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Lord John Russell
Inauguration, October 1858
The inauguration of the newly enlarged and improved building at Ardwick Green took place on 22nd October 1858 under the presidency of Lord John Russell, the former Whig prime minister. Accompanied by the Lord Mayor of Manchester and many other guests and dignitaries, Lord John Russell made a tour of the building and spoke to the pupils before returning to the Manchester Town Hall, where he attended the annual meeting about the school. He was very impressed with the school and described it as “a commodious institution”. The school fronted onto Ardwick Green North, immediately to the right of Ardwick Town Hall as viewed from the park.
Donation, 1859
Early in 1859 the committee received a windfall when Miss Eleanora Atherton, a well-known local philanthropist, generously gave the institution, upon certain conditions, the handsome sum of £5,000; £2,000 to pay the debt and £3,000 as an endowment upon the institution. Miss Atherton was the last surviving member of the Byrom family and great-granddaughter of John Byrom (1692-1763), the famous English poet and inventor of a revolutionary system of shorthand. The owner of land and property in Manchester and Salford, other parts of Lancashire, Cheshire, London, and Jamaica, Eleanora Atherton “inherited the cumulative riches of her forebears and became a prolific philanthropist”. During her lifetime she gave several thousand pounds each year to local charities.
The committee gratefully accepted the donation and was naturally anxious to place in the building some tablet, or other memorial, of Miss Atherton’s generosity. The lady was consulted on the subject and in accordance with her wishes a marble tablet was placed in the new wing of the building, bearing an inscription. However, the name featured in the inscription was not that of Miss Atherton but, instead, of her late aunt, Eleanora Byrom, after whom she was named. Miss Atherton remembered the kind sympathy her revered aunt felt for the institution and preferred that the memorial should be dedicated to her aunt’s memory rather than in honour of herself. The new wing was called “The Byrom Wing” and had cost £2,000 to construct. The residue of around £1,000 was “invested for the general purposes of the institution”.
Subsequent to this date, a small plot of ground adjoining the yard was purchased. A large playground was laid out for the children and more workshops were added.
Miss Eleanora Atherton
Re-certification, April 1859
On 6th April, 1859, the institution became a certified Industrial School, allowing it to receive children committed by magistrates for detention. Its residential capacity was set at 200 places. The establishment was now officially known as the Manchester Ragged and Certified Industrial School.
An early inspection report on the school queried whether the handsome and imposing style of the buildings, and the extent to which the children were clothed and regularly boarded in it might be a drawback: ‘such costly provision for the instruction and care of the ragged class may be more likely to increase the class than lessen it, tempting parents to let their children sink into it rather than deterring or stimulating them to keep them from it’, it was believed by some. The superintendent in 1862 was the Rev. Joseph H. Bryan, with his wife as matron.
The Manchester Ragged and Industrial Schools, 1860
This excellent print appeared in the school’s annual report for 1860 and showed the recently built three-storey wing, designed by Alfred Waterhouse. The title of the school, seen near the top of John Rylands’ former house, was short-lived, for it had changed in 1859 to the Manchester Ragged and Certified Industrial Schools. This is the earliest surviving image of the building.
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