IT is always a sad time when the school doors close for the last time.

That is the fate awaiting the 150-year-old Cwm Primary in Bonymaen this summer. So the battle to save it lost, it is perhaps a time of quiet reflection. At least that is what author and teacher Geoff Brookes has been doing.

He has been given access to the school book log books kept by some of the head teachers there.

"They are fascinating documents, telling you a great deal about social conditions in the area," he said.

Below are some of his findings from the Cwm Primary records from 1879 to 1920.

"The closure of Cwm school is the end of a little piece of history. A place which has been a focal point for a small community and holding so many important memories for so many people. My wife's family all went there, and so did my own children for a while. It has always been a warm and comforting place.

"I have had the great privilege of access to the school log books and they are a fascinating insight, not only into the history of the school but also into the social history of the area.

"They were carefully compiled over almost 100 years by head teachers, often in elegant, flowing long hand. Much of the first book was written by Ann Bevan, who was head of Cwm Board School infant department for 34 years following her appointment in 1879. The books record attendance, the appointment of staff, inspection reports and daily activity. As a teacher, I find the similarities and differences between then and now very interesting indeed.

"The first thing that strikes you is how important the weather was. Indeed the school record becomes a detailed record of the weather.

"When it rained heavily, the children couldn't come to school, probably because they only had one set of clothes. If they got wet they had nothing else. The teachers could do little themselves to dry them, especially if the fireplaces were broken or the fires not lit. What else could the mothers do?

"And of course it rains a lot in Swansea, so there was frequent disruption. The log keeps saying "School closed due to the severity of the weather." The teachers would do their best to dry them and then amuse them with "singing and games" until it was dry enough to send them home. On 15 February, 1900 it rained so heavily that only nine children turned up.

"Attendance was compounded by illness. Dangerous deadly diseases could run through the school almost unchecked. "Many of the children are in delicate health," it says in 1903. "They were at the mercy of epidemics of childhood diseases, especially in the winter months. Diphtheria, measles, mumps, whooping cough and scarlet fever are all regularly recorded. The school would be closed or holidays extended in an attempt at infection control.

"In May 1898, 80 children were absent, 75 with measles, four with scarlet fever and one with influenza.

"In 1911, they closed for three weeks due to a measles outbreak. In September 1919, it is recorded that 'one child died this week in hospital suffering from diphtheria'.

"These must have been awful times for parents, facing these silent killers.

"What the children were taught in school also reflects the priorities of the time — the marching lessons, the knitting and the sewing and the darning. After all, you didn't replace your clothes, you mended them.

"There was also a sense that the school represented its community and responded to the wider world in a way that we do not. They didn't have the constant entertainment we have. Theirs were much simpler times. So the school would be closed for fairs, or when a Barnum and Bailey show came to town.

"One day they all went off to see Bostock and Wombwell's Menagerie and a good time was had by all. They closed for a parade of horses in Swansea, a cyclist's carnival, the Band of Hope Competitive Festival, the relief of Mafeking in the Boer War, the assassination of President McKinley.

Troops

"In 1896 they closed the school for the afternoon so the teachers could attend a bazaar in aid of the NUT at the Albert Hall in Swansea.

"But the school day was also interrupted for more chilling reasons.

"The log book tells us that "Recreation was suspended this morning until 11.20am to enable the children to see the troops pass on the Great Western Railway.

"It was October 28, 1914, and they were going to war."

Geoff Brookes is deputy head teacher at the city's Cefn Hengoed Community School and author of seven books on education and of Stories in Welsh Stone — The Secrets Within 15 Welsh Graves.

web link

www.storiesinwelshstone.co.uk