Newcastle-under-Lyme: Schools and charities

Schools (fn. 1)

There is some justification for the claim, made 50 years ago, that Newcastle had been the educational centre of North Staffordshire for three and a half centuries. (fn. 2) It had produced in the Grammar School and the Orme School, re-formed after 1872 as the High School, the main means of secondary education for most of the area, including the Potteries. (fn. 3) The early history of the Grammar School falls within the scope of another volume, but its later history after the merging of all the educational endowments of the town in 1872 (fn. 4) is treated here. The first mention of a schoolmaster in the town occurs in 1565 (fn. 5) and the Grammar School arose from various endowments, not becoming in effect a grammar school until the end of the 17th century. (fn. 6) Until then it was the town school. (fn. 7)

The Orme School was founded under the will of the Revd. Edward Orme (d. 1705), at one time master of the borough school, who left various lands in trust, the revenue to be applied to educating and apprenticing the poor children of Newcastle. (fn. 8) After his term as master of the borough school the character of the school had been altered by William Cotton's endowment of 1692 from that of an English school to a grammar school, and Orme's endowment was designed to remedy the lack of a school where more elementary education could be provided. (fn. 9) The school was established in the Presbyterian meetinghouse near St. Giles's Church, (fn. 10) but after the burning of the meeting-house by rioters in 1715, a separate school building was erected in the chapel yard. (fn. 11) Meanwhile, in 1708 a scheme for regulating the school had been drawn up by John Fenton. (fn. 12) One of the regulations required the teaching of the Church Catechism. Reading, writing, and accounting, however, constituted the greater part of the curriculum. (fn. 13) In 1709 the trustees invested part of the funds in the purchase of a farm at Knutton. (fn. 14)

In 1715 dissension arose over Henry Hatrell's administration of the trust, particularly over the expense incurred in building the new school and schoolhouse. New trustees were ordered to be appointed in 1727, but the order was subsequently set aside on legal grounds. (fn. 15) In 1773 the school received further endowments under the will of John Cartwright. (fn. 16) The endowments of the school in 1825 were reported to consist of a farm at Knutton (48 acres), a close at Knutton (2 acres), a malthouse at Newcastle (£21 p.a.), land in the recently inclosed Pool Field (2 roods), land in the recently inclosed Stubbs Field (3 acres), land at Knutton (2 acres), a small allotment upon the recently inclosed Knutton Heath (1 acre), and the school and schoolhouse in Newcastle, the total yearly income being £165. The number of pupils was then reported as being 50 annually since 1797, and the syllabus covered reading, writing, and arithmetic.

The accounts of the charity were in such confusion by 1825 that in the Charity Commissioners' opinion the funds could not be further expended without a Chancery order. (fn. 17) The school was closed from the date of the inquiry for twenty years (fn. 18) while a suit about the financial difficulties of the trust was in progress, until finally in 1845 new trustees were appointed in Chancery. (fn. 19) A new trust scheme was drawn up in 1847 (fn. 20) under which the trustees sold the former school and built a new one on the site of the former corporation workhouse in Higherland bought by them in 1846. (fn. 21) The Orme School reopened in the new building in 1851. (fn. 22) Total receipts of the trust in 1847 amounted to £292 and by 1856 the amount invested was £2,673. The mineral rights of the Knutton farm were by this date providing a valuable additional income in royalties, amounting in 1856 to £1,882, in 1857 to £2,420, and in 1858 to over £7,000. The investments of the charity exceeded £15,000 by 1862 and £22,000 by 1866, and by 1872 were just under £29,000. (fn. 23)

Meanwhile the size of the school grew as it increased in prosperity. Until the end of 1855 the average number of pupils had been about 70. In December 1855 50 new boys were entered following the appointment of an additional master. From 1856 until the end of 1863 there were 120 pupils, increased to 150 in 1864 after the appointment of another master. (fn. 24) Extensions to the buildings were proposed in 1868, and in 1869 an inquiry into their necessity was held by the Charity Commissioners. Almost immediately after the report appeared the Endowed Schools Act (fn. 25) was passed. This gave the commissioners the right to alter the purpose of and to consolidate educational trusts. (fn. 26) On the basis of a report made in 1868 (fn. 27) by T. H. Green, the philosopher, the entire system of secondary education in the borough was revised.

Although the Orme School at this date was flourishing, the Grammar School had declined. Green reported of it that 'an impression that the school is unwholesome has definitely prevented boys from being sent to it' and 'the professional men seemed to have quite given up using the Grammar School.' (fn. 28) He further reported that 'among the more educated inhabitants of the Potteries [he] found a general sense of the want of a good middle and grammar school.' (fn. 29) Hitherto pupils in the Orme School had been nominated to the school by the trustees, not especially on grounds of poverty, and had usually come from the National and British schools. Green recommended that instead of this system pupils be admitted on merit, so that the Orme School would become superior to these two schools. Further, exhibitions from the Orme School to the Grammar School should be provided if the latter were reorganized. (fn. 30)

A third endowed school, 'a dame school for young children', existed in the borough by 1694. (fn. 31) Founded under the will of John Cowell (codicil dated 1655) and further endowed by Thomas Bagnall, by will dated 1675, and by Ralph Keeling, by will dated 1704, the school had started by 1694 when Jane Fernihough was appointed as school dame. In 1721 she was discharged and it was laid down that the dame should teach only children selected by the mayor, justices, and aldermen of the borough. (fn. 32) In 1825 there were only about 20 children in the school and when the then dame died in 1827 (aged 77) no successor was appointed. (fn. 33)

In 1871 the Charity Commissioners proposed the amalgamation of all the educational charities of Newcastle and the foundation of three schools, an upper school for boys called the High School, a lower school for boys called the Middle School, and a school for girls to be called the Orme Girls' School. (fn. 34) Despite strong local opposition this scheme was carried out in 1872. (fn. 35) The Middle School was housed in the Orme School buildings in Higherland and new buildings were erected for the High School and the Orme Girls' School. The scheme was amended in 1898 and 1907 (fn. 36) to meet changing conditions in education. Under the 1872 scheme (fn. 37) the curriculum of the High School, which had an upper age limit of nineteen years, was the normal grammarschool curriculum with emphasis on experimental chemistry because of the trade and manufactures of the district. Not more than 10 per cent. of the pupils were to be foundation scholars, of whom one-third to one-half were to come from the Middle School. The Middle School was open to boys between the ages of eight and sixteen. All pupils were charged tuition fees and were required to pass an entrance examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The curriculum included writing, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, mensuration and land surveying, English, history, geography, political economy, at least one branch of the natural sciences, French, Latin, drawing and music, with special attention to drawing and chemistry as these subjects had most bearing on the manufactures of the district. There were a certain number of exhibitions to it, half of which were to be given to boys at elementary schools in the school district of Newcastle. Arnold Bennett was a pupil of this school and in June 1885, shortly after leaving, passed the London Matriculation Examination in the first division. (fn. 38) The Orme Girls' School was open to girls between the ages of eight and seventeen and the curriculum consisted of English, Latin or French or German, or any two of these, arithmetic and mathematics, history, geography, drawing, music, at least one branch of the natural sciences, domestic economy, needlework, and any other subjects which the governors might add. Half of the exhibitions to this school were to be open only to children from the elementary schools of Newcastle school district.

As at the same time the governors of the endowed schools paid £2,500 to the Newcastle-under-Lyme School Board towards the erection of public elementary schools and £300 p.a. for providing free places in these schools and various other amenities, by the end of 1872 a system of graded education had been established in Newcastle whereby children could by means of scholarships and exhibitions acquire a grammar-school education. The majority of the pupils at the endowed schools would, however, be paying fees. (fn. 39)

The first unendowed school, St. Giles's, was established in 1825. It was affiliated to the National Society. St. Patrick's Roman Catholic School followed in 1833, Newcastle British School in 1834, affiliated to the British and Foreign Schools Society, and a second National school, St. George's, in 1835. These four schools provided elementary education within the borough at a small fee until 1870. All were aided by government grants. In the area which later became part of the borough there were National schools at Chesterton, established in 1814, Silverdale (then called Knutton Heath) established 1847, and Wolstanton, established 1841. The Church of England was mainly responsible, therefore, for primary education in the borough proper and the surrounding area until 1870.

An unexpected result of the Education Act of that year was an immediate increase in the number of church and nonconformist schools. Longbridge Hayes National School was established in 1871, Red Street National School in 1872, Cross Heath Church School in 1876, Chesterton (Dunkirk) Church School in 1876, Knutton Church School in 1874, Wolstanton Wesleyan School in 1871, Silverdale Primitive Methodist School in 1872, and Newcastle Wesleyan School in 1871. Two school boards were formed covering the area of the present borough with the exception of Clayton, Newcastle School Board in February 1871 (fn. 40) and Wolstanton School Board in March 1874. (fn. 41)

The first Newcastle School Board (1871–4) did little of its own accord to further primary education. Using the £2,500 given by the Endowed Schools Trust, it built Ryecroft Schools, costing £3,868 and accommodating 800. (fn. 42) The second board (1874–7) did more, taking over the British school in 1876, (fn. 43) which became Friarswood School, and Newcastle Wesleyan School in 1877 for which new buildings in Hassell Street were erected in 1881. No schools were erected by subsequent Newcastle School Boards. The first Wolstanton School Board (1874–7) opened schools at Silverdale (1875) and Chesterton (1876). In 1881 the Wolstanton Wesleyan School was taken over by the Wolstanton School Board. Thus in July 1903 on the formation of the Newcastle Education Committee (fn. 44) there were three local authority elementary schools in the area and two independent schools, St. Giles's and St. George's Church of England School, and St. Patrick's Roman Catholic School. In Wolstanton, where an education committee was formed in 1905, (fn. 45) there were two public elementary schools at that date, Ellison Street Schools and May Bank School, and two church schools, Wolstanton and Cross Heath.

Various areas had been detached from Wolstanton for educational purposes after the Education Act of 1902 and there were county elementary schools at Silverdale and Chesterton (two). Clayton School had also been transferred to the county from Stoke School Board. (fn. 46) There were church schools at Silverdale, Knutton, Red Street, and Chesterton.

Between the formation of Newcastle and Wolstanton Education Committees and their merger in 1932, no new school was built by the former and only one by the latter, namely Watlands Infants' School to replace Wolstanton Church of England Infants' School. In the same period the county built a school at Knutton in 1914 to take the children formerly in the infants' department of Knutton Church of England School.

In the 1930's, however, Newcastle began to put into effect the proposals of the Hadow Report (1926) and separated children over the age of 11 from those younger. In 1931 the Orme Boys' Senior School was opened in the buildings of the Orme Middle School, purchased by the committee in 1928, (fn. 47) to take senior boys from Hassell Street and Ryecroft Schools. (fn. 48) Broadmeadow Senior School at Chesterton was opened in 1931, taking senior pupils from Chesterton Church School and Albert Street School. (fn. 49) Knutton Senior School was opened in the following year to take seniors from the Knutton and Silverdale area, from both church and county schools. (fn. 50) Westlands Senior Girls' School to take the senior girls from the central Newcastle schools was not opened until 1936, however. (fn. 51) Reorganization on these lines had been completed by the end of 1936 with the exception of St. Giles's and St. George's Church School and the Roman Catholic schools. The Roman Catholic senior pupils were separated in 1938. In the field of elementary education, however, Newcastle was expanding only slightly in the 1930's to meet the needs of new housing areas. Priory Road Infants' school was built in 1934. The need for increased elementary education had been eased by the building of the new senior schools or, where these were housed in the existing buildings of an elementary school, by the provision of a new school for the juniors and infants. (fn. 52)

In the field of grammar-school education Newcastle made great advances in the period between the two world wars. The endowed grammar schools continued to be aided on a per capita basis by the county and Stoke-on-Trent. (fn. 53) The Orme Middle School, condemned in 1923 by the Board of Education, (fn. 54) was closed by 1927, and in 1928 the buildings were bought by Newcastle Education Committee. (fn. 55) The school was replaced in the same year by the erection of a new local authority Grammar School at Wolstanton. (fn. 56) It was designed for 500 boys and laid out on a double quadrangle plan. The school is open to boys from the county area and adjacent parts of Cheshire. (fn. 57)

Under the 1944 Education Act Newcastle was made an excepted district. In the post-war period the chief problem has been to find school accommodation for the growing child population of Newcastle. The education committee has had to provide much temporary accommodation and also has frequently had to house children from one school in another. (fn. 58) New primary schools have been built to meet the need for schools in new housing areas: Bradwell C.P. School (1951), Broadmeadow C.P.

School (opened as such 1958), Crackley Bank C.P. School (1956), Hempstalls C.P. School (1953), Langdale C.P. School (1954), and an independent school, St. Wulstan's R.C. Aided Primary School (1959).

One new secondary modern school has been built, Bradwell County Secondary Modern School, the senior schools established in the 1930's having been converted into secondary modern schools as a result of the Education Act of 1944. (fn. 59) The local authority in 1948 opened a girls' grammar school at Clayton Hall while the two endowed grammar schools, the High School and the Orme Girls' School, not having an income sufficient to qualify them as direct grant schools, became specially aided schools under the terms of the Act. The trust maintains the fabric of the main buildings and the local authority provides for the general running costs.

About one-third of the children in the four grammar schools now come from the county area. Roughly 360 children are admitted to the grammar schools each year, between 20 and 30 from Stoke, (fn. 60) 220 from Newcastle, and 110 from the county. Provision is made in each of the boys' grammar schools for technical education, since there is no technical school in the borough. At the secondary modern schools there is a 4th-year commercial course for selected pupils. Entrance to the grammar schools is by the 11-plus examination, but pupils are later transferred from secondary modern schools to the grammar schools and vice versa, the number affected each year being about 15 to 20. In the secondary modern schools there is a leaving examination assessed by the Education Department of the University College of North Staffordshire but at the present time (1960) there is no provision for taking the General Certificate of Education examination. (fn. 61)

Table I - List of Schools (fn. 62)

C.P. = County Primary C.S. = County Secondary C.E. = Church of England C.E.V.P. = Church of England Voluntary Primary C.E.V.C. = Church of England Voluntary Controlled R.C. = Roman Catholic R.C.A.P. = Roman Catholic Aided Primary R.C.V.S. = Roman Catholic Voluntary Secondary

B = Boys G = Girls J = Junior I = Infants JM = Junior Mixed M = Mixed / = Separate departments

Charities for the Poor

As will be seen from the table below, the corporation, either at the express wish of the donor or by its acquisition of the charity lands, (fn. 107) administered from the 17th century onwards an increasing number of the borough charities. Some of these were applied in relief of the poor rate under the decree of 1740. (fn. 108) From 1807 seventeen of the charities which were by then vested in the corporation were consolidated with ten in the hands of the churchwardens. The annual income from the former was £12 12s. (by at least 1824) and from the latter £13 5s. 4d. and was expended in bread and money doles on St. Thomas's Day (21 December). (fn. 109) The distribution, organized by the churchwardens and overseers, was held at the parish church and elsewhere in the town and attended by the rector and leading residents. (fn. 110) In 1896 all surviving Newcastle charities for the poor were vested as the United Charities in a body of trustees on which the corporation had five representatives. The moneys were thenceforward applied in general benefits to the poor of the borough, (fn. 111) often in large grants to the charitable organizations of the district. (fn. 112) In 1952 £47 10s. was distributed in money at Christmas to 47 poor. (fn. 113) In 1955 the United Charities, the funds of the District Nursing Association, and the charities of Eliza Hinds and Richard Mountford were vested as the Amalgamated Charities in a body of twelve trustees, six of them nominated by the borough council and six co-opted. Apart from sums reserved for special purposes such as sermons and, in the case of the Nursing Association, the sick poor of the borough, the income was to be applied in general relief, including weekly doles of between 2s. 6d. and 10s., to the poor of the borough 'as constituted from time to time'. (fn. 114)

By 1663 the corporation had at its disposal several almshouses. (fn. 115) An order was made in 1667 for their repair at the expense of the borough, although in one case the inmate was expected to contribute towards the cost under pain of ejection. (fn. 116) A house near the Castle Pool was taken into the corporation's hands in 1684 and converted into further almshouses. (fn. 117) The corporation almshouses seem to have been superseded by the workhouse (fn. 118) in 1731. (fn. 119)

By the will of Christopher Monck, Duke of Albemarle (d. 1688), a sum of £1,500 was bequeathed for the erection of almshouses for 20 widows, not necessarily from Newcastle, with a further £4,500 as endowment. As a consequence of disputes about the testator's property, it was not until 1743 that his heirs, Grace, Countess Granville, John, styled Lord Gower, and Bernard Granville, erected the 20 almshouses. They also agreed to keep them in repair and provide £160 annually for the maintenance of the widows; out of this sum £20 was to be spent each Michaelmas on gowns and petticoats of blue cloth which were to be worn by the inmates whenever they were in public. Each of the three above-mentioned heirs, with their heirs after them, was to present six of the widows and appoint the remaining two in rotation. By 1824 clothing had not been provided for some years, and the whole £160 was paid in money at the rate of 3s. a week to each widow with an additional 4s. each about Christmas time. The inmates were still chosen from other districts besides Newcastle. (fn. 120) The right of presentation, as well as that of appointing the trustees, remained in the Leveson-Gower family (dukes of Sutherland from 1833) until 1940 when the 5th duke settled a sum of £6,400 stock in redemption of the annual £160 and his responsibility to maintain the premises. By 1914 the 20 sets were occupied by 19 almswomen and a matron; most of the inmates then came from Newcastle, but some were widows of tenants on the Trentham estate. Since the site was required for road purposes, the building was bought in 1940 by the Ministry of Transport for £4,500 which was invested to meet the cost of new premises. Owing to the war, demolition was not carried out, and by agreement ten of the almshouses remained with the trustees rent-free for needy widows and the rest were taken over by the borough for housing. (fn. 121)

The building, which stands at the junction of Bridge Street and Lower Green, is of red brick with a hipped roof and consists of two ranges at right angles to one another. The range facing Bridge Street contains three cross-passages with staircases, each giving access to four sets of rooms, two on each floor. The individual sets consist of living room, bedroom, and pantry. The shorter range facing Lower Green has two entrances and contains eight sets of rooms, similarly arranged. On both facades the doorways and casement windows are surmounted by stone lintels with raised keystones, the upper windows having stone aprons below the sills. The doors and windows at the rear are contained in plain brick openings. In the centre of the Bridge Street front is an open pediment supported on stone console brackets, below which is an inscribed tablet, now (1960) almost illegible. (fn. 122)

Table II - Charities for the Poor