Corven Hall History

Corven Hall’s history relating to its roots as a Rectory and further development by the church in Victorian times, is not particularly well documented. The most notable subject related to Corven Hall is the residence of Reverend Thomas Macfarlane.

The below image from c1874 captures Macfarlane with his family outside the front of Corven Hall, this was kindly provided by Trevor Powell who visited us at Corven Hall and provided the photo and his extensive research article below which further previews the history of Macfarlane and his contributions to the Radnorshire Schools and local communities.

THE REV THOMAS MACFARLANE and HIS RADNORSHIRE SCHOOLS

Trevor Powell

The aim of this article is to pay tribute to the hitherto largely unsung contribution made by the Rev Thomas Macfarlane to education in Wales and especially in Radnorshire. I owe the roof over my head in Bettws Disserth to him, even though the structure that he fought so hard to erect turned out to be a private dwelling and not a local school as he intended.

Until recent years it was not uncommon to come across Hundred House residents praising the quality of the education that their grandparents had received at ‘the old school in Bettws’. Although such tales contain an element of truth the facts suggest a rather different story, which reveals that it was a very similarly constructed building in nearby Franksbridge which became the school for this immediate area.

Elusive though Thomas Macfarlane’s dream proved of bringing education to Northern periphery of his large and scattered parish, he did meet with greater success in his dealings with Howey and Clyro Schools where his earlier life as an educator gave him an advantage not enjoyed by most of his predecessors and successors as Rector of Disserth with Bettws Disserth and later on, Clyro. He also played a key role in the short-lived Llandrindod College.

Thomas Macfarlane was born on 31^st March 1832, the oldest son of a family of four boys and six girls in the parish of Boharm, Banffshire, where his father Mungo farmed at Nether Alton having married Margaret Christie in Huntly on 6^th December 1822. His education at the local school did not impress him, as he recalled in a 1882 letter to his sister Christina in Canada: ‘we were taught next to nothing.’ He completed his education at Marischal College, Aberdeen where, in 1853, he was awarded a MA in classics, having won a third prize for Moral Philosophy and a first prize for ‘Summer Reading’.(1)

His first teaching appointment followed very shortly after his graduation when he was appointed Senior Assistant master at Adelaide Academy, Jersey, moving on in 1855 to Cheltenham Grammar School as Senior Classics Master.(2)

In 1858 he began his long contribution to education in Wales by taking up the appointment of Headmaster of Llandeilo Grammar School where he remained for fifteen successful years. The year after his appointment he found time to marry his first cousin, Eleanor Susan Christie, on 14 July 1859 at Britford, Wilshire where her father, William Christie, was recorded in the 1841 Census as a ‘Farm Steward’. In 1864 he took holy orders while still continuing in his lay employment.

His time as Headmaster was movingly reflected in an article published in ‘The Welsman’ when he was presented , at a farewell dinner, with an illuminated address by present and past pupils which stated: ‘ Though we feel deeply the loss that the town and neighbourhood will sustain we heartily congratulate you on the attainment of the position of Rector of Disserth and we feel more and more the good effects of that firm yet kind discipline you exercised over us’. In reply Macfarlane stated that: ‘When I entered upon my duties here fifteen years ago I had but one object before me and have steadily kept it in view throughout. It was to furnish to the best of my power each boy committed to my care with such a key as should thereafter open a door of success in a profession or trade.’ (3)

In the developing educational reality following the passing of the 1870 (Forster) Education Act he wasted no time in putting his stamp on the education of the local children in Disserth. There was much to be done as: ‘prior to the passing of this Act it used to be said that the rural schoolmaster was a man who had failed in his previous attempts to earn a living. In 1846, 39 out of the 43 teachers in Radnorshire were untrained and the story was told about a certain schoolmaster by a Builth Wells clergyman, the Rev RH Harrison, who was obliged to send for a constable to remove a drunken fiddler in the street who proved to be ‘the schoolmaster at Aberedw’.(4) .

This sort of standard was a far cry from that now to be set, not many years later by Thomas Macfarlane and many of his contemporaries amid the explosion of new school building programmes in the wake of the 1870 (Forster) Act and it is clear from the high regard in which was held in Llandeilo that those in his future parishes in Radnorshire would be gaining a most experienced and valued educator as well as their parish priest.

By the time that he arrived in Disserth Macfarlane and his wife had produced nine children and three more were to be born during their time there. Among his children was the future clergyman Thomas Browning Macfarlane, born in 1862 (named in honour of the poet, who was said to have a family connection) and who was to be one of Macfarlane’s star pupils later on in Llandrindod College.

Howey National School

Responses to the 1818 examination of the ‘Education of the Poor’ showed Disserth and Bettws Disserth to be: ‘devoid of any form of schooling’. (5) The situation was little better in 1846 when the Rev Richard Lumley of Builth declared: ‘I do not think that there is a desire for education among the working classes… there is not a proper appreciation of its value. There is no disposition on the part of the wealthier classes for providing instruction for the poor but better funds for schools would facilitate attendance.’ (6)

‘Matters would have been worse had not the Sunday Schools, particularly those of the Dissenters, taken on the work of teaching their scholars, adults as well as children… At Disserth there was a school in the church tower where scholars were taught the three R’s (under the auspices) from 1855 of one of the itinerant masters sent by the Trustees of Madame Bevan’s Circulating Schools. We may perhaps assume that the school in the tower ceased in 1865, for in that year the National School at Howey was opened’. (7) The school’s opening date was 26 June 1865 but what ensued thereafter is not clear until the arrival of the first log book which was not started until 27 February 1867.

National schools were voluntary but: ‘The Government applied a system which has been referred to as ‘Payment by Results’ within which pupils studied the 3 R’s from 1862-1897. ‘Extra Subjects’ could earn additional Grant’. (8) Even so the Act of 1870 did not contemplate the abolition of school fees but limited them to 9d per week.

One suspects that coming into such an environment may have been something of a culture shock for Macfarlane, although his early days in his somewhat remote Scottish farming community may have helped to prepare him for the realities of life in rural Radnorshire. He was also following a much loved rector in the form of the Rev Thomas Thomas who had been in post for some 51 years. One wonders what the congregation would have made of the much younger and rather more dynamic Llandeilo ‘townie’ who was now their parish priest?

A glance at some of the school log book entries makes clear the extent of Macfarlane’s involvement:

31 October 1873 ‘The Rev T Macfarlane visited and taught Arithmetic.’
25 November 1873 ‘Mr Macfarlane presented 2 1/2 dozen arithmetic books to the school – pleased with the novelty (of the new books) the scholars have worked better.’
8 January 1874 ‘Mr Macfarlane gave dictation to the higher class.’
15 January 1875 ‘Mr Macfarlane taught the first class English.’
17 May 1875 ‘Mr Macfarlane thought it advisable to close school to stop the spread of scarletina.’
28 September 1875 ‘ The Rev T Macfarlane gave a geography lesson and brought down a globe to illustrate his lesson.’
30 November 1875 ‘Mr Macfarlane gave the children some fruit because he was pleased that they preferred coming to school to a holiday.’
1 March 1876 ‘Howey Club Feast. Mr Macfarlane came down with us to church and told the children that they were to have a holiday this afternoon.’

Now we begin to see an involvement with the school by the whole Macfarlane family:

26 May 1876 ‘Mrs Macfarlane came down on Monday and Wednesday afternoons assisting with the needlework.’
23 November 1876 ‘Mrs and Miss Macfarlane taught needlework.’
14 December 1876 ‘Mr Macfarlane taught geography and grammar as usual.’
30 June 1877 Inspector’s Report stated: ‘There was a great improvement in needlework this year.’
25 September 1877 ‘Mr Macfarlane cautioned the boys against misbehaviour out of school.’
14 January 1878 ‘Mr Macfarlane and also Master TB Macfarlane came in for a while.’
30 June 1878 ‘Mr Macfarlane signed a report as ‘Chairman of the Managing Committee.’
28 July 1879 ‘Mr Macfarlane brought his brother and a lady to see the school.’
4 January 1880 ‘School reopened by the Rev T Macfarlane.’
The last entry for Macfarlane was on 12 July 1880, thereafter the entries featured the Rev WE Prickard. (9)

Bettws Disserth School

As if his role as Rector and Howey School manager were not enough he also turned his attention the educational needs of the Northern end of his extensive parish we find him writing on 6 October 1874 to the Church of England National Society: ‘I have a small outlying parish in the county for which no school has ever been provided, Bettws Disserth, which is almost entirely a Churchgoing community. The Education Inspector has fixed the site of the Board School in a little village of the Glascwm district called Frank’s Bridge where there is scarcely a single representative of the Church party. I am anxious to anticipate the final order of February next by in the meantime commencing to build a Voluntary School in Bettws Disserth’ (10)

His actions here were very much in keeping with the times: ‘The introduction of the board schools certainly did not mean the end of denominational education. In fact, the Church of England made strenuous efforts to build new schools before the school boards became fully established.’ (11)

Matters seemed to be moving in his favour and in a further letter on 9 December 1874 he stated that: ‘The prinicpal landowner gives us a site close to the Church and building stone – both free. The parishioners will do all the haulage and unskilled labour. If therefore I could raise about £300 in money I should aim at a teacher’s residence as well as a school room.’ His formal application to the National Society three days later brought forth a grant of £30. (10)

The building of Bettws Disserth School commenced in 1875 but it was all in vain as in March 1876 the Dissenter dominated Cregrina United District School Board decided on Lower Llanedw and Franksbridge as the sites for the schools to be built and the two petitions from Bettws, Church party, parishioners were rejected and a gulf between church and chapel goers continued for many years. Even when we moved to Bettws School, now named Bettws Cottage, in 1997, negative feelings were still being expressed by hard-liners on both sides. Happily, the present century has largely seen a more positive interaction as Christianity nationally becomes more peripheral to daily life and there is now a regular inter-change of worshippers between St Mary’s Bettws and Franksbridge Chapel.

Macfarlane was left a broken man by the outcome of events having put his heart, soul and cash into the Bettws Disserth School project. What was he to do with the completed edifice? In his final letter to the National Society on 18 December 1877 he expressed his frustrations: ‘ I have delayed communicating with you till every hope of profiting by the Society’s kindness had been swept away. I regret that this is now the case. After having had subscriptions promised sufficient to build my School, an order came down from the Education Department…By this time my School was nearly built. All my offers (for them to use or let or sell to them the existing building at cost price) have been rejected. The building is lying useless and I had to borrow £300 to pay for it. The Society’s grant, like the other subscriptions promised me, is of course forfeited…In the meantime my finances are so hampered that I can neither favour a friend or fight an enemy.’ (10)

The rival Franksbridge School opened its doors on 29 July 1878 and still educates children of the Edw Valley, unlike long closed similar schools in Lower Llanedw, Glascwm, Llansantfraid-in-Elvel, Aberedw and sadly also Howey, which survived until 2008 and has now been demolished, although a replica of its magnificent church-like window survives in rhe school which never was in Bettws, which was heavily influenced by Macfarlane’s older flagship school.

Llandrindod College

Macfarlane remained an educational optimist, or perhaps a ‘glutton for punishment’? Even in the midst of the vicissitudes of the Bettws Disserth dramas he was able to espouse the founding of Llandrindod College in 1876 for which he was both the Secretary, Treasurer and classics tutor.

An early advertisement for the College appeared as far afield as in the Yorkshire and Leeds Intelligencer on 22 April 1876 espousing the College as a: ‘Proprietary School for the sons of gentlemen.’ On 2 August 1876 the Western Mail stated that prizes would be awarded in Divinity, Classics, English, French, Latin, Greek, History and Geography ( no mention of Mathematics or Science!) The School Council included local worthies such as: Sir R Green Price, JW Gibson Watt Esq and George Venables Esq QC.

Sadly the Hereford Times for 21 December 1878 carried the following message: ‘We understand that this school will be closed after Christmas next, in spite of its success in other respects, as it has not proved on its present exclusive basis a success financially to its promoters.’ Clearly there were insufficient sons of gentlemen in the area and yet another educational door was shut in Macfarlane’s face.

A revamped version of the College limped on under a new head until early 1883 but its glory days days were not to be repeated.

Exchange of Livings with the Rev WE Prickard, Vicar of Clyro

One senses that Macfarlane, in the face of two large educational disappointments in quick succession, now wanted to distance himself from the immediate area and Clyro was in many ways a logical choice for him and well known for the ramblings and diaries of the Rev Francis Kilvert, not long departed thence. The large vicarage would also suit Macfarlane’s considerable family.

Clyro Voluntary School

Macfarlane did not long lick his wounds and the School Log for Clyro records an early visit in his tenure by the Rev T Macfarlane and the Rev JD Williams on 9 July 1880 and later on that year Macfarlane signed the 1880 Inspection Report. (12) Nevertheless, although there is an absence of the pedagogical enthusiasm which so clearly characterised his involvement with Howey National School, he continued to do his duty as the school manager as a report in the Hereford Journal for 19 September 1903 testifies. He died on 14 July 1910 after almost exactly 30 years in office and on his 51^st wedding anniversary. His wife survived until 9 March 1929, dying at the age of 93 and buried with him in Clyro.

Most of their descendants now live in Canada but these days many of them are Plymouth Brethren – I wonder what Macfarlane would have made of that?! I am indebted to Kathy Finlayson and the extended family in Canada for permission to quote from his private correspondence and to publish the family photographs which appear here.

Notes

Article in the Elgin and Morayshire Courier 8 August 1853
Obituary of the Rev Thomas Macfarlane, Brecon County Times 22 Jul 1910
Article in the Welshman 17 January 1873
Abbeycwmhir School by WC Maddox, TRS 1979
Radnorshire Schools in 1818 by Robert Bevan, TRS 1990
Education by Dewi Davies, Brecknock Historian, 1977
Disserth – Its Church and Its History and Folklore by WH Howse, 1952
Howey School Log Book 1867-1892, Powys Archives REPS SOLI (E/9/6)
Elementary Schools in Rhaeadr and North West Radnorshire by Colin PF Hughes, TRS 1994
Author’s Private Collection
Schools in Wales 1500-1900 by Malcolm Seaborne, Gee&Son 1992
Clyro School Log Book 1864-94, Powys Archives REPS 491 CC/9/6

Additional Sources

An Introductory History of English Education Since 1800 by SJ Curtis and MEA Boultwood, University Tutorial Press, 1962

History of Education in Great Britain by SJ Curtis, University Tutorial Press, 1950

The Making of Victorian England by G Kitson Clark, Methuen, 1962

Radnorshire by WH Howse, pub EJ Thurston, 1949

Education in the Edw Valley by Colin Hughes, TRS 2010

Radnorshire School Log Books by Major John Mostyn, TRS 2-9 (1932-39)

Pioneers of Education in Radnorshire by HD Phillips and DS Davies, TRS 1947