Compendium of St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica
Oct 17, 2026 · 4 hr 5 min · 55 segments
"Burston Rebellion" by Thomas George Higdon delves into the complex dynamics of conflict and resistance, exploring themes of rebellion that resonate throughout history. This compelling narrative…
On January the 31st, 1911, at dusk, two solitary individuals, a woman and a man, were observed walking through the fairy village of Burston, coming from the direction of Diss.
Pretty as the village is with its windmill, its bridge over the stream, its pink-washed cottages, its slopes, patches of green and plantation, and with, of course, its less beautiful spots of housing dilapidation and its church without a tower, the strangers appeared to take little notice of its scenery.
They had done a four or five miles tramp from Diss railway station, the train from Norwich having taken them through the Burston station without stopping, as it has a habit of doing.
They passed the old carpenter's shop, now famous as the Burston Strike School, without heeding it.
Their eyes did, however, wander admiringly over the sweet bit of common which the land grabbers of bygone days had unwittingly left for the purposes of latter-day demonstrations by the people of Burston against injustice, falsehood, and religious hypocrisy.
But neither of these two pedestrian strangers kenned any more than did the inhabitants of Burston themselves the pregnancy of the near future with new and old revived ideas and ideals of truth, liberty, and justice.
A gloomy outlook.
Things looked dark enough to these two, though they knew not the really hard and difficult part they would have to play.
They knew what had happened at the village they had that day left behind them.
It was all too painfully fresh on their minds, but they had learned by better experience to take life philosophically, or as Newman puts it thus, "Keep thou my feet; I do not wish to see the distant scene; one step enough for me." They were schoolteachers, these two, the man and his wife, the latter being the certified head, the former the assistant by virtue of an Oxford local senior certificate.
These were the new teachers then.
They had come in overnight to begin work the following morning, February the 1st, 1911.
Their goods had not yet arrived.
The National Union of Teachers, or NUT, had offered payment for the removal of the same, but the dispossessed teachers had not been able to see eye to barnacles with the NUT, far from it, and so had felt unable to accept the offer and had declined the same.
It was not for want of money, however, that the said goods had not been packed and dispatched in businesslike, respectable fashion and the inhabitants of Burston duly impressed by their arrival, but rather for the lack of any real heartiness of interest in this new appointment on the part of this pair of apparently purposeless wanderers themselves who had so strangely and solitarily strayed into the village.
Ah, they had recently had the heart knocked out of them and it was quite a toss-up with them that day when they left the village of Wooddalling, near Reepham, whether they would go on to Burston at all or not.
When they arrived at Norwich it seemed as if it was the departing train itself which after all decided for them that they must go on to Burston and insisted upon taking them there, and ominously beyond.
The fact was the Burston offer had not been definitely and conclusively accepted, and a call on the way at the County Education Officers at Norwich with a view to getting the Burston arrangements cancelled had been more or less in contemplation.
Memories of the Place Left Behind Ah, twere a long tale to tell that Wood Dawling story.
A story of remarkable self-sacrifice and social as well as educational enterprise on the part of Mrs. Higdon, labour agitation by Mr. Higdon, and of successful schoolwork by both, as shown by eight and a half years' excellent government reports.
A story of appreciation and affection on the one hand, and of long and bitter persecution on the other.
Nay, the half of that story cannot be told here and now, only an inkling can be written.
False Accusations Suffice it here to say that false complaints against the head teacher, Mrs. Higdon, were sent up to the Norfolk Education Committee by the chairman of the Wood Dawling School Managers and landlord of the Jolly Farmers, and that the committee ultimately decided to remove the head teacher and her husband to Burston, where they would be employed by the same County Education Committee, but be under a new set of local school managers.
Alas, very much like the old.
On January the 31st, 1911, at dusk, two solitary individuals, a woman and a man, were observed walking through the fairy village of Burston, coming from the direction of Diss.
Pretty as the village is with its windmill, its bridge over the stream, its pink-washed cottages, its slopes, patches of green and plantation, and with, of course, its less beautiful spots of housing dilapidation and its church without a tower, the strangers appeared to take little notice of its scenery.
They had done a four or five miles tramp from Diss railway station, the train from Norwich having taken them through the Burston station without stopping, as it has a habit of doing.
They passed the old carpenter's shop, now famous as the Burston Strike School, without heeding it.
Their eyes did, however, wander admiringly over the sweet bit of common which the land grabbers of bygone days had unwittingly left for the purposes of latter-day demonstrations by the people of Burston against injustice, falsehood, and religious hypocrisy.
But neither of these two pedestrian strangers kenned any more than did the inhabitants of Burston themselves the pregnancy of the near future with new and old revived ideas and ideals of truth, liberty, and justice.
A gloomy outlook.
Things looked dark enough to these two, though they knew not the really hard and difficult part they would have to play.
They knew what had happened at the village they had that day left behind them.
It was all too painfully fresh on their minds, but they had learned by better experience to take life philosophically, or as Newman puts it thus, "Keep thou my feet; I do not wish to see the distant scene; one step enough for me." They were schoolteachers, these two, the man and his wife, the latter being the certified head, the former the assistant by virtue of an Oxford local senior certificate.
These were the new teachers then.
They had come in overnight to begin work the following morning, February the 1st, 1911.
Their goods had not yet arrived.
The National Union of Teachers, or NUT, had offered payment for the removal of the same, but the dispossessed teachers had not been able to see eye to barnacles with the NUT, far from it, and so had felt unable to accept the offer and had declined the same.
It was not for want of money, however, that the said goods had not been packed and dispatched in businesslike, respectable fashion and the inhabitants of Burston duly impressed by their arrival, but rather for the lack of any real heartiness of interest in this new appointment on the part of this pair of apparently purposeless wanderers themselves who had so strangely and solitarily strayed into the village.
Ah, they had recently had the heart knocked out of them and it was quite a toss-up with them that day when they left the village of Wooddalling, near Reepham, whether they would go on to Burston at all or not.
When they arrived at Norwich it seemed as if it was the departing train itself which after all decided for them that they must go on to Burston and insisted upon taking them there, and ominously beyond.
The fact was the Burston offer had not been definitely and conclusively accepted, and a call on the way at the County Education Officers at Norwich with a view to getting the Burston arrangements cancelled had been more or less in contemplation.
Memories of the Place Left Behind Ah, twere a long tale to tell that Wood Dawling story.
A story of remarkable self-sacrifice and social as well as educational enterprise on the part of Mrs. Higdon, labour agitation by Mr. Higdon, and of successful schoolwork by both, as shown by eight and a half years' excellent government reports.
A story of appreciation and affection on the one hand, and of long and bitter persecution on the other.
Nay, the half of that story cannot be told here and now, only an inkling can be written.
False Accusations Suffice it here to say that false complaints against the head teacher, Mrs. Higdon, were sent up to the Norfolk Education Committee by the chairman of the Wood Dawling School Managers and landlord of the Jolly Farmers, and that the committee ultimately decided to remove the head teacher and her husband to Burston, where they would be employed by the same County Education Committee, but be under a new set of local school managers.
Alas, very much like the old.
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