A history of the National School founded by the Abbey parish of St Albans in 1848. It is a story of struggles against poverty, sickness and ignorance and other challenges. It illustrates the immense task undertaken by philanthropic societies in the mid-nineteenth century to provide a rudimentary education to thousands of children who would otherwise have remained illiterate.
The endeavour was country-wide using voluntary fund-raising assisted by small government grants. In the end they were defeated by the sheer size of their undertaking, and the inevitable limits to private giving. This story mirrors that of countless other ‘voluntary’ schools founded in the mid-nineteenth century
Additional information
Author: Alice Goodman
SAHAAS, published 1991, Series SA 9
Format: paperback, 60pp, fully illustrated
Price: £4.95 (£6.55 by post UK), members’ price: £4.00
ISBN 978-0-901194-12-1
Available from: by post from SAHAAS
