AOSA CENTENARY HISTORY 1841 - 1941
Chapter
IV
TIME: 1841
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix
The first scholars entered the school on 16th July 1841 - John William Watson and Alfred Watson of Norton. Tradition insists that John actually first crossed the threshold having beaten his brother in running across the village green. But not all the formalities for admission had been complied with for seven days later the committee passed a minute declaring that the two boys ‘having been inadvertently admitted to this institution without the sanction of any committee or sub-committee, their continuance as scholars is now confirmed,’ and emphasised ‘the necessity of the Bill of Admission in all cases being duly passed and the amount received prior to the admission of scholars.’
The usual Bill of Admission ran to this effect: No......Received the ..... day of the ..... month 18.... the sum of eight pounds for the use of this institution for which a child not under nine nor exceeding thirteen years of age is entitled to Education, Board and Cloathing of one year day of the ...... month 18.... admit ...... a child aged .... years ......months.
The Committee had carefully considered this fee. John Pease in a letter from Eastmount on I7th June 1841 had written to his ‘dear Cousin’ Thomas Richardson “with respect to the price I don’t quite make up my mind what may be safe. I should like it at £8 if this were certain to be maintained, but I fear it is too low.” John Pease’s doubts were justified for in 1842 the Committee strongly urged children of Members to pay £10 per year at least ‘lest any encouragement should be offered to the alienation of children from the Public Schools of our Society.’ And in 1845 the Committee after considering a minimum charge of £10 adopted this scale of fees: fifteen boys and fifteen girls to be admitted at £8 each; ten of each sex at £12 each and ten boys or girls at £15 each.
Such charges allowed for everything during a full twelve months as no holidays were given. Clothing, education, laundry, books, slates and pencils, the school provided all. The Committee ordered three dozen pairs of shoes for boys and three dozen for girls, and as well for the boys a sufficiency of ‘ancle clogs’ with wooden soles and ironed round the edges for work out of doors. Early in 1842 John Heaviside of Great Ayton contracted to supply ‘two pair of shoes and one pair of clogs each for one year and keep the same in neat repair for 17s. 6d. per head.’
The girls usually made their own clothes which were cut out for them by the housekeeper or the governess, ‘the dressmaker doing that which could not be expected of them.’ The boys had coats and waistcoats of grey woollen cloth and trousers of strong cotton corduroy. These trousers were ‘long-shorts’ which came some little way below the knee and thus covered the tops of strong worsted stockings. In 1845, ‘Anderson Shaw, the tailor’, was prepared to supply the boys’ suits at 15s. 6d. the suit ‘and such a sum for repair as in the committee’s judgment may appear fair and reasonable.’ Fairness and reason were satisfied by his offer of keeping the suits ‘in good repair for 7s. per head per annum’ but no clothes were ‘to be given him to repair with until the same have been inspected by one or more members of the indoor committee.’
To protect the hodden grey when they were at work in the fields the boys wore linen smocks which they disliked very much. In 1842 Anna Pease provided twenty-four of these ‘coarse frocks for the boys to labour in.’ Their caps came direct from Aberdeen and were Glengarries of a dark brown colour. They made a useful if not an ornamental headdress – useful certainly for George Dixon remarked that ‘they did away with the need of hat pegs as they formed a serviceable cushion and they also served to distinguish school boys from village boys.’ Thomas Richardson, with his eye for detail, soon supplemented these caps with ‘seventeen boys’ straw hats,’ and he added ‘three pieces of Drabbet for trousers.’ Nor did he forget the girls, for in addition to ‘two dozen pairs girls’ gloves’ he provided ‘sixteen girls’ bonnets’, ‘seventeen girls’ straw hats’ and ‘eighteen toothbrushes for the girls.’ He further added in a moment of Quaker insight ‘four looking-glasses.’
Since the institution provided the children’s clothes the Committee decided that each child should have a complete outfit when leaving the school. When a girl left she should take with her ‘one bonnet, one cloke, one stuff frock, one dark print frock, one pair of stays.’ Furthermore she must have ‘two skirts and two flannel petticoats, two shifts and one nightgown, one white and one coloured pinafore.’ She was to be satisfied with one pocket and two pocket handkerchiefs, two pairs of worsted stockings and two pairs of shoes. And for her toilet she was given ‘a hair brush and comb, one small toothed comb and one clothes brush.’ Each boy had the two brushes and the two combs as well as the two handkerchiefs and two pairs of shoes, but he was allotted three pairs of stockings and three shirts and two each of caps, coats or jackets, waistcoats and pairs of trousers. Thus equipped they went out from school to meet the world.
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