Burslem Board School

Location 16 on the index map

Burslem Board School

bottom of Bournes Bank is the Burslem National School

A three-story structure erected in 1817 at a cost of £2000.
It was built to accommodate 600 children but was half empty
in 1840 because most parents preferred to send their
children to the Methodist schools and to Burslem Sunday School.

This building can be seen on the 1851 map of St. John's Church

Day schools appeared locally in the early nineteenth century, when education was neither free nor compulsory.

By 1842, there were only 2831 day school places in the Potteries, and not all of those were filled. By contrast, attendance at Sunday Schools approached 18,000.

The majority of day schools were run by The National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, founded in 1811 and closely linked to the Church of England. The British and Foreign Schools Society, largely supported by Nonconformists, had schools at Hanley, Cobridge, Tunstall and Burslem

St. John's Church c.1840
on the left is the National School

links to related information:

- background to education in the Potteries -