School work of Muriel Longhurst, 1947-50

Muriel Longhurst attended Wokingham County Girls (Grammar) School in Berkshire. One exercise book is from Latin and covers political history in classical times. The two others consist of Muriel's history notes for the first three years. The first history book moves chronologically from ancient civilisations and the Roman Empire to British history starting with the Anglo-Saxons, then the Battle of Hastings, the Norman kings, the plague, the peasants' revolt and Henry VIII. Muriel's work includes many coloured drawings and maps, as well as the occasional imaginative piece such as 'A Ghost of a Saxon Chief comes back to earth'. The second book picks up the story from Tudor times and continues through to the end of the eighteenth century, including the American revolution and some European history. In adulthood, Muriel worked as a teacher in a school in Brigg, Lincolnshire where she prepared pupils for the local certificate (an earlier form of CSE) from 1957 onwards - two syllabuses are included in this collection. The certificates were accepted by local employers, such as the steelworks in nearby Scunthorpe and the local jam and stocking factories. The CSE was introduced in 1965, but such was the valued 'currency' of the local certificate that the school preferred to use it until 1971.

Periods covered: