ABSTRACT
The most important fact about education in the period 1830–70 is that it was provided and consumed almost entirely by volunteers. This was particularly the case in Birmingham and Sheffield which were practically untouched by the provisions of the Factory Acts. In 1851 less than 3 per cent of children attending school in the two cities were (at the behest of the guardians of the poor, employers or magistrates) attached to workhouse, factory and industrial schools. Endowments subsidised the education of less than 10 per cent of pupils. Government money, entailing the threat of increased central direction, began to flow more freely in the late 1850s but compulsory attendance at elementary schools was not generally required until after 1870. 1
