Children should be seen… part 2

Life was not all street games, however, even for the children of Hungate. Perhaps the scholarly child depicted on this cup or mug was meant to provide inspiration for learning. Learning was certainly the intention of the small plate where the letters of the alphabet appear in a raised design on the bottom. This is a fairly poor quality item copying better made examples which were popular around 1850 or earlier. At that time there was no requirement for children to attend school and few Hungate residents had the means to pay for schooling.

Throughout the 19th century campaigners and reformers saw education as a route out of poverty and vice. It was not until 1870, however, that Forster's Education Act was passed. The Act required the provision of schools for children between the ages of 5 and 13, and after further legislation in 1891, this schooling was to be free of charge. Maybe the fragments of slate pencils found on site had fallen out of the school bags of this first generation of compulsory pupils.