In the cities of young Queen Victoria's Britain neglected and criminal children ran wild. Education was in the hands of churches and private charity and schools for the respectable poor would not accept filthy, undisciplined children. Then came the 'Ragged Schools', which would. Newcastle opened a Ragged School in 1847. Child criminals could be sent to gaol, but magistrates increasingly sentenced them to terms inside 'Industrial Schools'. These were charity boarding schools which taught work skills and work habits as well as the three Rs. Newcastle Ragged School became an Industrial School as well. This book follows the Newcastle school through the eighty-six years of its life, describing daily triumphs and disasters as well as government policy. It appears that the school was a great success for boys but for girls the experience was different and there was a damning report in 1909.