Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

Here's a little bit stolen from the Encyclopedia Britannica:

[ragged school] any of the 19th-century English and Scottish institutions
maintained through charity and fostering various educational and other
services for poor children, such as elementary schooling, industrial
training, religious instruction, clothing clubs, and messenger and
bootblack brigades. The schools were allied in 1844 with the founding of
the Ragged School Union in London. They rapidly died out after 1870 with
the introduction of national compulsory education, though a few remained
into the 20th century.
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And a bit more, s.v. "Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper":

 While serving as a member of the short-lived General Board of Health
(1848-54) and afterward, Shaftesbury (who succeeded to the earldom in 1851)
insisted that the government sponsor new low-cost housing projects for
urban workers and carefully inspect housing that already existed. During
his 39 years as president of the Ragged Schools Union, that organization
enabled about 300,000 destitute children to be educated free at what were
called ragged schools or industrial feeding schools.
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A Google search on "ragged school" yields "about 4,320" hits.  Surely you
can follow up on those for yourself.

Have a look at:

http://www.raggedschoolmuseum.org.uk/

well worth a visit if you are in London's east end anytime

regards

poly