Schooling in Debenham

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Schooling in Debenham

There were a lot of changes in the education system in Debenham

between 1833 and 1880 as the schools worked towards what was the best

system for the area. Some of these changes seem to have more meaning

to us as historians than others.

In 1833, Debenham had a number of schools. Firstly, it had three daily

schools, one of which was the Sir Robert Hitcham's school. This

contained 40 males and 15 females. Sir Robert Hitcham allowed the

school £30 per annum to use towards its budget. The rest was paid for

by fees from the students. The other two daily schools contained 44

males, and 34 females' altogether. These two schools were paid for

completely by fees. There were also two Sunday schools at the time.

Firstly, there was the Established Church, which would have been run

by the Church of England. This had 80 male students, and 60 female

students. Then there was the Independents school. This contained 152

students of both sexes. Both of the Sunday Schools were run by

contributions. From this, you can clearly see that the Sunday Schools

were more popular than the daily schools. This was probably because of

two reasons, the first being that Sunday Schools allowed you to work

on the fields in the week, leaving the person still earning. Another

reason was probably because no-one had to pay a fee to go to a Sunday

school.

Then, in 1835, we can see that the Government gave a trust deed to the

Established Church School. This was to instruct poor children of both

sexes in the parish of Debenham. This meant that the Government was

taking an interest in what was happening to the education in Debenham.

In 1866 the...

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...at the publishers could

have changed the book for the good of sales. If they did not think

that it was lively enough at some points, or that the writer needed to

look more of a hero, then they may have changed it around.

James Cornish could also have exaggerated the events that took place

so as to make everything in his book seem better than it actually was.

From the above you can definitely see that source C had some reliable

features, such as the fact that it was written by a respected member

of society, but there are also a number of points that you can pick

out which discredit how good this source may have actually been. To

gain a more of an insight to how reliable this source was, I would

have to cross-reference with a number of other sources and see what

points they all agree on, and which points they do not.

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