Rusholme Road Congregational Sunday School

RUSHOLME ROAD INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS - The foundation stone of the projected new schoolrooms, in connection with the Rusholme Road Independent Chapel was laid on Saturday. The school is one of the largest in Manchester, numbering 550 scholars and 65 teachers, in addition to the branch school in Saville-street, of 331 scholars and 20 teachers, making a total of 1,269 scholars and 85 teachers. It was opened 10 June, 1827 with 39 boys and 38 girls, and has hitherto been held in a low cellar room underneath the chapel. There are now in attendance upwards of 400 scholars above sixteen years of age. The total number of scholars who have passed through the schools since the opening is 11,950. A plot of land, immediately adjoining the chapel and old classrooms, has been secured for the purposes of the new schoolrooms. It contains about 1,000 square yards of land, nearly the whole or which will be covered by the new buildings.  These will consist of one large school- room, to hold 850 adults; to be lighted from a lantern roof, and enclosed on two opposite sides by two ranges of classrooms, each two storeys high. There will thus be obtained 21 new classrooms, of various sizes, one of the number being sufficiently large to seat 200 adults, together with an additional private room for the superintendent. Access to the upper tier or classrooms is obtained by a light gallery, running round three sides of the large room, into which all the entrance doors of the classrooms open. The new building will be connected with the old at either end, so as to afford a ready transit, under cover, from the school to the chapel. Suitable offices will be made for the secretaries, library, savings bank, etc and every material appliance provided for the efficient and easy working of a large school. The classrooms named, with those previously in use will enable the superintendent, after the opening service, to dismiss every teacher, with his or her class, to a separate room. This is the distinctive feature or the mode of construction adopted. The old farmhouse which formerly occupied the plot has been pulled down, and the new works just commenced and will be carried forward rapidly by Messrs, Cochrane and Co. the contractors, under Mr. Henry Fuller, architect. The whole is expected to be finished by the end of November. The total cost will be £3,000, towards which £2,800 has been already paid in or promised by the immediate friends of the school. Of this, upwards of £800 is the personal contribution of the scholars alone, extending over a period of many months. The balance of £800 of sought to be realised in part by a bazaar, to be held in the Royal Exchange. [Manchester Guardian 27 April 1863 page 3]

After waiting many years a plot of land, immediately adjoining the chapel and old class-rooms, came into the market, and was purchased. It contains about 1,000 square yards, nearly the whole of which has been covered by the new buildings. These consist of one large school room to hold 800 adults, lighted entirely from a handsome lantern roof of open timbers, stained and varnished, and enclosed on two opposite sides by two ranges of class-rooms, each two stories high. ….. the total cost has been £2,440. The estimate made by the architect, Henry Fuller, of Manchester being £2470. [Congregational Church Yearbook for 1864]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 27 April 1863 page 3
Reference    Congregational Year Book 1864 page 278-279
Reference    Construction History.  vol. 10, 1994, p. 29 45.