Welsh Journals

EDUCATIONAL CHARITIES IN CARDIGANSHIRE IN THE PERIOD 1833-35 THEIR ORIGIN AND VALUE THE principle of state aid for the provision of education was officially accepted in England and Wales in 1833 when a Treasury Minute of 30 August in that year made government grants available for the erection of school buildings in any part of the country wherever and whenever the stipulated conditions were satisfied. From that time school promoters were able to approach the Treasury through the specially recognised channels for financial assistance and were no longer entirely dependent on voluntary donations. But the Minute went no further than that, for it did not introduce the principle of annual grants as a feature of regular school income and twenty years were to elapse before that came about gradually. Only in 1840 were grants allowed for the building of teachers' houses and it was in 1847 that the state announced its policy of providing grants for school equipment, books, maps, and even text-books for teachers but the most important step of offering annual capitation grants on certain conditions was not taken until 1853 and later extended in 1856. This meant that up to, and for some years after, 1833 the main- tenance of schools was met chiefly by subscriptions, collections, and particularly by payments made by parents for their children's instruct- ion. Of course, other means were sometimes found in some areas to supplement these usual sources of income for example, in 1833 the funds of the two National schools in Aberystwyth Chapelry were augmented by the addition of collections taken at the church service at which the annual sermon on behalf of the schools was preached and also by the receipt of the proceeds of a special ball held in the area. As in the eighteenth century, voluntary effort and private charity still continued to be the vital factor in the finance of all schools and they were to carry the burden until the State became a partner in education- al administration. However, in some places there were schools which had the benefit of charitable bequests or endowments that always proved to be most welcome no matter how small they were. The scope and nature of these educational endowments in Cardiganshire during the years 1833-1835 (that is, on the threshold of more active State inter- vention) were in many ways typical of those elsewhere in the country and differed only in their relative number, value, and manner of disposal. Such endowments were not plentiful and only a comparative- ly small number of schools had the advantage of their financial help the many parishes that could not boast of any had to rely on the more common means of support. The over-all picture of the county in this