| Genesis
In the early part
of the 19th Century there existed very limited facilities
for the teaching of children, especially those from poor families.
The sons of merchants would be sent to Dame Schools; there
being over a hundred of such Schools in the Liverpool area.
At the age of eleven they would transfer to private schools
for three to four years, which for the most part would be
run by local churches. It is estimated that about half of
the 50,000 children between the ages of 5 and 15 did not attend
school at all and most of them no doubt would be illiterate.
The facilities and education in the Dame Schools were very
poor. Children in Charity Schools (such as the Bluecoat School)
had better education, albeit their treatment was often harsh.
Religion was considered
to be central to good education, and in Liverpool both clergy
and leading laymen decided to establish a day school of high
quality with the Christian faith as its cornerstone. A meeting
was held on the 12th July, 1839, `to consider the best way
to set up a new Protestant Institute in the Town for the education
of all classes upon sound religious principles`. The first
resolution made at this meeting was `that it is expedient
to establish an Institution in Liverpool for the general instruction
of all classes combining scientific and commercial with sound
religious knowledge`. Subsequently a Committee of Management
was formed, comprising thirty-six members, representing in
six equal parts the clergy, merchants, professional men and
gentlemen, manufacturers, tradesmen and mechanics.
A target of £20,000
was set and fund-raising proved to be difficult. After six
months only £10,000 had been donated. In addition to
financial support, the patronage of a national figure was
sought by the Committee and a number of persons were approached
- unsuccessfully. Lord Stanley, later the 14th Earl of Derby
and Prime Minister, accepted the patronage, whilst Lord Francis
Egerton of the famous Bridgewater family became the first
President of the Liverpool Collegiate Institution.
A number of sites
were considered for the new Institution and eventually it
was agreed to use a large site offered by Thomas Shaw in Shaw
Street on a substantial mortgage.
The next task of the Committee was to appoint an architect
to design a building for the Institution. Design was restricted
to the Tudor style and 29 competitors responded to the Committee`s
invitation. Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, then in his early twenties,
was successful. Earlier he had been successful in being appointed
the Architect for St. George`s Hall in Liverpool, which is
rated as one of the finest classical buildings in the United
Kingdom. Whilst he saw the front of the Liverpool Collegiate
Institution completed, unhappily he died before St. George`s
Hall was built.
The following extract
is given from the publication “The Picturesque Handbook
of Liverpool”, by H.M. Adddey, which was published in
1849, outlining the structural features of the Shaw Street
Building -
“The principal
front, towards Shaw Street, is 280 feet in length, and comprises
a centre and two slightly projecting wings. The magnificent
arch, which rises above the central porch and the lofty Oriel
windows, carried up through two stories, with the richly carved
canopied niches, and statues of Lord Stanley and Lord Francis
Egerton, surmounting them, convey an idea of grandeur which
is rarely to be met with. The main building contains four
stories, varying from 14 to 17 feet in height; but as the
highest is lighted from the roof, only three tiers of windows
are shown to the street, and the upper ones being combined
together in a general composition, produce the grand effect
of a single range of lofty windows. These four stories comprise
48 apartments, all 25 feet in width, and varying in length
from 20 to 50 feet, and are appropriated as schoolrooms, a
board room, secretary`s room, a library, lecture rooms, museum
and painting and sculpture gallery, the latter of which is
218 feet in length, and well lighted from the roof. There
are likewise retiring rooms, wash rooms, etc. in each story,
and three separate staircases. An octagonal building behind,
contains, upon the ground floor, a series of dining rooms,
kitchen, etc., and above a handsome, well ventilated lecture
hall, 50 feet high from the floor to the ceiling, with two
galleries, containing accommodation for 2,300 persons. A spacious
music-room with rising seats for nearly 300 performers, opens
from the lecturer`s platform, through a lofty arch the whole
width of the lecture hall, in which an organ is erected upon
a grand scale”. “The lecture hall is approached
from the grand staircase by fine wide passages, leading to
the body and the galleries through numerous commodious doors.
It is a fine structure, comprising five sides of an octagon,
with two galleries above the body. The organ is situated at
the back of the music room, and in the front and at the sides
there are a series of seats declining by steps to the platform,
which extends into the body of the hall, and is surrounded
by a handsome railing. The hall is lighted from the roof by
a large octagonal window, richly groined, gracefully dropping
from the centre, and by five lozenge-shaped flat lights placed
around it. The body and galleries are so constructed that
all can distinctly see and hear the speakers. Indeed the hall
has been pronounced by competent judges to be the best adapted
for the purposes of sound, of all our large public buildings.
The seats, which have backs to them, are exceedingly commodious
in every respect, especially in affording space for the knees.
On the evenings of Tuesday and Friday, lectures are delivered
in this hall, to which non-subscribers are admitted on payment
of an admission fee”.
“The foundation stone was laid by Lord Stanley, the
patron of the Institution, on 22nd October, 1840. The Institution
comprises three distinct day schools, at different rates of
charge, with separate apartments, playgrounds, divisions of
the lecture hall, etc., to each, so as to accommodate the
three classes of society. The Bishop of Chester is the visitor,
Lord Francis Egerton, the president; the Reverend Rectors
of Liverpool, the chairmen; and the list of Governors, and
the Board of Management, contain the names of the most eminent
and influential of the clergy, merchants, bankers and tradesmen
of the town. The course of instruction comprehends every useful
and ornamental branch of education; and the religious tuition
is in conformity with the doctrines of the Church of England.
There are likewise evening schools, for the instruction of
adults, in literature, art, and science; and from the amount
of talent which the three day schools place at the command
of the directors, these schools afford advantages of an extraordinary
description to the inhabitants, upon the most moderate terms.”
It has
now become custom and practice for the Collegiate Old Boys`
Association to celebrate Founders` Day by having an Annual
Dinner on a Friday in October, which is the closest to the
22nd. The venue for this event in recent times has been the
Athenaeum in Liverpool, which is a splendid Institution and
has an ambience which is very befitting for this occasion.
In addition, the Governors of the Liverpool College kindly
invite members of the Council of the Association to attend
the Annual Founders` Day service, which is held in the Liverpool
Cathedral.
Founders`
Day - 22nd October, 1840
There
were great celebrations in Liverpool on the day the foundation
stone was laid. Following a two hour service in the Parish
Church of St. Peter in Church Street (on the site of Woolworths`
Shop in days gone by), a procession formed in the quadrangle
of the Bluecoat School. (At our Annual Dinner at the Athenaeum
we can look down on this quadrangle of the Bluecoat). Thousands
lined the route from School Lane, Ranelagh Street, Lime Street,
Islington to Shaw Street. The foundation stone was drawn by
five horses and pushed by four more. On the stone sat six
apprentice masons wearing white leather aprons bound in blue.
In the procession came boys of the Blue Coat School in `well
kept ranks` followed by sixty clergy, four hundred gentlemen
marching four abreast followed by their ladies in carriages.
When the procession arrived in Shaw Street, a brass cannon
fired a `feu de joi` that shook the nerves of the ruder as
well as the feebler sex. Before the stone was laid, a bottle
of coins and papers was deposited in the foundations. The
Blue Coat band played `God Save the Queen` before leading
the procession back to town for a public dinner, which cost
one guinea for men and half-a-crown for their ladies (who
were allowed to listen and watch from boxes and galleries).
It is said that the ladies were provided with light refreshments.
The assembled company drank some dozen toasts to each member
of the Royal Family and other personages. Several members
tried to speak at once and finally the Reverend Hugh McNeile,
who came from County Antrim and was Minister of St. Jude`s
Church “roused the company to echo his cry `Charge Chester,
Charge! On Stanley On!” With a thousand voices shouting
the call, the dinner ended and the Liverpool Collegiate Institution
was well and truly launched.
The
building of the School
The contract for
the building was given to John Tomkinson, who tendered to
put up the whole school for £21,379. The School was
opened officially on a wet Friday morning, 6th January, 1843.
The façade
was of pink Woolton sandstone with ten Gothic windows, a central
porch arch which extended to the full height of the building,
and at either end a niche bearing the statues of the patron
and president. Other features included the Board Room with
a tall chimney piece of Talacre Stone, bearing the names of
the president, directors and other officers of the Institution
and carved with the coat of arms of the rectors of Liverpool
and donors of £1,000. (This room became the study of
the of Headmaster of the Liverpool Collegiate School and now
the chimney piece has a splendid position on the first floor
of the building at the top of the central staircase).
The opening
ceremony itself was attended by the usual gallery of important
personages of the day, and was marked by an impressive speech
from W.E. Gladstone, who presided.
The
School Hall
The school hall
was the only large public meeting hall in Liverpool in the
early 1840`s, and was used for concerts, lectures and meetings.
The Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra used it before the original
Philharmonic Hall was opened.
Academic achievement
and Financial problems
Academically
the Institution went from strength both in University entrance
and in the new Oxford and Cambridge public examination to
be taken by boys of 18 and 16 years. In 1864 the cumbersome
title of the Collegiate Institution was changed to the Liverpool
College, since at that time it was commonly known as `the
College`. It was significant that boys could transfer from
the Lower School to the Middle School and from the latter
to the Upper School. In 1865 there were 879 boys in the College,
with 185 in the Upper School. In 1869 six boys gained open
scholarships and a tradesman`s son became Senior Wrangler
at Cambridge University. However, whilst the Upper School
was thriving, the Middle and Lower Schools were losing money.
By 1878 the position of the College was becoming perilous,
but the link that had been forged with the Liverpool Council
of Education (since its foundation in 1874) saved the day.
This body was established to promote and encourage elementary
education by every means. The Council set up scholarships
to allow Liverpool Board School boys to attend the College
- it was possible for them to work their way to the highest
academic honours at Oxford and Cambridge.
The Committee of the College agreed, after much persuasion,
to purchase a house in Lodge Lane, to which some of the boys
in the Upper School moved in 1884. The Lodge Lane premises
became an exciting place compared with the Shaw Street premises
and attracted many more pupils. All of the Upper School boys
were transferred in 1890 to Lodge Lane - the Headmaster spending
most of his time there (and only two afternoons a week at
Shaw Street)
In 1891
the City Council voted £400 per annum for technical
instruction at Shaw Street. Through the 1890`s the Middle
and Lower Schools lost £150 per year. The boys were
the sons of clerks, working men and small tradesmen and had
come from public elementary schools. The fees, £4 and
£5 per year, were already a strain on the pockets of
parents.
The
Liverpool Collegiate School
On the passing
of the Education Act, 1902, the City Council created an Education
Sub-Committee with a responsibility for the introduction of
a new scheme of secondary education. In 1904 the City Council
commissioned a report on Secondary Education and soon after
its publication, negotiations were started for the Council
to take over the Shaw Street premises. The Old Boys of the
`College` embarked on a battle to save the Shaw Street Schools,
because they felt that the three schools of the old Liverpool
Collegiate Institution had a common tradition, which should
continue. They endeavoured to raise funds, but unsuccessfully,
and eventually the fight was lost. On Wednesday, the 3rd July,
1907, the Shaw Street Schools were sold to Liverpool Corporation
for £12,000. The portraits of the founders were removed
to the College in Lodge Lane and the Shaw Street Schools reverted
to a form of their original title and became the Liverpool
Collegiate School, which was to achieve a greatness of its
own in the years that followed.
Despite efforts
by the Governors of the School to retain it as a Grammar School,
it was changed to a Comprehensive in 1973, and ceased to exist
in 1985.
Acknowledgements
This brief history of the Liverpool Collegiate School has
been compiled from data in the book written by H.S. Corran,
B.A., Ph.D. on `A short history of the School - 1908 to 1985`.
He was a former pupil of the School and an Earl of Sefton
Scholar 1926-33. Information has been extracted also from
the Liverpool Education Department publication `Yesterday`s
Schools 1880 - 1980`
|
