The 1870 Education Act involved a careful parish by parish examination of existing elementary education provision. For the first time in over fifty years of collecting such information the quality as well as the quantity of what existed was important, and the whole process took almost two years to complete. On 6 October 1870 George Ferraby, headmaster of the Marston and Lidlington National School recorded in his log book: ‘Received copy of Educational Return to fill up,’ and on 27 October stated that he had ‘Made up Return for 1870 Act’. This included giving details of the number of scholars that the school could accommodate, its denominational allegiance, and the numbers actually in attendance. The completed forms were returned to the Education Department in London. During the course of the next year the claims concerning accommodation were checked by inspectors who visited the schools and took careful measurements of room sizes. Dunton School log book records for 8 September 1871: ‘The Inspector of Returns came to take measurements of the schoolroom in the presence of the Rev J Taddy’. Condition was considered as well as the size of school premises and this led to some buildings, such as the British school at Biggleswade, which had functioned satisfactorily for many years, being rejected for future use as public elementary schools.

When the Education Department had reached its conclusions concerning every parish, printed details were sent to the clerks of the various poor law unions, which were the administrative units for the Act. It was then the clerks’ responsibility to see that these details were distributed to the relevant authorities in all parishes and were also printed in the local press. For Bedfordshire this happened during July and August 1872.

The papers used were:

Leighton Buzzard Poor Law Union included various non-Bedfordshire parishes but these have not been included in the following transcription. Conversely the Bedfordshire parishes in the St Neots Poor Law Union have been included.