Tuesday 28 November 2017

Further wanderings

The following brief extracts from Isle of Man elementary school inspection reports at TNA paint a particularly vivid picture:

ED 21/47210: Maughold New Central Board School, 9 July 1920

  • 'Children should not be allowed to render songs in violently discordant fashion & slackness, hesitancy, indifference should not characterise physical exercises.'
ED 21/47211: Michael Parochial Board School, 13 July 1921

  • 'The children recite well & sing sweetly; sight singing from both notations is well taught & with considerable success. Drawing presents pleasing features, appreciation of form, colour & finish seem to be well marked.'
ED 21/47213: Dalby Board School, 28 May and 2 June 1919

  • '... the older children have recently made creditable progress, though they are still backward for their age.'
ED 21/47218: St Maughold's RC School, 6 and 18 July 1921

  • '... energy in general is low, so they read silently & study in a vague, otiose way, not without enjoyment, but without scrutiny or criticism.'
Now that's the sort of bracing stuff that would knock our young people into shape! 

Friday 3 November 2017

Further wanderings...

The loss of the London pub: now that is an ongoing tragedy that will surely be of great interest to economic and social historians in the future. And as a measure of how bad things have got in my part of east London what better place to start than Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, where we find a gem of a document in a somewhat unlikely setting:

L/BGM/A/12/1/13: Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green, Housing Committee: Minutes 1946-48 

  • See 8 April 1947 for a remarkable report that lists all of the licenced premises in the old metropolitan borough of Bethnal Green, giving name, exact location and brewery. A grand total of 175 premises for the discerning drinker to choose from: what, I dread to think, remains - a question of interest for CAMRA members and any other pub historians out there.