Sybil Marshall (26 November 1913 – 29 August 2005) was a British writer,
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
ist, social historian, broadcaster, folklorist and
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
alist.
Biography
Born as Sybil Mary Edwards in
Ramsey Heights
Ramsey Heights is a village in Ramsey civil parish, part of the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England.
The Ramsey Heights nature reserve is located on the edge of the village and the larger Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserve ...
, the daughter of a
smallholder on
the Fens
The Fens, also known as the , in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a ...
who had left school at the age of nine, she was educated at Ramsey Heights Elementary School (1919–1923) and
Ramsey Grammar School
Ramsey Grammar School is a coeducational comprehensive secondary school located in Ramsey, on the Isle of Man.
History
A grammar school has existed in Ramsey since 1681. It moved to Lezayre Road in 1933 and was housed in a building that now fo ...
in
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
(1924–1932). Marshall was not able to attend university because no scholarship was available so she started work in 1933 as an untrained teacher, first in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
and then in
Huntingdon
Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...
. As an unqualified teacher at Kingston Primary School in Cambridgeshire from 1942 to 1948 she worked on her own in one room containing 26 pupils aged between 4 and 11. Here Marshall developed teaching methods based on integrating subjects and encouraging children's creativity. Later written up as ''An Experiment in Education'', her methods influenced the 1967
Plowden Report
The Plowden Report is the unofficial name for the 1967 report of the Central Advisory Council For Education (England) into Primary education in England. The report, entitled ''Children and their Primary Schools'', reviewed primary education in a wh ...
into primary education in Britain.
[ She attended Exhall Grange Emergency Training College in ]Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
from 1948 to 1949, before going to Kingston County School in Cambridgeshire as Headteacher.[
When this school closed because it was too small she went to New Hall, Cambridge in 1960 aged 48 to read English. She completed the three-year degree course in two years. She was lecturer in primary education at the ]University of Sheffield
, mottoeng = To discover the causes of things
, established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions:
– Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield
, type = Pu ...
from 1962 to 1967 and was an educational adviser to Granada Television
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
for the series ''Picture Box'' from 1965 to 1978. She was Reader in Primary Education at the University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
from 1967 until her retirement in 1976.
Later years
On retiring Marshall began a new career as a writer of fiction, writing her first novel at the age of 80 after a 10-year battle with cancer. Her trilogy – ''A Nest of Magpies'' (1993), ''Sharp Through The Hawthorn'' (1994) ''and Strip The Willow'' (1996) – are semi- autobiographical. She also published academic works on education and her childhood memoirs of growing up in the Cambridgeshire fenland. She was Sue Lawley
Susan Lawley (born 14 July 1946) is a retired English television and radio broadcaster. Her main broadcasting background involved television news and current affairs. From 1988–2006, Lawley was the presenter of ''Desert Island Discs'' on BBC R ...
's castaway on '' Desert Island Discs'' in 1993 and was a winner of the Angel Prize for Literature for her ''Everyman's Book of English Folk Tales'' (1981). In 1995 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
.[
]
Personal life
In 1939 she married Francis Marshall, a local farmer. She gave birth to a still-born son in 1940 and in 1941 had her daughter Prue, who later also became a headmistress.[ Frank Marshall found it hard to handle such an independently minded wife and left her for another woman. They divorced in 1948.] In 1963 Marshall met the historian and illustrator Ewart Oakeshott
Ronald Ewart Oakeshott (25 May 1916 – 30 September 2002) was a British illustrator, collector, and amateur historian who wrote prodigiously on medieval arms and armour. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Founder Member of the Ar ...
at a dance. He left his wife for her and they became partners for life - although they only married in 1995, after the death of Oakeshott's first wife, by which time Marshall was 82.
Oakeshott predeceased her.[
]
Bibliography
*''Fenland Chronicle'' (1963)
*''An Experiment in Education'', Cambridge University Press (1963)
*''Adventure in Creative Education''
*''Once Upon A Village'' (1979)
*''The Silver New Nothing'' (1987)
*''A Pride of Tigers'' (1992)
*''Everyman's Book of English Folk Tales''
*''A Nest of Magpies'' (1993)
*''Sharp Through The Hawthorn''[All the Bibliographical detail taken from a paperback copy published by Penguin in 1995, the original being published in hardback by Michael Joseph in hardback on 1994 of ''Sharp Through The Hawthorn''] (1994)
*''The Chequer-Board'' (1995)
References
External links
Life in the Fens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Sybil
Schoolteachers from Cambridgeshire
1913 births
2005 deaths
British educational theorists
20th-century British novelists
Alumni of New Hall, Cambridge
Academics of the University of Sheffield
Academics of the University of Sussex