This Remote School, by Bronwen Osborne

Booklet published by Tatham History Society, 72 pages. A4 size booklet (N7420PE)

The book was put together using material from the Tatham Fells School log books kept by the head teachers up to the closure of the school in 1961. It thus provides a fascinating insight into the life of the school over the 86 years prior to the move to the new school building in Lowgill. The Log Books themselves are frail, but by editing and copying the pages the material is available to all. Excerpts are included on many topics, including visiting speakers, seasonal work on the farm, the weather, discipline, sickness, the First and Second World Wars and evacuees, inspector’s reports, Empire Daym and much more! The remoteness of the school makes itself felt throughout the Log Books, and in the early days there were constant struggles to get children to school, and to keep the school open.

From the introduction: This history of Tatham Fells Church of England School, or Tatham Fells Chapel School as it was first known, is based on Log Books kept by the head teachers from 1875 to 1961 when the present school was opened. Also used were a record of the meetings of the School Managers from 1917 to 1956 and a register of pupils at the school from 1875 to 1896. The idea of this record is to help to children and their parents understand the history of the school and to add to it by way of research using other records and by talking to past pupils. Contents include:

The Log Books
Pattern of Attendance
The Weather
Seasonal Work on the Farm
School Holidays
Sickness and Prevention
Staff and Managers
Table of Staff, Managers and Clergy
Head Teachers
Monitors and Pupil Teachers
Vi cars and Correspondents
The Managers
The Work of the School
Inspectors' Reports
Object Lessons
Visiting Speakers
Nature Study
Australia
The Library
Prizes
Grammar Schools
Diocesan Inspector's Report
Discipline
Equipment
School Events
Tatham Fells and the World at War
1st World War
2nd World War
Public Events
Bentham Fair
Lowgill Cattle Fair
Bentham AgriculturaJ Show
Armistice Day
Empire Day
Occasional Events
The Building and Facilities
Cleaning
Heating
Water
Playground
Structural Damage
School Meals
The building of the New School

Condition of the booklet is generally very good. The covers have one or two very minor scuffs but are clean and bright, the staple spine is tight and intact and all pages are clean, intact, unblemished and tightly bound. Has a small price sticker on the rear side cover.