Bertuna’s Children relates the 200-years old history of the village school, the lives of the people who have worked and studied there and the local and national events that have influenced its evolution.
For family historians this book offers so much more than its subtitle “The history of education in a Suffolk Village” promises. An indication that its scope is much wider may be gleaned from the following publisher’s ‘blurb’.
“The book documents the day-to-day working of the school and the challenges faced by consecutive head teachers and school managers.
It shows that many of the issues which politicians, teachers and school governors faced during the nineteenth century are germane today and that, as long as political decisions are based on ideology rather than systemic evidence, the education system will be in a constant state of change and many issues may never be resolved.
The book includes details of the lives of many of the people who were associated with Great Barton School and provides a valuable basis for further family history research. Two head teachers, one teacher and 120 “old boys” served in the armed forces during the First World War. During the nineteenth century several families emigrated from Great Barton to the United States, Canada, South Africa and to Australia – where a town was named Bunbury in honour of the third son of Sir Henry Bunbury, the school’s founder”.
Sue Spiller, herself a family historian, has spent a working lifetime at the centre of education in the county. A former head teacher at Great Barton, she also worked in other primary, middle and senior schools in Suffolk.
As one might expect from a head teacher of such experience, the book is well-written, in down-to-earth, reasoned language and the reviewer noted that in this text those questions, which begin to form in a reader’s mind as a sentence progresses have usually been anticipated by the author and are answered before the paragraph end.
The lives of the people of Great Barton form a constant background to the story, often told in their actual words taken from interviews and published reports in the more recent years.
Included are summaries of the service given by local men and women in both world wars; the departure of individuals and families for new lives overseas; local activities – sporting and cultural – the village celebration of national events and illuminating pen-portraits of the teaching staff throughout the school’s history.
An extensive bibliography, timelines and indices provide pointers to potential sources of valuable material for those researching beyond the subject of this book, while its tables and charts ably support the data that the author has meticulously assembled.
The appeal of this very readable book, which extends to 396 pages, will not be confined to those with Great Barton connections – although there is a great deal of interest to them to be found here – but will be of value everyone interested in an all round portrait of village life in the 19th and 20th century and an insider-view of the development of schools and education in England.
Geoffrey Dennish
BERTUNA'S CHILDREN 