Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
I think it's time for another great Brummie wench....so may I introduce once more the SUFFIELDS? Many times mentioned in dispatches in various threads on here...but first one of that great family who struck a blow for women in Education.
Jane Suffield
In the early nineteenth century education was a privilege. The parents of upper and middle class children would pay for their education. In Birmingham King Edward’s School founded in 1552 was a free grammar school - but for boys only, girls were expected to marry, raise a family and run the house. For that, people thought, education was not particularly necessary. Gradually through the century the situation improved. By 1870 Foster’s Education Act ensured that all children, boys and girls, would receive an elementary education up to the age of twelve. This was done by local councils through the School Board. Only the privileged would have education after that age. Emily Jane Suffield was born two years after the Education Act in 1872.
The Suffields were a successful middle-class trading family with a business in the centre of Birmingham. Their drapery shop was in Old Lamb House, a half-timbered building in Bull Street. But in the 1880s the Improvement Scheme required that much of central Birmingham be demolished to make way for the new Corporation Street, and other roads linking with it. Old Lamb House was knocked down in 1886.
The Suffields moved into 39 Corporation Street, but the business failed after a couple of years; according to a family story this was because the sprinklers were accidentally left on overnight, ruining the stock. Emily Jane, usually called Jane, or Jenny by friends, was the fifth child in the family with two older brothers John and Roland, and two older sisters Edith May, and Mabel.
After Jane another brother and sister were born. The Suffields were interested in literature and drama. The family still have programmes from 1872 and 83 for small dramatic entertainments put together by them at Christmas. Mabel Suffield was later the mother of the world-famous author J.R.R. Tolkien, he acted in several plays at school and wrote dramas for the family to perform.
The Suffield's father John was an active member of the Central Literary Association, and of the Birmingham Dramatic and Literary Club. Despite his business concerns he found time to write articles and give talks about various authors, including Chaucer, Dryden and Ben Jonson.
Jane’s obituary said that her knowledge of English literature was vast; she inherited books from her father, for example Dryden’s and Spenser’s poetry.
Most of the Suffields – grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins – lived in Moseley. While Jane was young her family rented houses at various times in Trafalgar Road, Russell Road, Ashfield Road, then Cotton Lane. Moseley was in Worcestershire until 1911, on the edge of the countryside, a pleasant suburb with trees and large gardens. Many of the Suffields enjoyed gardening.
There were changes planned for the education of the country; the School Boards elected in 1900 were to be the last. From 1903 there would be Local Education Boards. This gave importance to the last School Board, as the system of education established then was likely to continue when the education authorities took over. Although only a few women could vote in local elections it was believed that they took a particular interest in education for the sake of their children; it was also believed that women had influence over their husbands. In local elections political parties liked to have at least one woman candidate.
One of the two main parties in Birmingham, the Church Party, believed that there should be a non-sectarian religious service in school each day. The Bishop of Coventry (and Birmingham), Bishop E. A. Knox, was the leader; Miss Creak advised him that Jane Suffield would be a good choice as ‘Our lady School Board candidate’. The Suffields were nonconformists, and believed in the importance of education for women as well as men. Birmingham’s free school, King Edward’s, only taught boys, and pupils had to be recommended by a governor from the Church of England. Many of Birmingham’s town councillors were nonconformists, and they began to demand a wider provision of education from King Edward’s. In the 1830s the King Edward’s Foundation set up several elementary and middle schools in the town for girls as well as boys. By the late 1870s when the council were providing basic education through the Board Schools they asked King Edward’s to offer secondary education to a wider range of pupils. Jane’s older brother Roland was a pupil at King Edward’s at this time.
In 1883 several grammar schools were opened. The old boys’ grammar school in New Street became a High School, with a High School for girls next door. Jane took the entrance exam for the High School in November 1884 and passed, one of twenty ‘Pupils Admitted from the Examination held on the 25 day of November 1884’. She was a fee-payer, ten shillings entrance fee, then nine pounds tuition fee per annum. Miss Creak, the new Head Mistress, aimed to enable girls to have a good scientific, as well as artistic, education. A forceful woman, she did not wish to see the girls associating with boys. Her influence was such that even brothers and sisters had to separate one hundred yards from the two schools so they would not arrive together! Jane did well at school; she was the first pupil to attend extra physiology classes at Mason College, the forerunner of Birmingham University. The professor was concerned that Jane should not meet any male students; if a class of male students was arriving she had to leave hastily by the back stairs.
Jane continued to attend classes at Mason College after she left school in 1892. She began teaching at one of the King Edward’s Girls Grammar Schools in Bath Row. During this time she was taking a degree in botany and geology by correspondence course from the University of London. This was often the only choice for women who wished to study at university; there were very few places for women at Oxford or Cambridge, or even at the new redbrick universities such as Bristol or Durham. It also meant they could live at home. After gaining her degree in 1895 Jane moved to Liverpool in 1896, to develop the teaching of science to girls in the High School there.
In 1899 she returned to Birmingham to take up her post at Bath Row again; the only teacher on the staff fortunate enough to have been able to take a degree. J.R.R. Tolkien remembered that she had coached him in geometry for the King Edward’s School admissions exam – he gained a place in June 1900.
Continued below...
Jane Suffield
In the early nineteenth century education was a privilege. The parents of upper and middle class children would pay for their education. In Birmingham King Edward’s School founded in 1552 was a free grammar school - but for boys only, girls were expected to marry, raise a family and run the house. For that, people thought, education was not particularly necessary. Gradually through the century the situation improved. By 1870 Foster’s Education Act ensured that all children, boys and girls, would receive an elementary education up to the age of twelve. This was done by local councils through the School Board. Only the privileged would have education after that age. Emily Jane Suffield was born two years after the Education Act in 1872.
The Suffields were a successful middle-class trading family with a business in the centre of Birmingham. Their drapery shop was in Old Lamb House, a half-timbered building in Bull Street. But in the 1880s the Improvement Scheme required that much of central Birmingham be demolished to make way for the new Corporation Street, and other roads linking with it. Old Lamb House was knocked down in 1886.
The Suffields moved into 39 Corporation Street, but the business failed after a couple of years; according to a family story this was because the sprinklers were accidentally left on overnight, ruining the stock. Emily Jane, usually called Jane, or Jenny by friends, was the fifth child in the family with two older brothers John and Roland, and two older sisters Edith May, and Mabel.
After Jane another brother and sister were born. The Suffields were interested in literature and drama. The family still have programmes from 1872 and 83 for small dramatic entertainments put together by them at Christmas. Mabel Suffield was later the mother of the world-famous author J.R.R. Tolkien, he acted in several plays at school and wrote dramas for the family to perform.
The Suffield's father John was an active member of the Central Literary Association, and of the Birmingham Dramatic and Literary Club. Despite his business concerns he found time to write articles and give talks about various authors, including Chaucer, Dryden and Ben Jonson.
Jane’s obituary said that her knowledge of English literature was vast; she inherited books from her father, for example Dryden’s and Spenser’s poetry.
Most of the Suffields – grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins – lived in Moseley. While Jane was young her family rented houses at various times in Trafalgar Road, Russell Road, Ashfield Road, then Cotton Lane. Moseley was in Worcestershire until 1911, on the edge of the countryside, a pleasant suburb with trees and large gardens. Many of the Suffields enjoyed gardening.
There were changes planned for the education of the country; the School Boards elected in 1900 were to be the last. From 1903 there would be Local Education Boards. This gave importance to the last School Board, as the system of education established then was likely to continue when the education authorities took over. Although only a few women could vote in local elections it was believed that they took a particular interest in education for the sake of their children; it was also believed that women had influence over their husbands. In local elections political parties liked to have at least one woman candidate.
One of the two main parties in Birmingham, the Church Party, believed that there should be a non-sectarian religious service in school each day. The Bishop of Coventry (and Birmingham), Bishop E. A. Knox, was the leader; Miss Creak advised him that Jane Suffield would be a good choice as ‘Our lady School Board candidate’. The Suffields were nonconformists, and believed in the importance of education for women as well as men. Birmingham’s free school, King Edward’s, only taught boys, and pupils had to be recommended by a governor from the Church of England. Many of Birmingham’s town councillors were nonconformists, and they began to demand a wider provision of education from King Edward’s. In the 1830s the King Edward’s Foundation set up several elementary and middle schools in the town for girls as well as boys. By the late 1870s when the council were providing basic education through the Board Schools they asked King Edward’s to offer secondary education to a wider range of pupils. Jane’s older brother Roland was a pupil at King Edward’s at this time.
In 1883 several grammar schools were opened. The old boys’ grammar school in New Street became a High School, with a High School for girls next door. Jane took the entrance exam for the High School in November 1884 and passed, one of twenty ‘Pupils Admitted from the Examination held on the 25 day of November 1884’. She was a fee-payer, ten shillings entrance fee, then nine pounds tuition fee per annum. Miss Creak, the new Head Mistress, aimed to enable girls to have a good scientific, as well as artistic, education. A forceful woman, she did not wish to see the girls associating with boys. Her influence was such that even brothers and sisters had to separate one hundred yards from the two schools so they would not arrive together! Jane did well at school; she was the first pupil to attend extra physiology classes at Mason College, the forerunner of Birmingham University. The professor was concerned that Jane should not meet any male students; if a class of male students was arriving she had to leave hastily by the back stairs.
Jane continued to attend classes at Mason College after she left school in 1892. She began teaching at one of the King Edward’s Girls Grammar Schools in Bath Row. During this time she was taking a degree in botany and geology by correspondence course from the University of London. This was often the only choice for women who wished to study at university; there were very few places for women at Oxford or Cambridge, or even at the new redbrick universities such as Bristol or Durham. It also meant they could live at home. After gaining her degree in 1895 Jane moved to Liverpool in 1896, to develop the teaching of science to girls in the High School there.
In 1899 she returned to Birmingham to take up her post at Bath Row again; the only teacher on the staff fortunate enough to have been able to take a degree. J.R.R. Tolkien remembered that she had coached him in geometry for the King Edward’s School admissions exam – he gained a place in June 1900.
Continued below...
Last edited by a moderator:
