar school and the municipal or county secondary schools; thus setting the basis for school education for much of the 20th century.

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For the record:

The type of material we hold relating to schools, varies over time and is particularly affected by the introduction of certain pieces of legislation. The first to have a real impact was the 1870 Elementary Education Act (Forster's Act). This required local school boards to provide elementary schools where existing facilities were inadequate. The paperwork generated by this act is a mine of information for local historians. Material relating to individual schools and parishes can be found in ED 2, ED 3, ED 4, ED 16, ED 18 and ED 21. These series contain details such as:

Government control over elementary education was extended by the Education Act of 1902 (Balfour's Act) which put schooling under local authority control. Local historians looking for information about elementary schools after this should continue to use ED 16, ED 18 and ED 21 as their primary sources.

The files created by The Education Act of 1902 can be used by local historians to discover information about individual schools and the wider community. The most useful record series to find information in are ED 35 and ED 53. They contain:

A further major shake-up of education provision came when the government passed the Education Act 1944. Under the terms of this act, both elementary and secondary education was to be redefined and reorganised and all Local Education Authorities had to submit development plans. These can be found in ED 152. Local historians can make extremely good use of the material in this series. They can provide you with:

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