# Writing slate

> Rubbed clean so often the frame is polished.

https://vitrine.themes.dev/collection/slate/

- Made by: Unknown maker
- Date: About 1910
- Material: Slate, pine
- Size: 23 by 30 cm
- Cost new: A penny
- Came from: Neepsend Board School, closed 1964
- On view: The schoolroom, on a desk in the front row

Children learned to write on slate because paper was dear and slate could be wiped with a sleeve. This one came from the board school at the top of the hill, where four Merrin children were taught, with forty other slates in a crate.

The frame is polished pale at the bottom corners where small hands held it.