The story of the Burston Strike School

In 1902, for the first time, under the Education Bill 'working-class children' were entitled to go to school, but this was little more than preparing them for work in the factories, fields or domestic service.
Many progressives and trade unionists believed that that all children should have a decent education. Tom and Kitty Higdon were Christians and Socialists who saw education as an opportunity for a better life.
They began teaching near Aylsham in Norfolk in 1902, a highly agricultural area where the Agricultural Workers Union was actively organising workers.
The Norfolk Education Committee was dominated by farm owners who provided squalid conditions and took children out of school whenever seasonal cheap labour was needed.
Following disputes with the school managers at Aylsham, in 1911 the Higdons were moved to a school at Burston village, run by a committee of farm owners chaired by the local Rector, the Reverend Charles Tucker Eland.
Eland was a reactionary conservative whose £580-a-year salary contrasted with an annual wage of about £35 for many of his congregation, who were in constant danger of being evicted by the land owners.
The Higdons soon came into conflict with the committee over the cold and damp conditions at the school, but they gained great respect in the local community for their efforts to give their children a better start in life. Attendance at the school rose dramatically.
Tom Higdon stood for the parish council along with other villagers, and they succeeded in pushing out Charles Reverend Eland and several other land owners. The balance of power on the parish council swung in favour of the working people.
The committee, led by Charles Eland, accused Kitty Higdon of discourtesy over an incident in which the schoolroom fire was lit without permission, and persuaded a local foster mother to say she had beaten and mistreated her foster daughters. They demanded the immediate dismissal of Tom and Kitty Higdon.
'We are going on strike tomorrow'
An inquiry cleared the Higdons of mistreating the children, but the committee decided to dismiss them on the grounds of discourtesy. But on the day managers welcomed a new teacher to the school, they discovered writing on the classroom blackboard saying 'We are going on strike tomorrow', and heard a commotion outside.
A group of children, led by one of the pupils, Violet Potter, along with their parents, marched through the village which placards declaring 'We want our teachers back', and a banner carrying the single word 'Justice'.
At Crown Green the Higdons gave an emotional speech, and the parents, led by the village fishmonger George Durbidge, decided they wanted the Higdons to continue teaching their children.
A makeshift schoolroom was set up on the Green under a marquee, where the Higdons began teaching all but 6 of the pupils. The school was later housed an unused workshop on the Green.
The Management Committee resorted to intimidating the parents; many were charged with not sending their children to a state-recognised school, but the fines were paid from collections held outside the courtroom.
Workers who supported the ‘strike school,’ as it became known, were sacked by local landowners, threatened with eviction, and some even had their houses and crops ransacked, but such actions strengthened their determination and the growing support of the labour movement.
The strike became a rallying cause for trade unionists and progressives all over Britain, with supporters and speakers regularly visiting Burston, and after one year over £1,250 was raised in donations from trade unions and Labour Party branches.
In the midst of the horrors of the Great War, Burston was a spark of hope, and remained a beacon for trade unionists long after the strike itself had come to an end.
In May 1917 a brand new purpose-built school was opened by the leader of the strike, Violet Potter, who said at the opening: "with joy and thankfulness I declare this school open to be forever a School of Freedom".
The Burston Strike School only came to an end a few months after Tom Higdon died in August 1939, and Kitty was unable to carry on alone. Its pupils - the children and grandchildren of the original strikers - were taken to the Council School, where the facilities were now greatly improved.
The boycott of the Council School had lasted for over 25 years and earned its place in history as the longest-lasting strike ever.
Kitty Higdon died in April 1946. Both she and Tom are buried in Burston's churchyard.