The Deptford Ragged School was founded in 1844, twenty-seven years before the State began providing education for all children. It was started in a loft over a cowshed by eight Christian men and women as a Day School and Sunday School.  As many children as possible were crammed into the rented room to learn how to read and write, and very often to be fed too. It was one of the first twenty ragged schools exclusively run for ‘ragged children’, so called because they were ‘dressed in rags’ with bare feet in all weathers.

This talk - presented by Dr Katharine Alston and Dr John Price -  is related to the National Lottery Heritage Fund project, "Educating Deptford: The Deptford Ragged School and its place in the community". The project will increase knowledge and understanding of the history and heritage of the Deptford Ragged School, and of the lived experiences of those in and around it, as well as examining continuities between lives in the past and the present. The project's legacy will be continued knowledge-exchange through a digitised archive, exhibitions, performances, education resources for schools and local organisations, and research into links between education, schooling, wellbeing, the environment, and social mobility.

Dr Katharine Alston founded Deptford Ragged School Archive, DRSA, part of The Bear Church, Deptford, in 2018 and has been project lead since. Inspired by the history of the Deptford Ragged School which provided and championed education and social change in Deptford since 1844, she has run many community heritage projects, including working with Creekside Discovery Centre, local schools, Historic England, Bank of Things, Lewisham Council, and The Bear Church. She is currently a Senior Producer in Learning & Engagement at Imperial War Museums, working with schools, families, adults and communities. She has a PhD in Family Leaning and Museum Interpretation, and has been a trustee of the Bow Street Museum of Crime & Justice.

Dr John Price is an award-winning Public and Community Historian who specialises in modern and contemporary People’s History. John works primarily on London history and the history of Lewisham and, most recently, he led the project, ‘In Living Memory: A People’s History of Postwar Lewisham’, during Lewisham’s year as London Borough of Culture. John is currently the Project Manager and Consultant Historian for the Heritage Fund project "Educating Deptford: The Deptford Ragged School and its place in the community". He is also the Director of the Museum of Everyday Life, the Director of History and Heritage for the New Cross Fire Foundation, and a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London. 

Find out more at: www.deptfordraggedschoolarchive.org.uk/educatingdeptford