Lowood Boarding School is an important location within Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Lowood is the boarding school her aunt sends her to and where she has her most formative years. At Lowood, she develops her morals, witnesses the first death she remembers, creates relationships that affect her throughout the rest of the book, is shamed and humiliated, and develops a deep love for learning and scholarship. Lowood School is heavily inspired by the school Bronte attended as a child, Cowan Bridge, which was a very traumatic experience. Boarding School for the poor during the 1800s resembled prisons more than schools and has the fitting nickname of “Rugged Schools.” A Portsmith shoemaker named John Pounds in 1818 created these schools with the intent of giving poor and orphaned children free education. By 1870, there were over 350 “Rugged Schools” in England.  These institutions were strict, very religious (as they were often run by churches), and often had poor to barely bearable living conditions. Students often aided with chores alongside their studies and learn skills such as knitting and cooking. Literacy rates also aided in increasing literacy rates in England and as time went on, conditions for some locations did improve.

https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/education-in-victorian-england/#:~:text=they%20got%20older.-,Ragged%20and%20Dame%20Schools,poor%20children%20could%20also%20learn.

http://begin-english.ru/stati-na-angliiskom/victorian-boarding-schools