Waterloo Road Board School Cheetham (School No 18)

THE NEW BOARD SCHOOL IN WATERLOO-ROAD. The erection the new board school at the lower end of Waterloo-road, near to Bury New-road, in this city, is being carried out, and it is anticipated that the formal ceremony laying a memorial stone in the front wall of the building will take place at termination of the present holiday season. The school will be one of the largest of those that have been established by the board, inasmuch as it will provide accommodation for 340 infants and 809 pupils in the boys' and girls' departments, or a total in round numbers of 1,150. Much excavation has had to be effected before the site was ready for the foundations, for the plot was a part of the great clay bank forming the boundary of Waterloo-road on that side up to St. Alban's Church, Cheetwood. In some places these excavations have been as deep as 30 feet from the former surface. Even now the site has considerable slope, giving a gradient of 9 feet in a frontage to Waterloo Road of 219 feet, and a difference of 18 feet between the lower part of the frontage and its diagonal corner in one of the yards at the rear of the almost square-shaped plot that had to be dealt with. Mr. Henry Lord, of this city, who is the architect of the building, has designed it in a style Gothic in spirit and treatment. Generally speaking the material employed is brick. There a free use of red bricks, and here and there yellow bricks are introduced by way of emphasis. A little stone is also used in places, but the greater portion of the ornamental detail is executed iv Northwich terra cotta. The front elevation has a main entrance doorway centrally situated, and surmounted sharply pointed turret. On the ground floor to the left of this entrance is the infants' school. On the right it was at first intended to make covered playground, but afterwards it was resolved to utilise tbe space by the construction of rooms in which will taught chemistry and drawing. On the floor above will be the boys' school and the girls' school, and on a third storey, to be thrown over only a portion of the second, the rooms will include one to be fitted up with a view to the teaching of cookery. In addition to the apartments referred to there will, of course, be in various parts of the building rooms for the teaching staff, class and cloak rooms, and other offices. The staircases leading to the upper parts of the interior are of special width, but still further to provide against the possibility of danger from fire or panic at any time extra staircases are arranged, in each case to be used as means of exit to the playgrounds behind the school. Due attention will be paid to the subject of ventilation. Each room is provided with inlet and extraction flues, the latter carrying off the impure air up to the roof and out through the turret the centre of the building. There are minor ventilators also, but the same principle is carried out in their case. Open fire-places will be adopted throughout the school for heating purposes, but for the larger rooms hot air grates are to be employed to perform the double work of heating and ventilating. Entrance for the infants will be by the main doorway. The girls' school will approached from a new street, not yet named, at the lower end of the structure, and here also will be second entrance for infants ; and for the boys there will be a doorway in Derby-street, the boundary of the school at the higher end. There is ample accommodation for the recreation of the scholars every department. A portion of the boys' yard will be under cover, and a shed will be erected for the girls and infants to play under in wet weather. Messrs Robert Neill and Sons are the general contractors for the building work. [Manchester Courier 30 August 1888 page 5]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 22 March 1887 page 6 - competitive designs submitted
Reference    Manchester Guardian 30 August 1887 page 3
Reference    Manchester Courier 30 August 1888 page 5
Reference    Manchester Guardian 11 September 1888 page 7 - foundation stone
Reference    Manchester Guardian 20 October 1888 page 7 - Manchester School Board
Reference    Manchester Guardian 18 September 1889 page 5
Reference    Samantha Barnes Manchester Board Schools page 79