Extensions, 1958-60

Need for

The post-war increase in the birth rate, together with more pupils staying on at what was now a technical school, necessitated this major extension – one that Mr Rocca and the governors had envisaged and planned for over several years. The existing building was patently inadequate both in terms of accommodating the increased numbers and providing the facilities for a technical school’s curriculum. Its condition was also unsatisfactory in so many respects.

The new extensions were to be built on wasteland bordering the school and which had been appropriated by the LEA over a period of time. This included land at the eastern end of Ardwick Green North, land along the west side of Higher Ardwick (at that time being used as a car park for heavy haulage vehicles), and land adjacent to Durling Street. Greenhalgh & Williams, architects to the Salford diocese, drew up the appropriate plans. The financial estimate for the project involved three main aspects – the new building, the alterations and adaptations to the existing building, and professional fees. The final cost of the extension, established in 1964, amounted to £192,348, made up as follows: Building Work £169,491, Fees £22,857.

The main contractors were J. Gerard & Sons, Ltd, and they took possession of the land for extension on 1st October 1958. Once the builders’ work commenced, the daily routine of the school was obviously affected. Within weeks the builders had to lay supporting timbers in the entrance passage to the school, resulting in the passage (from Ardwick Green North) being reduced to only two feet in width. As a consequence of this, and in the interests of pupils’ safety, Mr Rocca issued the following instruction to all members of staff:

“At 12.30, 4.05 and 4.10pm all teachers must personally lead their classes from the classroom to the foot of the central stairs and remain there until their class has left the premises.”

In November 1958, new toilets for the boys were installed in the end of the craft room. In the same month, during the excavations for the foundations, the workmen came across an old artesian well 41 feet deep and approximately 4 feet and 6 inches in diameter. The discovery was reported to the River Department and Divisional Engineer.

Hoardings were eventually placed across the playground by the builders, severely reducing the playing area of what was already a small yard. As a consequence, morning playtime was split, with junior boys playing from 10.10-10.20 and seniors from 10.55-11.05. There was, for a time, no play in the afternoon and school closed at 4.05 instead of 4.10pm. At dinner times the boys often used the park as a play area as well as local streets and areas of wasteland.

The split-break arrangement would have led to the serious disruption of teaching and learning in those classrooms where lessons were still in progress. The situation was difficult for all concerned, but especially for fifth-formers who were preparing for public examinations the following summer.

Architects’ extension plans

The below plans show the extensions and alterations.  They have been drawn by me from a study of the architects’ original plans, parts of which were superimposed over an old plan of the school.  Rooms, size, doors and intended usage are as per original plans. They have been drawn to scale and are fairly accurate.

Comment

It is interesting to note that there were plans for both male and female staff rooms on the ground floor, although there were no female teachers in 1958. Similarly, a room was earmarked for the Sixth Form although the first students appeared only from September 1959. Once the work had been completed and the new rooms had been occupied, some of them took on a very different function to that outlined in the architects’ plans. Parts of the plans were not actually implemented. For instance, the double doors from the Gym to the Entrance Hall were not installed, and the stairs leading up to the entrance to the Main Hall were reduced in length.

The scale and nature of the extensions

Below is an extract from The Catholic Building Review For 1960.

“This project [the extension of the school] was designed to bring the existing school up to the standard required by the Ministry of Education for a Four-Form Entry Technical High School.

Work on the site commenced in October 1958, and three classrooms were completed for Easter, 1959, to provide urgently needed additional accommodation. The new buildings were completed by January, 1960, and the adaptations to the existing buildings, except for the Caretaker’s flat, finished for August, 1960, some six months ahead of schedule.

The extensions consist of a three-storey classroom building with vertical access and at right angles to this, partially enclosing the existing playground, a two-storey building containing the Gymnasium on the ground floor and the Assembly Hall and Stage on the first floor. Adjacent to the two-storey building are the single-storey workshops with access to the three-storey block through a glazed corridor. Built at the end of the three-storey block, the single-storey Dining room and Kitchen allows for overspill to be accommodated in the Entrance Hall.

The single-storey workshops, kitchen and dining room are planned around a paved and planted courtyard providing interesting views from one side of the dining room and glazed access corridor. Classrooms and a Caretaker’s flat are provided by adapting and altering the existing school building. To save cost the heating chamber in the basement of the existing building was utilised to accommodate the new coke-fired heating boilers.

The new two and three-storey building is steel framed with precast concrete floors and timber frame roof and clad with brickwork, metal windows and cedar boarding. The single-storey workshops, dining room and kitchen are built in load bearing brickwork roofed with long span timber framing.

Additional land was required to the site to provide extra playground space and a Rural Studies Unit.”

The reference to “Four-Form Entry” is rather interesting because in September 1959 the school had 172 new boys, comprising five forms in the first year; in September 1960, there were 175 new entrants, comprising five forms, and in September 1961 there were six first-year forms.

The ‘new’ school ushered in a new era and made life – teaching and learning – much easier, but the changes also had certain disadvantages, such as:

• The flat roofs were not ideal for Manchester’s rainy weather.

• The new stairways led to pupils and staff taking ‘short cuts’ through classrooms from one side of the building to another, sometimes disturbing lessons.

• Some classrooms lacked ‘privacy’ and were overlooked.

• In summer some classrooms became very hot.

• Inadequate car parking for staff and visitors, although this was not a problem at first.

• There were security issues especially with ground-floor areas.

• When windows were opened in order to ventilate the laboratories, the noise of the traffic became a serious distraction and the teacher could not be heard at the back of the room.

• In certain rooms sunshine produced a sharp contrasting light, which made it difficult to read anything on the chalk blackboard.

• The dining-room area would prove to be too small.

• The concrete steps on the stairways easily worked loose and slid down the stairs, causing accidents from time to time. Blocks of wood were used to fill the gaps and secure the ‘steps’.

One of the advantages of the extended building was an immediate improvement in pupil access. Gone were the days of squeezing through the narrow entrance facing Ardwick Green Park; the door remained closed, bolted and unused. Instead, pupils accessed the building either from Higher Ardwick or from the far side of the extended schoolyard near the corporation flats. Staff, sixth formers and visitors now used the main entrance on Higher Ardwick.   

Over £200,000 was spent on what the Manchester Evening News described as “one of the best examples of modern architecture in Ardwick”.

Manchester Corporation later paid an extra £10,335 as their share of the bill for alterations. They were also responsible for the purchase of furniture and equipment, provision of school meals, accommodation, and playground paths, roads, boundary wall and fencing.

Although the area of the playground was greatly extended, the school (like other schools in the district) still lacked appropriate playing fields for its pupils. Not until the mid-1970s did the school obtain nearby playing fields.

Use of the old building

The planners and architects had skilfully drawn up plans to drastically redesign the old building in such a way that it blended with the new building. New rooms, toilets, cloakrooms and corridors were created. On the ground floor, for instance, Woodwork 1 and Woodwork 2 became Rooms 1, 2 and 3 and toilets; the old Hall was converted into Rooms 4 and 5, and a cloakroom was created. Similar alterations were made on the first and second floors. The full extent of these changes can be seen on the plans of the school for the 1960s and 1970s.

Mayoral visit

In April 1959, shortly after the first three rooms of the new extensions had been taken over for use, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Swinton paid an official visit to the school. The mayor, Councillor Muldoon, J.P., was an old boy of the school and was a guest at the school’s Speech Day a few months earlier.

Exams in new classrooms

Many of the 1959 leavers sat their O-level examinations in the recently opened new classrooms fronting Higher Ardwick.

Religious Vocations Exhibition, June 1959

A total of 500 boys were taken to a Religious Vocations Exhibition in the afternoons of the first week of June – 50 on Monday; 135 on Tuesday; 135 on Wednesday; 100 on Thursday, and 80 on Friday.

Harris Stadium

The annual sports day of 1959 was once again held at the Harris Stadium, Fallowfield. After being registered in school, all classes were taken by buses for the afternoon’s athletics.

First Advanced Level Sixth Formers, 1959            

It was in the midst of the school’s extensions that the first sixth formers commenced their studies. September 1959 saw a small number of boys return after their O-levels in order to begin Advanced Level studies. Among them were Barry Keyworth, Paul Dean and Keith Ferguson who studied Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Terry O’Neil also returned for a spell in order to resit exams in November before leaving to commence work. 

Throughout this period the sixth form witnessed rising numbers and larger groups, together with staff developing and extending their own teaching techniques and specialised knowledge. The post-war baby-boomers were now striving for places at the increased number of universities, some of which were referred to as “red-brick” because of their relative newness. Along with polytechnics, colleges of education and other institutions there was a boom in further education, foreseen and provided for by Government. Gregorians had a free choice of what A-levels to study, but advice was always available from teachers if required. In time, the Lower Sixth would comprise two broad groups of students: those studying “sciences”, who were placed in Lower VI Science, and those studying “arts” subjects, who were placed in Lower VI Modern.  Each subject would be allocated about eight periods a week out of 40, which meant that the students needed a room or facility in which they could study during the times when they were not being taught.

New timetable

Staff shortages continued to affect the school. In some cases, staff who had left were not replaced and, in January 1960, a new timetable was put “into operation and no subject has been omitted”, according to Mr Rocca. It was also noted that “the average number of marking periods [out of 40] is two per teacher per week”. 

Mr Rocca later recorded that: “During the [1959-60] school year we have been very much understaffed and I have taught Physics and Chemistry regularly since January. Our total staff since 1st February 1960 has been 23 (Establishment 26). With absences this has resulted in a working staff of 22 on many days.”

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