Parochial Abstract

Population: 480 Male, 504 Female = 984 Total

At Day Schools

Under 5 years: 1 Male

5 - 10 years: 28 Male, 3 Female

Above 10 years: 42 Male, 15 Female

Total: 84

At Church Sunday Schools

None

At Dissenting Sunday Schools

Under 15: 51 Mael, 59 Female

Above 15: 83 Male, 124 Female

Total: 317

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	Trer Ddol School	Mr Richards School
Date of Establishment	1846	1800
Tenure	Tenancy at Will	Tenancy at Will
Building - State of repair	Bad	Indifferent
Building - outbuildings	None	None
Schoolroom: Dimensions (feet)	24 x 15	9 x 6
Accomodation at six Sq.Ft.	60	9
Furniture & apparatus	Insufficient, in Bad Repair	Insufficient, in Bad Repair
No. of Children on Books	40	49
Duration of presence: less than 1 yr	40	35
more than 1, less than 2 yrs	0	9
more than 2, less than 3 yrs	0	5
more than 3, less than 4 yrs	0	0
more than 4, less than 5 yrs	0	0
Ages: Under 5	0	1
5 - 10	9	22
Above 10	31	26
Average attendance in last year	-	41
No. of Scholars living > 1½ miles from school	7	3
Method: Monitorial - No. of Monitors	4	No
Whether any simultaneous instruction	Yes	Yes
Subjects of instruction, exams etc: No information
Religious Instruction by:	Master	Master
Whether school opened with a hymn or prayer	No	No
Visitation made by	-	Minister
Language of Instruction	Welsh and English	Welsh and English
Grammar of Welsh	O	O
Grammar of English	+	O
Master's Age	33	19
Teacher Trained	No	No
Previous history of teacher: age commenced vocation	29	18
Previous occupation	Baptist Minister	In School
Present condition of teacher: Follows any trade	No	No
Any other office/income	No	No
Salary	Nil	Nil
Income from School Pence	£32-0-0	£24-0-0
Annual income of school: From subscriptions	Nil	Nil
From Collections	Nil	Nil
From School Pence	£24-0-0	£16-0-0
From Endowment	Nil	Nil

November 13th, 1846

I WAS a Baptist Minister at Talybont and the Coginan Mines about nine years, and for the last five months have kept a day-school at Taliessin; and have also kept a school for three years at Coginan, and preached gratuitously during that time.

There is a great deficiency of good schools for the poor. Many of the schoolmasters themselves know little of English, and no more grammar than the poor workman on the road. I intend going to the Borough-road School to improve myself. It is a great defect that in Wales there are no Normal schools except that at Brecon. The poor are very ignorant of secular knowledge, and of history and the elements of geography and of astronomy they know nothing. I have heard even a preacher talking of the god Ganges, whom the heathens carried on their shoulders and worshipped. As to Scripture knowledge, the people are better informed in Wales than in some parts of England. They have a good knowledge of the gospel in several. The professing Christians of all the denominations of Dissenters are in the habit of reading the Bible daily, and the children and servants often give a verse of the Scriptures, after reading, from memory. The morals of the people are improving. It is common still for women to be in the family-way before their marriage, but this is not so much the case as it was. This intercourse is only with the man to whom they are attached, and a common woman would be scouted in any of the villages. The veracity of the people is not bad. In a great many places there is a desire for better education, but in several they are so poor that they are hopeless. If better means were afforded, the people would be prompted to take advantage of them by their ministers.

In our district, which is a mining one, the people are too poor to support good schools: they are four to one Dissenters, and the rich are backward to support schools except on the National system. I am sure Governmenta ssistance would be generally accepted.

OWEN OWEN.

LlGC/NLW, Report of the commissioners of inquiry into the state of Education In Wales, 1847, Cyfrol/Vol 2, tud/p.77