Once the union workhouses were operational they had to cater for children as well as adults, and were expected to provide some form of education for them. At various times all the Bedfordshire workhouses had their own schools but these often caused problems, and the guardians were glad to be able to send the children to local elementary schools. The parish of Eaton Socon is particularly interesting as it had within its boundaries the workhouse for the St Neots Union, and for long periods the union children attended the village elementary school. This means that there are a number of references to them in the log books. In some other Bedfordshire parishes there were ‘boarded out’ children from various of the London unions, and again log books make references to these. Yet other teachers recorded children being withdrawn from their schools to enter the workhouse. For a short time workhouse schools were inspected on the same basis as the ordinary elementary schools and printed reports have survived. References from these various sources are given in the following section.

The Rev John Allen’s Report, 1843-4.

A more detailed series of reports, compiled by Mr H G Bowyer between 1848 and 1857, gives a clearer picture of the problems of the union schools. The following extracts have been chosen to give a picture of what happened within each Union in Bedfordshire and to indicate any points of particular interest.