Welcome to Clay Lane
Straightforward English
An old-fashioned, commonsense education in English language and culture, adapted from pre-1960s textbooks for home and school by Yorkshire schoolmaster NL Clay.
“The course should train pupils to observe, learn more of the world they live in, think clearly, use the imagination and to speak clearly.”
NL Clay, Think and Speak (1929)
Clay Lane is a traditional British education, of the kind seen in English schools before the educational changes of the 1960s. It is inspired by textbooks written by NL Clay, Senior English Master at Ecclesfield Grammar School in Yorkshire, and used across the country from the late 1920s.
Read short passages from literature and history, many of them chosen to provide a commentary on modern events and opinions. Or try your hand at puzzles in grammar and vocabulary like those Clay set for pupils aged 12-16. How would you have got on in the fourth form?
This site is for people who appreciate our heritage of strong, plain-spoken English from Shakespeare and the King James Bible to Austen, Dickens and Kipling, who take pride in the courage and vision of our country’s heroes both small and great, and who enjoy playing with words, sentences and ideas.
Materials for the study of good, correct, straightforward English.
Traditional, pre-Sixties methods and content.
Read interesting passages from history and literature.
Practise writing your own English sentences.
Ask for help if you need it.
“If ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ are to be more than catchwords, clear communication must be the rule, and not the exception. Do we want a society in which placid masses take their orders from bosses? The alternative to government by force is government by persuasion. The latter must mean that the governed can talk back to the governors.”
NL Clay, Straightforward English (1949)
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New and archive material, updated frequently. Passages for reading, brainteasers for solving, and music for listening.
Latest • February 26
Latest • February 25
Latest • February 23
From A Day in Georgian London
If you would know our manner of living it is thus: We rise by nine, and those that frequent great men’s levees find entertainment at them till eleven or, as in Holland, go to tea-tables. About twelve the beau monde assembles in several coffee or chocolate houses, the best of which are the Cocoa Tree and White’s Chocolate-houses, St James’s, the Smyrna, Mrs Rochford’s and the British Coffee-houses; and all these so near to one another that in less than an hour you see the company of them all.
Verb and Noun Find in Think and Speak
Many words can serve as noun or verb depending on context: see if you can prove this with the examples below. Nouns go well with words such as the/a, or his/her; verbs go well after I/you/he etc..
1 Load. 2 Watch. 3 Text. 4 Table. 5 Drop. 6 Blame. 7 Cry. 8 Channel. 9 Ruin.
Variations: 1.if possible, use your noun in the plural, e.g. cat → cats. 2.use your verb in a past form, e.g. go → went. 3.use your noun in a sentence with one of these words: any, enough, fewer, less, no, some.
Fables and true tales about animals, including a dog who regularly commuted to Matlock, a horse who didn’t approve of bad language, and a cat who saved her owners from an earthquake.
Picture: © Luis García. CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Tales about the cradle of Western civilisation, from Socrates and the first democracies to the fall of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman yoke, and Britain’s part in the fight for independence.
Picture: © brunobarbato. CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
The artistic struggles and triumphs of composers from the British Isles and abroad, many in their own words — and accompanied by their music.
Picture: © Colin, CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Heart-breaking tales of slavery, in which Britain played a shameful part; and heart-warming tales of Abolition, in which she played a courageous one.
Picture: © Wilfredor. Public domain.. Source.
Passages examining Britain’s sometimes baffling constitutional monarchy, and telling the story of its enemies, its champions, and its reformers.
Picture: © CJCS (USA). CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Stories from the world of cricket, football and other sports, and the men and women who have played them.
Picture: © DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.