Figure 1.--Here is a class from a National School about 1930. The teacher was John Edwyn Williams and the headteacher was Robert Owen. Note the Welsh sign in the background. Earlier boys in National schools were not allowed to even speak Welsh, let alone have signs in Welsh.

A census of education in Wales was carried out in 1847 which become known in Wales as Brad y llyfrau Gleision (The Treachery of the Blue Books). The census refused to visit Non-conformist (chapel) schools and the census takers knew no word of Welsh. Therefore when asking questions to the Welsh only children there was no reply. This was put down to stupidness!! The final conclusion was that the non-conformists, and more importantly the Welsh language made children stupid. [Aaron] The result of this was the introduction of the "Welsh Not". Any child overheard talking Welsh in school was given a piece of wood with WN on it. If they overheard another child speaking Welsh they were to pass it on. Whoever had the WN at the end of the week was punished. Not only did this stop most children talking the language, it also pitted one child against another! [Aaron] With the advent of state-financed public education in the late 19th century, the inroads of the English language into Wales increased. As far as we know, all of the state financed schools like National Schools conducted classes in English and insisted that only English be spoken. Our information on the 19th century is very limited. We notice a lovely view of a village school in Corwall--"School is out" by Elizabeth Forbes in 1889. Of course Cornwall is not Wales, but it is on the Celtic Fringe. One of these national schools is depicted in book and film form in "How Green is My Valley". We note National Schools after World War I appear to be promoting the Welsh language. We are not sure of the time line associated with language policies. The National School here about 1930 is clearly promoting Welsh.

Sources

Aaron, Guto. E-mail message, July 17, 2003.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer] [School sandals]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Pages
[Return to the Main Welsh school page]
[Australia] [England] [France] [Germany]
[Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [New Zealand] [Scotland]
[United States]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 9:43 PM 8/12/2004
Last updated: 6:27 AM 6/25/2010