Bedfordshire’s First School Board

Moves to form school boards in Bedfordshire began in 1870 and it seemed that Dunstable, where there was a shortage of infant school places, would be the first Bedfordshire parish to form a school board. That one was avoided there was due largely to the efforts of the Rector, the Rev Frederick Hose ﹛Bedfordshire Times and Independent, 15 December 1870). Although Dunstable did not form a school board, what happened showed how the nonconformists could put the anglicans under pressure. One of the fears of anglicans at this time was that there could be a nonconformist take-over of schools that they had provided and had run for years. It would be incorrect to see this as a large-scale happening, but there were places where the nonconformists did find themselves in a position to dictate the course of elementary education. This was particularly true in parishes where there was a strong Baptist presence with a resident Baptist minister. Sharnbrook was a case in point and it was here that Bedfordshire’s first school board was formed in 1871.

Bedfordshire Mercury

4 February 1871 THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ACT

On Monday January 30th, a meeting was held in the Church of England School-room, to take the above Act into consideration, a requisition having been signed by 54 ratepayers and served upon Mark Sharman, Esq., Clerk of the Union who – as summoning officer under the Act– convened the meeting, and was present as returning officer for the Education Department …

The Rev G Thornton was voted to the chair …

Charles Magniac, Esq., MP, then rose, and moved in the words of the Act, “That it is expedient that a School Board should be formed for this Parish …”

The resolution was carried unanimously.

22 April 1871 formation of a school board, sharnbrook

We have already reported the proceedings in vestry when it was agreed that a school board should be formed for the above village. The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education, on the receipt of a formal notice of this decision, sent down the authority to carry out the election, and Mark Sharman, Esq., the returning officer, accordingly took the necessary steps.