Tending the Garden

While looking to hire a gardener, Robert Raikes found himself in St. Catherine's Street, just opposite England's Gloucester city prison. He noticed a group of ragged children playing in that "Sooty Alley." The gardener's wife told him that it was even worse on Sunday when the street was full of children cursing and swearing and spending their time in noise and riot. Robert Raikes then realized that prison must be full of people whose lives had been shaped by their deprived childhood. An idea took root. Raikes, a good Anglican, used his position as editor and proprietor of the Gloucester Journal to publicize his cause. It began in St. Aldate's Parish with simple lessons in reading and spelling in preparation for reading the Bible and memorizing Scripture passages and hymns; sometimes Saturday instruction in writing and arithmetic was added. "Public" education was born; for "factory children in Gloucester," Robert Raikes and The Reverend Thomas Stock had opened, in 1780, the world's first formal "Sunday School."