Description:The image above shows the Abstract of the cash account for the ‘National and Sunday Schools’ and also ‘the Clothing Club’ in the parish of Lilleshall, made in 1827.
The document tells us that the National and Sundays schools established in Lilleshall were maintained by public donations. Subscriptions for 1827 amounted to seventy one pounds, eleven shillings and sixpence. The parents of children who attended the school made a contribution for their child’s ‘instruction at the national school’, which amounted to twenty nine pounds and three shillings in 1827. Children who were involved with the Lilleshall Clothing Club also donated a weekly subscription that amounted to over one hundred and ninety seven pounds.
The Abstract tells us that the schoolmaster was paid forty two pounds per annum and his ‘lodging’ was also funded by the money received from subscriptions. Thirteen pounds, six shillings and eight and a half pence purchased ‘books for the schools and prizes’ in 1827 and two hundred and thirty pounds, eight shillings and ten pence were ‘expended in Children’s Clothing’.
The document featured above provides an insight into life in Lilleshall in the 1820s, reflecting the important social role of institutions established by and for local people during the early nineteenth century.