On this day … 8 October 1853

The Preston Guardian reported that building work had started at Mill Hill Ragged School at the bottom of Friargate, near the site of a former windmill that had been pulled down in 1848.

The ragged schools were established in the first half of the nineteenth century to teach literacy and religion to those children too poor to afford the decent clothing needed for attendance at church Sunday schools: hence, the ragged in the name.

In Preston, it was, in fact, Sunday school teachers who started the town’s first ragged school in Hope Street. Charles Hardwick captures the patronising nature of Victorian charity in his description of the movement in his History of Preston:

‘The experiment of ragged schools was first tried in Preston, in 1848, under the auspices of the Preston Sunday School Union, with the view to meet the requirements of a large class of young persons too vitiated in habits, or wretched in circumstances, to mingle with the ordinary Sunday scholars, and whose moral destitution required most kind consideration and self-denying efforts in order to bring them within the pale of civilised society.

‘The experiment proved so far successful, that it was determined to erect a more suitable building; and accordingly in 1853, the present neat edifice, near the site of the old corn mill, at the bottom of Friargate, was built from designs kindly presented by Mr. J. S. Hardy, of York.

‘… At the present time, about 300 young persons avail themselves of the Sunday and daily evening schools, and are making rapid progress in religious and secular knowledge. The large room, formerly Dr. Shepherd’s library, in Shepherd-street, is now used as a “Ragged Sunday School”.’

The need for such a school had been advocated a year before the first school was established in Preston by a correspondent to the Preston Chronicle, who saw it as a cheap way to clear the streets of begging children:

‘The vast numbers of idle children wandering about the streets begging, affords an excellent opportunity of establishing in this town an institution similar to those commenced in some places with great success – I mean a Ragged School. The advantages attending the new scheme would be attained at little cost in the first instance, and, if successful, no doubt subscribers would be readily obtained for its support.’

The Preston Chronicle noticed the Hope Street Ragged School two years after its establishment:

‘The instruction of the poor destitute children, who may, strictly speaking, be termed ragged children, has, of late, excited the sympathy of benevolent persons in the metropolis and other parts of the country. It will be obvious to our readers that children of this class will not attend the regular Sunday schools, because their wretched appearance keeps them from associating with their more decent neighbours.

‘In order to meet this emergency, schools in the immediate neighbourhood of their pitiable dwellings are generally selected. Our present object is to call public attention to an effort which has been made to establish a Ragged School in Preston. One has been in operation nearly two years, in Hope-street; and it is a pleasing spectacle to observe the motley company which frequents it.

‘Poor, miserably clad boys and girls, who would otherwise be left to ripen in lessons of fraud and mendicity, are here taken by the hand, instructed in the elements of education and the general principles of religion; for it may be noticed the religious instruction is entirely unsectarian, and they and the teachers are members of various christian denominations.

‘Since the winter has commenced, the conductors of the school have thought it advisable to clothe the more destitute, and they have been soliciting subscriptions to promote that object. The mayor, James German, Esq., very kindly presented them with £2, and a promise of some clothing; and other benevolent individuals have contributed various sums. We think it very desirable that this object should meet with the support of our fellow-townsmen, that other schools may be opened in other parts of the town.’

The Mill Hill Ragged School at the bottom of Friargate was still flourishing at the end of the nineteenth century, with the building being extended in 1889. The school closed in 1962 and the building was demolished in 1964.

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Sources
Charles Hardwick’s History of Preston

Images

Interior of Mill Hill Ragged School, 1948: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/10074818716/

The school’s Mill Hill entrance: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/6224018385/

The school’s Adelphi Street entrance.
‘After the property was demolished in 1964, the site went on to be occupied by an extension to the adjoining corn mill operated for many years by Henry Shutt’s. Milling activity is evidenced by the appearance of flour residue seen at the window at far left.’ https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/52682603326/

The school in 1960: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/5355084087/