INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS, REFORMATORIES and TRAINING SHIPS

School Boards could establish industrial schools and day industrial feeding schools as a result of the Elementary Education Act 1876. The concept evolved to provide remedial care and training for children failing to attend the ordinary board schools and where their education was neglected by parents, without removing them from normal daily family life.

These schools provided industrial training, basic education and fed them but did not board them. Children had to attend for ten hours a day, usually between 8am and 6pm. Assuming satisfactory levels of attendance, any child would ultimately be allowed to return to the normal elementary schools. These schools were not established everywhere but many major towns and cities provided such facilities.

Industrial schools under the workhouse system

The provision of industrial training was common amongst the poor law unions. Industrial training was usually in the form of handicrafts for boys which quickly expanded to include trades such as shoemaking, carpentry, tailoring etc and various aspects of domestic training for girls. They also offered other secular activities and swimming, brass bands and sports.

There was a clear distinction between reformatories and industrial schools.

Children sent to industrial schools were destitute whereas children sent to reformatories were juvenile offenders.

Children were sent to reformatories because they had appeared in court having committed serious crimes - many having been arrested more than once. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, it was realised that all children deserved to receive a better education and that children needed protection, particularly those who had a poor start in life and who were virtually abandoned by their families.

As part of the industrial school system a number of naval training ships were established.

Industrial training school ships were established in response to concerns about juvenile crime. The land-based industrial schools were encountering difficulties in finding employment for those who left.

England was a maritime country and there was a continual need for sailors. The idea was that the authorities would use old wooden ship hulks owned by the Admiralty and use them to train boys to become sailors. At the same time they would be educated and often taught a trade hopefully taking them away from crime.

During the nineteenth century four types of training school ships existed.

The first training ships were established by the Royal Navy and some pupils were from wealthy families.

There were also Reformatory Ships specifically for boys convicted of a crime - those who had offended on more than one occasion and were usually aged up to sixteen years old.

The Industrial Training ships were for boys who had been in court but not convicted of a crime. They could have been ten years old or more and had been sleeping rough, have no means of support or living in a house of ill repute.

The other category was the training ship for poor boys of good character who were orphans and whose father had been a sailor.

The reformatory and industrial ships were usually old timber ship hulks convenient for use as they often lay unused in river estuaries or in docks and were ideal as training ships.

The boys were subjected to a busy timetable which comprised four to six hours of industrial training and three hours of education each weekday; there was also reading, writing and arithmetic often supplemented with geography and history although Industrial training was the main focus of learning.

On the naval training ships boys were taught such skills as knots, how to repair sails, management, rowing and navigation etc. Most of the training ships had a vessel enabling boys to gain practical experience of handling a boat.

Throughout Britain there were ten industrial training ships and three reformatory ships. Boys would often be sent directly to an industrial training ship although some went to the workhouse first pending their transfer.