Between 1700 and 1737, the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) opened a network of charity schools, 146 of them in Wales. However, the greatest achievements in education in Wales in the 18th century were made by Griffith Jones (1683-1761). The son of a wood turner, Jones became rector of Llanddowror in 1716. His powerful preaching made Llanddowror a centre of religious revival. In the late 1730s, when the SPCK schools were finding it difficult to continue, Jones, with the help of Sir John Philipps and Briget Bevan opened a charity school in Llanddowror. This pointed the way to a revolutionary form of free schooling.

Jones believed that schools should give a minimum of instruction in the shortest possible time. Teachers could then be moved on to the next village. The first of Jones’s ‘Circulating Welsh Charity Schools’ opened in 1737. Within a year there were 37 schools in West Wales and Brecon. Children, and some adults, were taught to read in Welsh (from the Bible). The free schools were open only during the winter. By 1773 there were 13,000 pupils at 243 schools. The schools declined in the 1770s when they were suspected of having close links with Methodism.