BACK in 1877, when Huntington Board School first opened, education was still pretty much a hit-and-miss affair.

True, with the establishment of Board Schools – run by local school boards – elementary education in England was, for the first time, becoming compulsory.

But pupils often had other things on their minds – such as, in July, the hay-making season – and attendance could often be poor. Even when the children did turn up, their teachers often struggled to impart even basic learning.

The log books of the Huntington Board School give a fascinating glimpse into all this.

“I, Nathan Bellerby, opened the school this morning with 49 scholars,” wrote the school’s first head on July 16, 1877 – presumably the first day of taking pupils. “Of these, 12 can do simple arithmetic; four simple subtraction and one compound addition; the rest can do nothing more than make some figures and some of them, not even that, though eight or nine years of age.”

If it wasn’t the children’s lack of preparation for school that disrupted their education, it was the weather, or illness, or the needs of farming communities.

“Only very poor attendance today in consequence of hay-making,” records the log entry for July 25, 1877, just nine days after the school had opened. “Terrible snow storm during the night; only six children turned up and I sent them home again,” goes the entry for November 12, 1878. And, on December 8, 1879: “The school has been closed on account of a scarlet fever outbreak, for five weeks.

During that time 25 cases of fever have occurred, one of which caused a fatality.

The child that died was aged ten – one of the brightest and best behaved children in the school.” You can still detect, even through the reserved and formal language, the anguish and the sense of waste and loss.

Despite all the difficulties, however, the school – based in what is now the community centre – thrived.

Pupil numbers increased, two world wars came and went, new classrooms were added and, in 1941, the school was reorganised as an Infant and Junior School.

Then the North Riding Education Authority decided that, given the growth of the village, an entirely new school would be built, at the junction of New Lane and North Moor Road, to accommodate 280 children.

The first section opened in January 1960 and the school was completed and fully opened in July 1962. Throughout these decades, the log books were kept faithfully: and provide a vivid glimpse into daily life at the school. “The Boy Scouts have been taken to York to meet Lieut Gen Baden-Powell,” notes the log entry for December 8, 1914. “The absences this morning are chiefly due to the Zeppelin Raid last night,” goes the entry for November 28, 1916.

Then, as if Kaiser Bill’s Zeppelins weren’t enough to contend with, “Nearly 50 per cent of the children are absent picking potatoes,” reports the log for November 8, 1918.

We have Janet Watson to thank for the fact that these wonderful log entries are so readily accessible.

In 1977, to mark the school’s centenary, the then head teacher wrote and published a commemorative booklet for pupils and parents.

Entitled simply Huntington Board School To Primary School, 1877-1977, it contained a brief account of the early history of education in the village, a more detailed look at the school’s first 100 years – and then, best of all, a series of extracts from the logs.

The booklet was such a success that now, more than 30 years on, the Trustees of Huntington Community Centre have redesigned and republished it.

It comes complete with those fascinating log entries – and a small selection of old photos, some of them reproduced on these pages.

And it is a treat.

•Huntington Board School To Primary School, 1877-1977 is published by Huntington Community Centre, priced £1. It is available from the community centre and from North Moor Post Office, in Huntington.