Dr. Kay-Shuttleworth (who from 1840, was more interested in Education, than in conditions of Poverty), gives us a description of the early lives of children who came from the poorer parts of the countryside, or who worked in difficult jobs. He demonstrates that these children needed “civilizing” before they could have normal lives in the town, and normal levels of attention in the classroom.
| “The manufacturing districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire have been fed by a constant immigration from the wolds of North Yorkshire and the border, and from the moors of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Derbyshire, the Pennine Chain, and Wales. A family enters a manufacturing village; the children are at various school ages, from seven to eleven. They probably have never lived but in a hovel; have never been in the street of a village or town; are unacquainted with common usages of social life; perhaps, never saw a book; are bewildered by the rapid motion of crowds; confused in an assemblage of scholars. They have to be taught to stand upright,– to walk without a slouching gait,- and sit without crouching like a sheep dog. They have to learn some decency in their skin, hair and dress. They are commonly either cowed and sullen, or wild, fierce, and obstinate. In the street they are often in a tumult of rude agitation. In the school they are probably classed with children some years younger than themselves. They have no habits of attention, and are distracted by the babel of sounds about them. The effort of abstraction required to connect a sound with a letter is at first impossible to them. Their parents are almost equally brutish. They have lived solitary lives in some wild region, where the husband has been a shepherd, or hind, or quarryman, or miner, or turf cutter, or has won a precarious livelihood as a carrier, driver of loaded lime ponies, or poacher. The pressing wants of a growing family have induced them to acept the offer of some agent from a mill. From personal experience of many years, I know that such children as these form a large portion of the scholars which the schools of the cotton and woollen districts have to civilise and Christianise. A large part of that better work has often been accomplished, and the benumbed brain has been awakened from torpidity, and fitted for the reception of knowledge which there has not been time to give. The half-time system in factories, and the rule that no child under eight shall be employed in them, have been in operation little more than twenty years. Before this time the factory children of settled families were as brutish as they still are in the mining districts. The children employed in bleach and print works have had only a limited and almost worthless protection from too early and excessive labour. A different kind of brutishness is shown by a large class of scholars in the most degraded parts of great cities. A London child, living in a street of brothels and thieves’ dens, with parents leading abandoned lives, spends his day in the kennel among sharp-witted, restless little creatures like himself. He is his own master. His powers of observation are singularly acute; his powers of decision rapid; his will energetic. He is known as the “Arab of the streets”. He learns a great deal of evil. Perhaps, he is an accomplished thief or beggar, or picks up a precarious living by holding horses, sweeping a crossing, or costermongering. Such children have of late years been netted in shoals, – got into schools, have been won, tamed, and, in some degree, taught. But is it not a mischevious folly to say that the work done is to be measured by the proficiency of such children in reading, writing and arithmetic? All that has been done has been against wind and tide. At home – misery, drunkenness, sullen despair, or the irritability of a dissolute life, drive the child into the street. Bad example at home lends its corruption to the foulness of the street of stews, and hiding holes. Are twenty scattered weeks, even if repeated in three successive years, enough to get rid of the wild, untamed barbarism of such children, and to graft on this civilization that amount of knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic which the Comissioners say is easy? What has to be done in the case of the children who have hitherto worked, without protection and without instruction, in mines? From eight years of age they have sat eight years daily in the black darkness, with their feet in the mud or running water, and the dripping roof of the mine overhead – opening and shutting the ventilating door – or as they grow older dragging the corves or waggons?Take Mr. Norris’s account of the life of a potter’s child, up to the age of apprenticeship (p. 184 Commissioner’s Report) – “At eighteen months or two years old he is sent to one of the dames who gain a livelihood by taking care of young children whose mothers are at the factory. There, from seven in the morning to eight or nine at night, he is stowed away in a small room, without exercise or change of air, predisposing the constitution to consumption, which is a common malady in the pottery towns. This continues, on average, for four years. He is then, at five and a half or six years old, sent perhaps to the National School, where he stays one or two, or at most three years; but during the latter part of the time he is sure to be kept away very much, to act as an occasional substitute for some other boy who is at work. At eight or nine (‘earlier if his parents are drunken or improvident, often at six or seven’) he begins to work regularly for a journeyman potter, turning his jigger (the potter’s wheel, to which steam seems never to have been applied), and earning from 1s. to 2s. a week. In a year or so a quick boy will begin ‘handling’ (making handles for cups, &c.) or ‘figuring’, and earning from 2s. to 4s. But by this time a great change has come over him,- he has been kept at work twelve or thirteen hours each day, and so, even if disposed to continue his school studies, has little time to do so; consequently he now reads badly, and writes worse; and, in short, nearly all he acquired at school is forgotten.” 1.27 |
1.27 Kay Shuttleworth, Dr. James P., “Letter to Earl Granville on the Revised Code of Regulations ….”, November 4, 1861, footnote inserted in pages pp. 15-17.
The Sunday School Movement
The movement started in 1783, almost simultaneously in various towns in England. The idea was to take children off the streets, where they were causing a lot of trouble (this was their only day free from work), and give them schooling of catechism and reading. By 1788 there at least 6,598 scholars of this type in Salford Hundred (which did not include the town of Manchester).
The Manchester Sunday School Movement was launched on 10th August 1784. By 21st September there were 25 schools with 1,800 children. These were Anglican and Dissenting groups.
The schools were financed from annual subsriptions and from church collections.
From 1800 onwards, the teacher with payment slowly disappeared, and was replaced by persons who gave the classes gratuitously. But by 1816, there was not much success in the education levels of the children. According to evidence to the Select Committee on Childfren in Manufactories, only one-quarter of the children in Manchester and Salford could read and write, one-sixth were learning the alphabet, a third were learning to spell, one.sixth could read the Testament, one-twelfth could read the Bible.
A survey of 1821 showed 2,500 boys and girls in day schools, but 23,000 in Sunday schools. In 1834-35 a report of the Manchester Statistical Society gave 10,000 in day and evening schools only, 10,000 day and Sunday schools, 23,000 Sunday schools only, and 17,000 did not attend any school. 1.28
1.28 Extracted from: A. P. Wadsworth, “The First Manchester Sunday Schools”, A lecture delivered in the John Rylands Library on the 13th December 1950.
Mr. Reach gives us an overview of the principles and success of the Movement:
“The Sunday Schools of the industrial north form not only a vast moral and educational engine but a curious and characteristic fact. The system, originated by Mr. Raikes some seventy years ago, took deep root in Lancashire, and grew with the growth of manufacturing industry. The serious cut of the Lancashire, its earnestness and zeal, acting upon the facilities afforded by the order and discipline which it is the very nature to instil, formed a soil in which the Sunday School System too very deep root, and bore very rich harvests. I rather understate than overstate the numbers, when I say that in the Sunday Schools of Manchester may be found from 40,000 to 50,000 scholars and from 4,000 to 5,000 teachers, inspectors and visitors. In 1852, the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of the system was celebrated by a day of jubilee, and upon that occasion no less than 32,000 medals were disposed of, to be worn by members of the Sunday scholars’ procession which defiled through the streets of Manchester.” 1.29
.1.29 Reach, “Letters to the Morning Chronicle”, p. 67
And a description of one of the schools:
Union Street
“Close to this dreary but characteristic street are the Lyceum Factory Schools. The establishment boasts of a newsroom and a library. In the former, a quiet comfortable room, a fair assortment of the London and local journals are taken. The library is one of three thousand volumes. In the day-time the children from the neighbouring mills receive there, their three hours modicum of instruction; at night, adult classes meet in the same rooms. The children are charged threepence and fourpence a week, according as they remain half a day or a whole day in the school.” 1.30
1.30 Reach, “Letters to the Morning Chronicle”, p. 60
Statistics of Schools and Pupils
1834-1835
Population Conurbation 255,000
| Day Schools 701, Pupils 24,365 (Richson, quoting Manchester Statistical Society pamphlet) 1.31 Dame Schools 295 / 6,265, Common boys’ and girls’ schools 221/ 8,604, Superior private and boarding schools 143 / 3,816, Other charity schools 42 / 5,991 |
Ratio pupils / population conurbation, for Day Schools = 1 to 10.27.
For Day Schools, there is no individual listing of the Schools for 1834-1835.
| Sunday Schools 117, Pupils 42,950 Church of England 13,025, Dissenters 25,432, Roman Catholic 4,493 (Richson, quoting Manchester Statistical Society pamphlet, and A. P. Wadsworth, The First Manchester Sunday Schools) |
Ratio pupils / population conurbation, for Sunday Schools = 1 to 8.16
1.31 Rev. C. Richson, Educational Facts and Statistics of Manchester and Salford, being a Summary of some of the most important Statistical Tables, presented in evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons on Manchester and Salford Education, May and June 1852, p. 12.
1834-1835, Sunday Schools, Manchester and Salford, pamphlet Manchester Statistical Society.
| Religious Denomination | Schools Manchester | Schools Salford | Schools Total |
| Church Establishment | 25 | 9 | 34 |
| Wesleyan Methodist | 18 | 5 | 23 |
| Catholic | 9 | 2 | 11 |
| Independent | 9 | 4 | 13 |
| Methodist New Conexion | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| Baptist | 3 | 3 | |
| General Baptist | 2 | 2 | |
| Primitive Methodist | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Bible Christian | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Welch Independent | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Scotch Church | 1 | 1 | |
| Scotch Secession Church | 1 | 1 | |
| New Jerusalem Church | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Unitarian | 1 | 1 | |
| Independent Methodist | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Arminian Methodist | 1 | 1 | |
| Welch Baptist | 1 | 1 | |
| Welch Methodist | 1 | 1 | |
| United Christian | 1 | 1 | |
| Unconnected with any religious body | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 86 | 31 | 117 |
1834-1835, Scholars in Sunday Schools, Manchester and Salford, pamphlet Manchester Statistical Society
| Religious Denomination | Scholars Manchester | Scholars Salford | Scholars Total |
| Church Establishment | 10,284 | 2,682 | 12,966 |
| Wesleyan Methodist | 9,066 | 2,630 | 11,696 |
| Catholic | 3,880 | 539 | 4,419 |
| Independent | 4,059 | 1,487 | 5,546 |
| Methodist New Conexion | 1,453 | 553 | 2,006 |
| Baptist | 1,183 | 1,183 | |
| General Baptist | 350 | 350 | |
| Primitive Methodist | 320 | 702 | 1,022 |
| Bible Christian | 401 | 98 | 499 |
| Welch Independent | 779 | 176 | 955 |
| Scotch Church | 115 | 115 | |
| Scotch Secession Church | 188 | 188 | |
| New Jerusalem Church | 150 | 90 | 240 |
| Unitarian | 283 | 283 | |
| Independent Methodist | 320 | 65 | 385 |
| Arminian Methodist | 79 | 79 | |
| Welch Baptist | 30 | 30 | |
| Welch Methodist | 175 | 175 | |
| United Christian | 15 | 15 | |
| Unconnected with any religious body | 150 | 150 | |
| Total | 33,196 | 9,754 | 42,950 |
Wheeler, “Manchester, Its Political, Social and Commercial History”, 1836, p. 386 and p. 388.
| Additional 1834-1835 Factory Schools. 29 / 1,820. Infant Schools 2,000 Juvenile Infant Schools 1,800 Royal Lancasterian School. 1,000 children of the poor |
According to Mr. James Wheeler (p. 392), it had been estimated that one-half of the scholars in Manchester who attended Day Schools, also attended Sunday Schools. Therefore, the sum of these two quantities, does not give us a useful datum, which could be compared with the total child population of the Manchester Conurbation. On the other hand, the information on Day Schools and Sunday Schools, summed, and with the application of a multiplication amount, could tell us what was the total number of “pupil-hours” per year. We should applaud those children, who studied in Day Schools on weekdays, and additionally studied on Sundays.
1851 Census
Population Conurbation 387,000
Day Schools 548 / 38,211
Public Day Schools 132 / 23,852
Private Day Schools 416 / 14,359
Sunday Schools 201 / 63,653
Ratio pupils / population conurbation, for Day Schools = 1 to 13.30, which is 30 % worse than in 1834-1835
Ratio pupils / population conurbation, for Sunday Schools = 1 to 7.53, which is a small improvement.
Day Schools, Private Day Schools, Public Day Schools, Sunday Schools, for Chorlton, Salford, Manchester, according to the Census 1851
| CHORLTON | SALFORD | MANCHESTER | |
| SCHOOLS | SCHOOLS | SCHOOLS | |
| DAY SCHOOLS | 229 | 112 | 207 |
| PRIVATE DAY SCHOOLS | 194 | 87 | 135 |
| PUBLIC DAY SCHOOLS | 35 | 25 | 72 |
| CLASS I | |||
| Workhouse Schools | 1 | 1 | |
| CLASS II | |||
| Collegiate and Grammar Schools | 1 | 1 | |
| Other Endowed Schools | 2 | 3 | |
| CLASS III | |||
| Church of England – National | 6 | 4 | 13 |
| Church of England – Others | 10 | 8 | 15 |
| Free Church of England | 1 | ||
| Presbyterians not defined | 1 | 1 | |
| Independents – British | |||
| Independents – Others | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Society of Friends – British | 2 | ||
| Unitarians | 2 | ||
| Wesleyan Methodists – British | 1 | 1 | |
| Wesleyan Methodists – Others | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Methodists New Conexion | |||
| Wesleyan Association | 1 | ||
| New Church | 2 | 2 | |
| Roman Catholics | 3 | 8 | |
| Undenominational – British | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| CLASS IV | |||
| Industrial School | 1 | ||
| Odd Fellows’ Orphan School | 1 | ||
| Factory Schools | |||
| Blind Asylum | |||
| Deaf and Dumb School | |||
| Mechanics’ Institution School | 1 | ||
| Penitentionary School | 1 | ||
| Subscription Schools | 3 | 5 | |
| SUNDAY SCHOOLS | 58 | 40 | 103 |
| Church of England | 17 | 13 | 29 |
| Presbyterian Church England | 3 | 4 | |
| Independents | 7 | 6 | 10 |
| Baptists | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| Society of Friends | 1 | ||
| Unitarians | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Wesleyan Methodists | 14 | 7 | 18 |
| Methodists New Conexion | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Primitive Methodists | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Bible Christians | 1 | ||
| Wesleyan Association | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Independent Methodists | 1 | ||
| Welsh Calvinistic Methodists | 1 | 1 | |
| New Church | 1 | 2 | |
| Undef. Protestant Congreg. | 3 | 5 | |
| Roman Catholics | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Latter Day Saints | 1 | ||
| CHORLTON | SALFORD | MANCHESTER | |
| SCHOLARS | SCHOLARS | SCHOLARS | |
| DAY SCHOOLS | 10,947 | 7,523 | 19,741 |
| PRIVATE DAY SCHOOLS | 5,633 | 2,808 | 5,918 |
| PUBLIC DAY SCHOOLS | 5,314 | 4,715 | 13,823 |
| CLASS I | |||
| Workhouse Schools | 97 | 105 | |
| CLASS II | |||
| Collegiate and GrammarSchools | 20 | 402 | |
| Other Endowed Schools | 260 | 366 | |
| CLASS III | |||
| Church of England – National | 1,408 | 805 | 2,707 |
| Church of England – Others | 1,657 | 2,118 | 3,157 |
| Free Church of England | 122 | ||
| Presbyterians not defined | 152 | 161 | |
| Independents – British | |||
| Independents – Others | 534 | 329 | 323 |
| Society of Friends – British | 286 | ||
| Unitarians | 648 | ||
| Wesleyan Methodists – British | 55 | 104 | |
| Wesleyan Methodists – Others | 882 | 325 | 151 |
| Methodists New Conexion | |||
| Wesleyan Association | 70 | ||
| New Church | 258 | 429 | |
| Roman Catholics | 106 | 2,073 | |
| Undenominational – British | 102 | 140 | 1,662 |
| CLASS IV | |||
| Industrial School | 96 | ||
| Odd Fellows’ Orphan School | 89 | ||
| Factory Schools | |||
| Blind Asylum | |||
| Deaf and Dumb School | |||
| Mechanics’ Institution School | 143 | ||
| Penitentionary School | 50 | ||
| Subscription Schools | 371 | 530 | |
| SUNDAY SCHOOLS | 18,230 | 13,264 | 32,159 |
| Church of England | 5,108 | 4,423 | 12,537 |
| Presbyterian Church England | 545 | 700 | |
| Independents | 3,882 | 3,544 | 4,017 |
| Baptists | 917 | 423 | 620 |
| Society of Friends | 204 | ||
| Unitarians | 66 | 140 | 964 |
| Wesleyan Methodists | 4,533 | 2,598 | 4,685 |
| Methodists New Conexion | 189 | 255 | 1,375 |
| Primitive Methodists | 596 | 253 | 60 |
| Bible Christians | 121 | ||
| Wesleyan Association | 770 | 680 | 2,590 |
| Independent Methodists | 85 | ||
| Welsh Calvinistic Methodists | 212 | 125 | |
| New Church | 313 | 372 | |
| Undef. Protestant Congreg. | 896 | 1,271 | |
| Roman Catholics | 505 | 504 | 2,011 |
| Latter Day Saints | 26 | ||
Census of Great Britain, 1851. Education. England and Wales. Lancashire: RD 471 Chorlton, RD 472 Salford, RD 473 Manchester, pp. 172-174.
| MANCHESTER CONURBATION | ||
| SCHOOLS | SCHOLARS | |
| DAY SCHOOLS | 548 | 38,211 |
| PRIVATE DAY SCHOOLS | 416 | 14,359 |
| PUBLIC DAY SCHOOLS | 132 | 23,852 |
| CLASS I | ||
| Workhouse Schools | 2 | 202 |
| CLASS II | ||
| Collegiate and Grammar Schools | 2 | 422 |
| Other Endowed Schools | 5 | 626 |
| CLASS III | ||
| Church of England – National | 23 | 4,920 |
| Church of England – Others | 33 | 6,932 |
| Free Church of England | 1 | 122 |
| Presbyterians not defined | 2 | 312 |
| Independents – British | ||
| Independents – Others | 9 | 1,186 |
| Society of Friends – British | 2 | 286 |
| Unitarians | 2 | 648 |
| Wesleyan Methodists – British | 2 | 159 |
| Wesleyan Methodists – Others | 8 | 1,358 |
| Methodists New Conexion | ||
| Wesleyan Association | 1 | 70 |
| New Church | 4 | 687 |
| Roman Catholics | 11 | 2,179 |
| Undenominational – British | 8 | 1,904 |
| CLASS IV | ||
| Industrial School | 1 | 96 |
| Odd Fellows’ Orphan School | 1 | 89 |
| Factory Schools | ||
| Blind Asylum | ||
| Deaf and Dumb School | ||
| Mechanics’ Institution School | 1 | 143 |
| Penitentionary School | 1 | 50 |
| Subscription Schools | 8 | 901 |
| SUNDAY SCHOOLS | 201 | 63,653 |
| Church of England | 59 | 22,068 |
| Presbyterian Church England | 7 | 1,245 |
| Independents | 23 | 11,443 |
| Baptists | 10 | 1,960 |
| Society of Friends | 1 | 204 |
| Unitarians | 5 | 1,170 |
| Wesleyan Methodists | 39 | 11,186 |
| Methodists New Conexion | 7 | 504 |
| Primitive Methodists | 5 | 909 |
| Bible Christians | 1 | 121 |
| Wesleyan Association | 9 | 4,040 |
| Independent Methodists | 1 | 85 |
| Welsh Calvinistic Methodists | 2 | 337 |
| New Church | 3 | 685 |
| Undef. Protestant Congreg. | 8 | 2,167 |
| Roman Catholics | 10 | 3,020 |
| Latter Day Saints | 1 | 26 |
Total of the preceding data of the three Registration Districts
One great problem of education in Manchester, was that a large number of children were not attending any sort of school. It appeared that the parents just did not want their children to go to school.
“It has been stated in evidence that about “54,670 children, belonging to the labouring classes, whether employed or not, are not attending day schools”, and that no reason has been alleged, that ought to be considerd satisfactory, why “one half, at least” of that number ought not “to be in some school receiving educatiion”. It is indeed highly probable that, at the present time, there are not fewer than 20,000 or 30,000 children of the labouring classes kept from day school, without being in employment or detained at home through sickness, domestic need, or any other sufficient cause; and who ought therefore to be gathered into school.” 1.33
1.33 Richson, p. 10
Love, 1842, p. 173
Industrial and Training School, Swinton, Manchester Poor Law Union
This was a large and effective (but also high-cost) institution for pauper children.
“The two great cities of Lancashire support two great pauper educational establishments. Manchester has its Swinton and Liverpool its Kirkdale. In the Infant School attached to the former establishment, the children could point to Washington and Iceland on the map. They could name the Books of the Testament and understood what a thermometer was. In the girls’ school, five-sevenths of the pupils could read the New Testament. They were also taught to sew, knit, cut out, wash, iron and mangle. In the boys’ school, the reading was “fair” and “a certain standard of education was attained by many”; so that “material progress may be expected”. The industrial training consisted of tailors’ and shoemakers’ work, and clogging, and the general dscipline was “excellent”. At the Kirkdale establishment, the boys’ school was efficient; but the infant and girls’ schools were less satisfactory, and the progress of the learners slow. The girls sew and do household work, being out of school one week in three.” 1.34
1.34 Reach, “Letters to the Morning Chronicle”, p. 66
Differently from all the institutions commented above, this was founded by the Manchester Poor Law Union (opened in 1843). Swinton was on the road from Manchester to Liverpool; the building was on the site of the present Salford Town Hall. The installations were sufficient for 1000 to 1450 children (paupers), although the real figures were from 700 to 1000, and 50 staff. It had a gymnasium, a swimming pool, a Roman Catholic chapel, and Church of England chapel. There was also a farm attached, as the children had to help with the production of the food consumed there.
[For photographs of the outside of the building, see Google = “workhouses.org.uk Swinton Industrial School»]
