Goffs Oak

Goffs Oak is a small village located in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It occupies a rural location and is close to the Chuffley Station. There has recently been increased demand for additional housing as with a lot of towns in the UK and Goffs Oak has a number of amenities to recommend it.

Back in the 19th Century educational opportunities for working class children in Goffs Oak were few. At a cost of 10 - 15 pence per day it was not a price that many parents could afford and so most of the children didn't expect to reach adulthood with much more than a few scrapes of educational involvement. There were a number of people during this time that were in favour of free education for everyone but there were also a lot of obstacles to this. Secular education was not something that was high on the government agenda. It wasn't popular on the whole and this was echoed by the upper classes who didn't wish to see cultural advancement within the working classes. Equally, many working class families were not keen to educate there children as it would mean giving up the earnings that they acquired through the free labour market.

Goffs Oak got its first school in the 1850's. This was a dame school and was run from a small cottage in the village. The term dames school was used widely during this time and referred to a small private school for working class children. The children attended from an age that they were first able to work. They were taught to read and write in exchange for a fee of about 2p per week. The quality of this education system varied enormously.

Historically, Goffs Oak was also home to a police station, windmill and a public house.