Busy market. Varied success.

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (83) explores aspects of the resort’s private educational terrain during its second period. It finds different fee levels and varied success amongst the private sector.

Victorian Bournemouth (83): educational background

Terrain

Bournemouth’s educational terrain perhaps subdivided according to students’ ages. Children and teenagers either attended the National School or one of the apparent commercial establishments. The National School operated under the aegis of St Peter’s Church. From the few advertisements and press announcements, the commercial enterprises seemed to divide into schools for ladies’, perhaps for finishing, and for boys, perhaps crammers for university, or services, Civil and Military. Sometimes, the advertisements targeted parents of delicate children who would benefit from the resort’s climate. Other schools appear to have aimed at children belonging to parents living in India or in other English territories. Adult education may have fallen to the handful of people who described themselves as tutors or professors. They offered languages, including Latin and French, and music. It seems probable that much of their clientele came from the ranks of resort visitors who required variation from bathing and salon conversation.

Turnover

More teachers appeared in the sources than schools during the period 1856-1871. Some may have had employment by an institute, but others perhaps operated as a school run by a ‘sole-trader’. This may have applied to some of the music teachers, but nomadic academics did come to the resort on their own initiative. M. Gouly De Chaville (‘a Parisian’) came to Christchurch and neighbourhood two to five days a week. He offered French, Italian, and General Instruction at schools or his own classes. Thus, determining the number of schools poses a problem during the first part of this period. A considerable increase in the numbers of teachers and/or schools appears to have occurred as the 1860s closed. A combination of the census, directory listings, and press references suggests that Bournemouth may have had capacity for at least five schools by the early 1870s, having, on average, about a dozen pupils.

Victorian Bournemouth (83): school types

Elite level

Elsewhere, analysis of students’ attending the Reverend Wanklyn‘s school during the 1860s showed that his pupils belonged to wealthy families which formed part of the global commercial or imperial society. A similar profile has emerged for the dozen boys taught by Edmund Sandars in 1871. Genealogical exploration shows that his school catered to two types of families, both privileged. The smaller group consisted of children belonging to wealthy English. They included sons of a peer, a landed proprietor, a civil engineer, and two distinguished lawyers. The larger group consisted of boys born in India, their fathers employed by the Civil Service or the forces. The pupils included three brothers (with a sister listed as a ‘ward’) and two others who perhaps had a shared kinship. Attendance at Wanklyn’s cost 100 guineas a year. Perhaps a similar price applied for students registered at Sandars’s academy.

Lower level

The Judd school, run by the widowed Sarah from the mid-1860s, in 1871 had almost twenty pupils. Attendance cost around 25 guineas a year. At this level, the school appealed not to those taken by Reverend Wanklyn but to the local well-to-do. Two-thirds came from local areas: Dorset, Hampshire, and Wiltshire, the rest from elsewhere in the country. In some cases, their fathers included substantial farmers and fundholders. One father, however, did have international connections, for he acted as secretary for the Sao Paulo Railway Co, but seems to have stayed in England, nonetheless. Another student, Bessie Briggs, came from Bournemouth. Her father, Joseph Briggs, ran a poultry business in the town, but he later became one of the Improvement Commissioners, featuring in several of their projects. Despite taking students at cheaper prices Judds’ school offered a good education, nonetheless, pupils continuing their later lives at privileged levels.

Victorian Bournemouth (83): economics and longevity

Economics

Despite charging 20 guineas a year, or even a 100, achieving financial viability may have proved difficult. Annual rent of £80 a year applied to Clarendon College, a girls’ school run by Mrs Sweetapple, an apparent entrepreneur. She charged a premium for a parlour-boarder (girl having her own room) and took a ‘governess-pupil’. Another school owner promised that ‘a tradesman’s daughter can be registered on reciprocal terms’. In 1871 the private schools had around a dozen pupils on average. At 20 guineas a year, this would have given Mrs Sweetapple around £150 for the remaining costs and profit. Some owners may have kept staff levels low by teaching themselves or employing nomadic instructors. Mrs Judd may have achieved annual turnover of £400, but she had two teachers on staff as well as servants. That both she and her daughter also taught would have helped ease financial pressure to an extent.

Longevity

Thus, economic problems may have disposed of some schools. Mrs Parkinson, who offered girls’ tuition at The Glenn in return for 80-100 guineas a year, appears to have gone into enforced liquidation. Others came and went from the evidence. Some may have wanted a change. Esther Lance and Eliza Burt brought their school from Poole in 1855, but by 1861 they had gone to Islington, later retiring there. The Ransome family took girls and boys during the early 1860s, but by 1871 they had gone to Norfolk. The Sandars boys’ school may have received less emphasis as its owner became more involved in Bournemouth’s political and community worlds. After his death in the early 1880s, his widow returned to Ireland. Even the Wanklyn brothers appear to have moved away from education. J. H. Wanklyn seems to have sold his main school during the 1870s and moved to London.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (83) has shown a busy private educational sector at this time, where many schools came and went, leaving little mark. At least two social levels existed in the private sector as shown by tuition costs and genealogical analysis of student profiles. Although fees ran at healthy if not substantial levels, some owners may have found it difficult to make ends meet. This may have contributed to the apparent rapid turnover of some establishments.

References

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