A child of merit

A bit of a tease: the young David Evans has been ferreting out the local history again, and has found a pretty remarkable, self contained history to share with readers of the blog.

I’m not going to say anything more at this stage, but there’s some good stuff to come – please stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy these stunning Certificates of Merit, and marvel at the fact they’re around 120 years old.

A real piece of local history.

David wrote:

Isaiah Callier, a child of merit.

I have recently been shown these wonderfully illuminated certificates of merit. They give us a brief, but precious glimpse back to school life in Brownhills pre-1900, and in their way they reveal so much. The quality of printing in these card-mounted certificates and the number of school sessions per year (one day is two sessions), The Headmaster who was, I believe, a well-known and important man in Brownhills in those days, the name and status of the village school, and lastly, Isaiah Collier, the pupil.

He was born in Brownhills in 1887 and when he left school he became a coal miner. I believe in later life he was also the parish church sextant.

Isiah’s pocket diary for 1917 reveals an amazing year’s military service for Isaiah. But that’s another story.