Blaafarveværket's school programme in the latter half of the 19th century
Economic crisis and collapse - Blaafarveværket 1848
The year 1848 is associated with revolutions, authoritarian backlash and famine. At Blaafarveværket, all this was felt, but also an escalating economic crisis. The synthetic blue pigment synthetic ultramarine captured part of the cobalt market. The UK emerged as a major producer of cobalt blue, imposing significant import taxes on foreign goods. On top of this, it proved difficult to convert cobalt operations locally to produce newly developed cobalt oxides that were cleaner than before.
The crises had consequences. In the autumn of 1848, Snarum Cobalt Works went bankrupt. It was never restarted. The blue colour works tried to keep the wheels turning. This was done by applying for government crisis packages and mass redundancies. The workforce was far larger than the declining demand could cover. The summer of 1848 was a sad time for many hundreds of men who had to return home with serious mines.
It wasn't just the workers in mines, crushing plants and smelters who felt the effects of the bad times. As the workforce shrank, so did the need for the other services the plant was obliged to provide. One of these was the education programme. The plant had started an evening school at the Cobalt Mines in the 1820s. This was because the workforce had increased so much in the 1820s and 30s that the two permanent schools at Nymoen and Skuterudflaten were unable to teach all the new children. After the mass redundancies in 1848, there were no longer so many children to teach. As a result, there was no longer a need to maintain the educational programme at the mines. The evening school was decided to be cancelled by the Blaafarveværket's school commission.[1]
Those who kept their jobs had to adapt to the new conditions. Miners who lived in the workers' housing at Skuterudhøyden were to be "assigned housing on Skuterudfladen" if they had children of school age.[2]
The Blaafarveværket management made it clear that Postebroe was only employed at a "temporary" school. Postebroe's complaint was therefore unfounded and the dismissal was not a violation of the 1827 law on rural schools.[3]
The case between Blaafarveværket and Postebroe reveals something interesting about how the mine itself viewed its obligations regarding education. According to the School Act of 1827, all collieries with more than 30 employees were obliged to have their own school.[4] The mill was only obliged to run one school, not several. In this sense, Blaafarveværket had a good range of schools, as they ran three schools. The reason for this dates back to the 1780s.
Since 1784, Blaafarveværket had run two schools. One at Nymoen, for the children of mill employees, and one at Skuterudflaten, for the children of miners. The original plan was to have only one school, but to build it in the centre between the works and the mines. In this way, the plant would fulfil a minimum requirement, while building maintenance and teacher salaries would not be too high. The plant's management abandoned this plan because it was considered unreasonable to expect children employed by the plant to walk 5 kilometres to school after completing a 12-hour working day.[5] Thus, two schools were created.
In this sense, it has always been assumed that both schools were considered "permanent" schools. In 1848, the Blaafarveværket's management described their obligations in this way, which breaks with earlier perceptions:
This law has been fulfilled by Modum's blue dye works with the establishment and maintenance of the permanent school at Nymoen, and the fact that the works in its power has also established two other schools, namely at Skuterudhøiden [the evening school] and Skuterudfladen can probably not make it the duty of the same to maintain these schools, even after the circumstances have led to its significant reduction.
Management of the blue colour plant
In other previous descriptions of Blaafarveværket, Skuterudflaten is mentioned as one of two permanent schools,[7] but in this source, the mill's management, in the form of director Gustav Benecke, claims that Skuterudflaten was actually temporary. Regardless of this, Skuterudflaten School was run on behalf of Blaafarveværket right up until the 1900s. In this sense, it was in reality a permanent school.
Benecke probably wanted to emphasise to all parties that the Blaafarve Works only regarded Nymoen as its statutory school because, if the works were to survive the crisis of 1848, its further operations would be severely curtailed. Benecke probably saw it as an opportunity to save operating costs to be able to close down Skuterudflaten, as well as the evening school at the mines. However, this did not materialise.
Nymoen School until 1898 - When the factory school was taken over by the public sector
Both Nymoen and Skuterudflaten continued to be run by Blaafarveværket. After the bankruptcy in 1849, British owners, Goodhall & Reeves, and then Saxon owners, Der Private Sachsiche Blaufarbenwerk-Verein, took over. As long as the mill was in operation, it was required by law to maintain a school.
During the improvement of the public school system in Norway in the 1860s, the difference between the factory schools and the other schools in Modum levelled out. At the same time as the public schools were improving their services, the Blaafarveværket's Saxon owners wanted Modum municipality to take over the running of the factory schools. The municipality did not want this, and the mill continued to run the schools until the early 1900s.[8]
The school programme at Nymoen School in 1863 was as follows: There were 19 weeks and 4 days of compulsory school, plus 25 weeks of voluntary school that year. The teaching week was 30 hours, with Saturdays off.[9] The teaching consisted of Bible history, catechism, Bible explanations, reading, arithmetic (including decimal fractions), the history of Norway, geography of Scandinavia and Norwegian.[10] School teacher Lars Olsen had 90 pupils in the upper and lower classes.[11]
Ten years later, in 1873, the school programme had been reduced. For the upper class, only 54 days of compulsory and 54 days of voluntary school were offered.[12] In total, the 31 students had 215 days of legal absence and 70 days of illegal absence.[13] Pupil Peder Hansen Nymoen had the most absences. Throughout the year, he had only attended 28½ days of compulsory school and 14 days of voluntary school. Nymoen was employed by the plant and was confirmed this year, which may explain his high absenteeism.[14] Paulina Andersdatter was the best in her class and had been present every day, 54 days compulsory and 54 days voluntary.[15]
It seems reasonable to assume that the school programme was somewhat shaped by the teacher. Hans Jensen Brekke took over as works teacher at Nymoen in 1872. For the 1886 school year, we see that the teaching included much of the same as in 1863, but was greatly expanded in the subject of music. The pupils had to be able to sing "Kom mai du skjønne milde" and "Ja vi elsker".[16] Singing at Nymoen was not new to Brekke. His predecessor, Olsen, established a mixed choir at Nymoen in 1862.[17] Brekke was also the son of Hans Brekke, a teacher at Skuterudflaten school, who was also a church singer.[18]
The last school year we'll be looking at today is 1898, the year in which mining operations ceased. Brekke had 53 pupils who only had 15 weeks of compulsory school, plus 3 weeks of voluntary school.[19] Bible teaching had been reduced, and secular subjects had been further expanded with science subjects in addition to those previously mentioned.[20] During the last few months of the year, a colourful choir could be heard singing "Between hills and mountains" from the school building.[21] Children's songs would continue to be heard for a few more decades.
In this sense, we can see that the world was moving forward even though the Blaafarveværket's mining operations were discontinued. The wood processing plant continued into the 20th century, still under the name Blaafarveværket. Nymoen School was also run until the 1920s. Schoolteacher Brekke died in 1906.
[1] AV/SAKO-A-223/J/Ja/L0005 - Poor and School Commission Modum's Blue Colour Works - 1848-1884, p. 138
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid. and www.fagsider.org: https://www.fagsider.org/kirkehistorie/lover/1827_skole.htm#pp12 (Read: 05.04.2024)
[4] www.fagsider.org op.cit.
[5] Rentekammeret, Renteskriverkontorene, RA/EA-3115/M/Mf/Mfa/L0005: Resolution protocol with register (labelled RK 54.5), 1783
Use link for page view: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/rk20120907611405 (Read 05.04.2024)
[6] AV/SAKO-A-223/J/Ja/L0005 - Poor and School Commission Modum's Blue Colour Works - 1848-1884, p. 138
[7] See among others: Hunstadbråten, Kai. Blaafarve Power Station: Mining, people and the environment. (Drammen. Brakar, 1997) p. 104
[8] Retrieved from RA/PA 157, Modum's Blaafarveværk, C. Voigt and Bjørnstad, 19 September 1865 The material has been microfilmed, transcribed and adapted by the Blaafarveværk Documentation Centre by Sverre Følstad and Ole-Petter Gulbrandsen.
[9] SAKO-A-233/I/Id/L0001/0002: - School protocol for the teacher in Nymoen circuit 1863, p. 1
[10] Ibid. p. 3
[11] Ibid. p. 6
[12] School protocol for the teacher in Nymoen district 1873, p. 1
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid. -School protocol for teachers in Nymoen district 1886, p. 2
[17] www.bokhylla.no: Wendelborg, Kristian. "Litt om blandede korsang i Norge", p. 21. Sangerposten: organ for singers and singing organisations. 1914 Vol. 5 No. 1-12
Link: https://www.nb.no/items/bd953f4670164f3b3e44a96a4994643e?page=173&searchText=Blaafarveverket (Read 12.04.2024)
[18] Tank, Roar. History of Modum: Volume 1(Modum. Sparebanken, 1952) p. 288
[19] SAKO-A-233/I/Id/L0001/0002: - School protocol for the teacher in Nymoen 1898, p. 2
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.