Author: Peter Witham

Miners’ Life 10

Privately run educational establishments known as academies fulfilled a particular need for education. Above is a picture of one where art was taught to young ladies. In Hetton there were 4 academies , in Lyons 1 and 4 in Easington lane.
A number of them ran for just a few years and closed when numbers fell below a certain level.

The school could be quite a grim building. The rooms were warmed by a single stove or open fire. The walls of a Victorian schoolroom were quite bare, except perhaps for an embroidered text. Curtains were used to divide the schoolhouse into classrooms. The shouts of several classes competed as they were taught side by side. There was little fresh air because the windows were built high in the walls, to stop pupils looking outside and being distracted from their work. Many schools were built in the Victorian era, between 1837 and 1901. The first school opened in Hetton in 1834. In the country you would see barns being converted into schoolrooms. Increasing numbers of children began to attend, and they became more and more crowded. There were more than 50 children in the picture above. Generally there were separate boys and girls schools and the infants school was separated from the all-age section.
But because school managers didn’t like to spend money on repairs, buildings were allowed to rot and broken equipment was not replaced.