Charlotte Mason: Hidden Heritage and Educational Influence by Margaret Coombs, £25

A NEW biography of Charlotte Mason, founder of Ambleside’s Charlotte Mason College, has solved several mysteries surrounding her family background, revealing fascinating details about her early influences.

The painstakingly researched book led Margaret Coombs to find out the exact name of Miss Mason’s father which proved the key to answering other questions and correcting previous mis-assumptions.

Thought to have virtually no relatives, Charlotte actually came from a large family whose Westmorland Quaker heritage reached back two generations to Kendal and whose religious and family influences shaped her educational child-centred ideas.

Ms Coombs said it was extraordinary how Charlotte Mason had overcome considerable challenges and risen within the very rigid Victorian society of the time to run her own college and house of education, dedicated to training governesses.

Charlotte Mason was also the founder of PNEU, the Parents National Education Union. Among guests last week were visitors from America, where Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of teaching and religious educational ideas are far better known and practised than in England.

The book, published by Lutterworth Press from bookshops and the Armitt Museum.

JANE RENOUF