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New Girls’ School at Sale, 1877
Mr Henry Rogers, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Certified Industrial Schools, had this to say in May 1874 following an inspection of the Ardwick Green Industrial School:
“I think it would be well to consider the complete separation of the sexes in the [Ardwick] Establishment, and the foundation of an entirely detached school for the girls at some little distance from the town.”
Again, a generous benefactor stepped forward and offered to finance the new school. Plans were drawn up and a school capable of receiving 200 girls was built on Northenden Road, Sale. In 1877, the new school was opened and the 72 girls remaining at the Ardwick site were immediately transferred. So, from early in 1877 only boys remained at the Ardwick site, a situation that would necessitate some alterations to the building. It remained a boys-only institution until it closed in 1922.
In June 1877, Mr and Mrs Thomas Jackson succeeded the Camms as superintendent and matron. They held their posts until their retirement in 1890 and were then replaced by Mr and Mrs Angus Mackay.
The Manchester Certified Industrial School at Ardwick Green, 1878
Note how, in the school’s title, the word Ragged has been removed and it is now (since 1874) a Certified institution. Note the door, far right, from which the boy has just emerged; this was the boys’ entrance at St Gregory’s until December 1959. The artist shows the boys clearly drilled to walk orderly in lines of three and they appear to be smartly dressed in uniforms; there were no girls, the last having departed for Sale in 1877. The elegant portico, left, would one day become a feature of architectural admiration and be protected by a preservation order. The railings and shrubs added to the neat and tidy appearance of the school’s frontage.
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