Your History: Education in Ludlow in the Medieval Period

Photo: The ceiling of the hexagonal porch of St Laurence’s Church

Education in Ludlow in the Medieval Period Medieval education was a privilege that only children from wealthy families could enjoy. The lessons that were taught, however, were very different from what we see being taught in schools nowadays. Children in the wealthiest families were taught at home by tutors, but schools did exist and we know that in Ludlow there were two that were mentioned in documents relating to a dispute about burgage plots in 1200. The Church played a major part in medieval education. In Ludlow a school for the sons of local burgesses was held within the church. Responsibility for the school was eventually taken over by the Palmers’ Guild in the early 15th century.The school was then housed in a building owned by the Palmers’ Guild in Mill Street.The building is now part of Ludlow College.

Boys would have been taught Latin grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. Mathematics did not always form part of the curriculum although Euclidean Geometry was sometimes studied, but usually only learned by rote. The ordinary person would have little numerical skill and would have to rely upon the services of a specialist scrivener who could keep accounts for them or even give them lessons as to how to do it for themselves.

Mathematics was taught by the Guilds to apprentices in order to give them necessary skills that they would need for the work that they would be doing in later life. For example, every building apprentice would have needed to be taught a large amount of geometry in order to be able to create the magnificent buildings that can still be seen in Ludlow. The hexagonal porch of St Laurence’s demonstrates the skill of the craftsmen of the early 1300s.

Article supplied by Ludlow History Society