Victorian school slates, marbles found in London

An excavation in central London has uncovered the remains of a boys school complete with artifacts from the students’ schoolwork and their playtime. The objects include a slate tablet used as an erasable notebook to practice handwriting, a slate pencil and several ceramic alleys — marbles made of decorated white ceramic — from the Victorian era. Artifacts related to children’s lives are less frequently found than ones relating to adults, so these objects give us a special glimpse into the lives of schoolboys.

A team from the Museum of London Archaeology (MoLA) excavated the site in the dockland district of Wapping ahead of development, uncovering the remains of a chapel, alms houses, terraced housing and associated cesspits as well as the school. The structures date to between 1500 and 1800, and the schools and alms houses were still active there in the 1870s.

The school was founded in 1536 by Sheriff of London Nicholas Gibson and his wife Avice. It was dedicated to the education of 60 poor boys. The couple also founded the alms houses for widowed women of limited means in the same location. After Nicholas Gibson’s death, Avice handed over management of the institutions to the Worshipful Company of Coopers, the barrel-makers guild which was well-funded and charitably inclined. The school still exists today, although it moved from Wapping in the late 19th century and is now a co-ed secondary school of excellent academic reputation known as the Coopers’ Company and Coborn School in Upminster.

The marbles date to the last stage of the school’s presence at the site. They were discovered in a Victorian-era brick lined drain. It’s possible they were lost in a rousing game of marbles during recess at the school. The name “alleys” is short for alabaster, and they were decorated with green, red, purple and blue stripes and swirls to make them look like veined alabaster. (I think they look more like planets or plaids.)

The corner of a slate writing tablet was found next to the drain. It is covered with what look like grid lines, scribbles and a looped handwriting. Paper was not readily available to schools in the 19th century. Slate tablets were used for math and handwriting exercises, done with a sharped slate cylinder that made a lighter grey mark on the dark tablet. The pencil marks could be wiped clean with a cloth or sponge. Tablets were usually set in a wooden frame and could be pierced with a hole at the top to tie the pencil to the tablet. This tablet fragment has none of the wood frame remaining, but it does have a hole at the top.

* This article was originally published here