Prior to the 1870 Education Act there was no universal system of elementary education in Britain and many of the poorest members of society received little, or no, formal schooling. Indeed, approximately half the population, and a significant proportion of the working class, were illiterate at the start of the 19th century.

As the century progressed, however, many people made strenuous efforts to obtain an education for themselves in adulthood. ‘I have deprived myself, as many of my class have done,’ asserted John Burns, the trade unionist, ‘of hundreds of meals on purpose to buy books and papers.’