Maestir Schoolroom to St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales.
N 51° 29.273 W 003° 16.580
30U E 480813 N 5704117
One of the most loved buildings at St Fagans Museum is the Maestir School re-located between 1981-1984 from Lampeter, Ceredigion. Maestir, a small, beautifully restored rural one room school, is typical of the late Victorian period.
Waymark Code: WME3PA
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/30/2012
Views: 3
"Built in the hamlet of Maestir, some 2 miles west of Lampeter, the school was originally called St Mary's Board School. This name was taken by the school from the church of St Mary's where the first school had been held until a new building was erected in 1880. Most of the families that lived near Maestir were in the employment of the nearby Falcondale estate, and the school was built by Sir Charles Harford, squire of Falcondale, primarily for his workers' children.
Approximately 36 pupils between the ages of 5 and 14 attended the school in 1900 and there was a single teacher in overall charge. A pupil-teacher (usually the brightest senior girl) was given the task of teaching the infants and most pupils spoke Welsh as their first language although lessons were taught through the medium of English. Contrary to popular belief, by 1905, the pupils at Maestir were taught half an hour of Welsh a week with the infamous ‘three Rs' (reading (w)riting and (a)rithmetic) as the main subjects.
In 1916 the school was closed due to falling pupil numbers and Cardigan County Council converted the building into a dwelling by subdividing the classroom to form 3 separate rooms. In 1981, the Historic Building team from the then named Welsh Folk Museum arrived at Maestir to measure, photograph and dismantle the building. Using the original materials, fittings and fixtures and the old school oven that had been used by a local farmer to prop up a sagging dry-stone wall, Maestir was re-erected, painted its distinctive green and opened at the Museum in 1984. Since then, it is estimated that millions of visitors have visited Maestir including tens of thousands of children that have gone back in time to experience life as rural children in west Wales at the beginning of the last century."
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