Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

In 1818, although Radnorshire was not in the direct path of many of these social changes, the population were not unaffected by them. Educational provision was generally insufficient, fortuitous and not highly regarded. Those who taught were largely untrained and often incapable of securing paid employment of any other kind. In 1816 Henry Brougham was successful in obtaining the appointment of a Parliamentary Committee to investigate the state of popular education in the London area. The significance of this was that the resulting report revealed such an utter inadequacy of provision that the Committee was re-appointed with a wider remit. As a direct result of the enquiries undertaken by Parliamentary Committees we are able to obtain a revealing snapshot view of the position in Radnorshire from a Digest of Returns to a Circular Letter from the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor in 1818. Each parish was required to furnish particulars relating to endowments for the 'Education of Youth' as well as details of other institutions for the purpose of education. The returns were to be signed by the minister of the parish, who was invited also to provide comments regarding his own perception of the local demand for education. Several of the responses are of a standard form indicating simply that the poor were 'entirely destitute of the means of education and anxious to possess them', although the extent of such 'anxiety' is impossible to gauge and may simply represent wishful thinking on the part of the incumbent. In this category the parishes devoid of any form of schooling included Cascob, Cregrina with Llanbadarn-y-Garreg, Disserth and Bettws Disserth, Llandeilo Graban, Newchurch and Norton. Elsewhere the position is variable and often little better. At Bleddfa, for instance, while there were no schools within the parish, the curate, the Reverend G. A. Barker, indicates that "the poorer classes have the opportunity of educating their children at national schools in an adjoining parish, but they often think they are rather conferring a favour upon the supporters of those schools in sending their children, than that they are benefited by it themselves". In contrast, at Llanbadarn Fawr, the Reverend Evan Powell declares that, although there were no schools, "the poorer classes are very desirous of receiving instruction, of which they are totally without the means; a Sunday School was established, but it has been discontinued; and the curate suggests that if a small quantity of instructive books could be procured, much good would arise". Some of the arrangements for providing children with an education were dependent simply upon the goodwill of a local individual, usually the parish priest. Thus, at Aberedw, the Reverend Thomas Morgan held a school gratuitously. It was "usually attended by from 20 to 30 children, and sometimes considerably more" and, in commenting upon the situation generally, he remarked that "the poorer classes have not even the means of maintaining or clothing their children, but are very desirous to have them educated". Glascwm also possessed a school "in which from 20 to 30 children are instructed", according to the Reverend John Jones, who added that "the poor have recently been supplied with Bibles by the British and