Clara Grant (The Farthing Bundle lady)

Clara Grant was born in a small village in wiltshire in 1867, her father was a local shopkeeper but Clara's dreams stretched further than the confines of the village, in her heart she knew he future lay elsewhere.


She was a bright child and decided at a young age that education would be the way out of poverty for so many people, and as the east end of London was one of the poorest areas in the country this is where she would go.

When she was just thirteen years old she left the security of her family and set out for London, here she became a pupil teacher in St. John’s Infants in Hoxton, the area when Clara arrived there was in a transition from a safe and wealthy area to becomming overcrowded slum. In time Clara moved from Hoxton to a school in Brewhouse Lane Wapping, athough the distnce between the two schools wasn't that great the enviroment was quite different.

Wapping is situated close to the river Thames and of course the London Docks where ships would bring cargo from all over the world, dock areas being as they were Clara would have seem a great deal of poverty, usually caused by the convenience of the many public houses that prolifigated the area.

So when in 1900 Clara Grant became the head teacher of Devons Road school in Bow she was shocked at the amount of local poverty. Like many of those other Victorian English women, and her past experience, she didn't just wring her hands as say how terrible, she set out to do something about it. with

In 1905 the Poplar Distress Committee took a survey of the unemployed and it showed that the area in which Clara was working had the worstfigures in the whole borough. It was the same year that a new school was built and Clara moved to Fern Street. In Clara's class there were ninety children with ages varying from two years old the regime at the school was harsh, and not one Clara agreed with. If children moved in class they were expected to be caned. One day she saw nineteen small boys for not being able to knit.

To Clara this was unexceptable and she made her anger clear that doing useless drills, such as the 'thimble drill' where children had to keep a thimble on their finger for an hour a day were useless, and no way to teach. Instead she put more thoughtful practices in place, she began supplying them with a hot breakfast, for no child can learn if they are hungry, to some she supplied clothes and shoes. For the younger children she devised little games, and early example of 'learning through play'.

Two years later she opened a settlement where adults could go to learn a trade.Women who until then were pay virtually nothing for their work in the 'rag trade' by making dresses they could never afford to buy even if they worked a lifetime came to the settlement, there they could work for themselves producing goods which were sold through the settlement.

She also set up boot clubs, spectacle,cradle and fireguard clubs, as an emphasis on hygiene and safety. As knowledge of her work spread people of all classes began making donations of clothing, toys, beads. games and all sorts of things, most of these were of no practical use to the settlement,then she had the idea of the 'farthing bundle', even, it is said Queen Mary made donations to the cause.

Little bundles of toys, games and various other things were wrapped in newspaper to be sold for a farthing, with the money going back into the settlement funds. Once word got out the settlement was besieged by hundreds of children queuing up from a quarter to sevewn each Saturday morning. So popular were the bundles that eventually boys and girls had to go on alternate weeks.

“Farthing bundles are full of very human things such as children love,” Clara explained. “Tiny toys of wood, or tin, whole or broken, little balls, doll-less heads or head-less dolls, whistles, shells, beads, reels, marbles, fancy boxes, decorated pill boxes, scraps of patchwork, odds and ends of silk or wool, coloured paper for dressing up, cigarette cards and scraps.”

In 1913 an arch had to be fitted to the door bearing the words "Enter now, ye children small. None can come who are too tall." to get a bundle children had too pass under this without stooping.

Clara Grant died in 1949 shortly after receiving an O.B.E for her work and is buried in Tower Hamlets cemetery' She is still remembered though, Devons Road School bears her name and the Fern Street settlement still remains in name and in the shape of an anonymous modern building but the original has vanished with much of the east end that Clara came as a thirteen year old country girl and brought happiness into the lives of so many deprived city children.