In transcribing the following passage from the Internet Archive online version I have expanded abbreviations and added paragraphing, links, and illustrations. — George P. Landow
o reliable census of the schools of Liverpool has been taken since 1851; but the census of that year, if corrected for increase of population, is a key to a proximate estimate, both of the schools and of the attendance on them, at the present time. The public day schools, within the borough, in 1851, were 111 with 35,174 scholars; the private day schools were 359, with 10,190 scholars; and the Sunday schools were 109, with 22,733 scholars. One of the public schools was military, with 237 students ; 1 mariners', with 129 students ; 2 prison, with 211 students ; 2 corporation, with 2,24S students; 3 workhouse, with 1,800 students; 1 collegiate, with 625 students; 3 others endowed, witli 669 students; 21 Church of England, and national, with 8,058 students; 23 Church of England, and not national, with 6,472 students; 1 Scottish Presbyterian, with 345 students; 2 English Presbyterian, with 343 students; 1 Presbyterian and British, with 263 students; 4 Independent, with 1,307 students; 1 Baptist and British, vith 128 students; 1 Quaker, with 450 students; 4 Wesleyan, with 1.257 students; 3 Wesleyan Methodist Association, with 509 students; 1 Calvinistic Methodist and British, with 250 students; 16 Roman Catholic, with 5,389 students; 1 Jewish, with 80 students; 2 British and 1 other, aided by religious bodies but not denominational with 1,052 students; 4 ragged, with 668 students; orphan asylum, with 230 students; 1 for the blind, with 88 students; 1 for the deaf and dumb, wth 56 students; 1 of the mechanics' institute, with 812 students; 1 penitentiary, with 27 students; and 6 subscription, of no specific character, with 1,411 students.
Sunday Schools
Thirty-four of the Sunday schools were of the Church of England, with 7,138 students; 1 of the Church of Scotland, with 183 students; 5 of English Presbyterians, with 758 students; 2 of United Presbyterians, with 438 students; 1 of Scottish Presbyterians, not defined, with 141 students; 11 of Independents, with 2,415 students; 10 of Baptists, with 1,948 students; 2 of Quakers, with 105 students; 13 of Wesleyans, with 2,459 students; 3 of New Connexion Methodists, with 543 students; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 171 students; 5 of the Wesleyan Association, with 709 students; 4 of Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, with 1,661 students; 1 of the New Church, with 70 students; 10 of undefined Protestant congregations, with 2,232 students; 1 of German Protestants, with 20 students; and 5 of Roman Catholics, with 1,692 students.
Corporation (i.e. local government) Schools
The Corporation North schools stand at Bevington-bush; are for boys, girls, infants, and male and female adults; and have two masters and three mistresses. The Corporation South schools stand in Park-lane; are for boys, girls, and infants; and have four masters and a mistress.
The Liverpool College (The Liverpool Collegiate Institution), Shaw Street.
The Collegiate institution, in Shaw-street, was built in 1840-3, after designs by H. Lonsdale Elmes, at a cost of £30,000; is in the Tudor style, very elegant; has a principal front 280 feet long, consisting of large centre and two slightly projecting wings; is pierced, along the front, with two ranges of lofty mnllioned windows, — and, above the central porch, with a splendid lofty arch; has there richly carved canopied niches, containing statues of Lord Stanley and Lord Francis Egerton; is disposed interiorly in four stories, the uppermost one lighted from the roof; contains 48 apartments, all 25 feet in width, varying mostly from 20 to 50 feet in length, used as school-rooms, lecture-rooms, museum, and painting and sculpture gallery, — the last 218 feet in length; and includes an attached octagonal lecture-hall, 50 feet high, with two galleries, and containing accommodation for 2,300 persons. The institution comprises lower, middle, and upper schools, for the three great classes of society, each with separate apartments and play-grounds; and it has also evening schools for instructing adults in literature, art, and science.
The Sculpture Gallery and Drawing-School, Liverpool Mechanic’s Institution. Source: Illustrated London News 4 (2 March 1844): 135.
The Liverpool Institute, in Mount-street, formerly known as the Mechanics' institute, was founded in 1835; was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1837; has subsequently undergone several extensions; is computed to have cost, altogetlier, £15,000; occupies, with courts and areas, nearly an acre of ground; presents a massive stone front, of centre and wings, with a bold tetrastyle Ionic portico in the centre; comprises a high school, a commercial school, a girls' school, a Government school of art, an evening school of art, and an evening school for instructing adults in literature, art, and science; contains a theatre, or lecture-room, for concerts and for courses of lectures, wth accommodation for upwards of l,500 persons; and is computed to have an income, chiefly from fees, of about £7,000.
Education for Girls and Women
Queen's College, also in Mount-street, and connected with the Liverpool Institute, was established in 1857, to afford local facilities for obtaining degrees from the University of London, and to impart instruction of a high kind in literature and science; and it affords a full collegiate course, by a regular professional staff, both in day classes and in evening ones, to students above 15 years of age.
The Liverpool Institute. Source: Ramsay Muir, Bygone Liverpool.
The Ladies' College in Blackburne House, Blackburne-place, Hope-street, a short distance from the top of Mount-street, is also connected with the Liverpool Institute ; and affords facilities to the fair sex for the extension of an ordinary education.
The Collegiate school, in North Bedford-street, is another important seminary for females. — The Royal Institution school, in Seel-street, is connected with the Royal Institution, afterwards to be noticed; has a handsome front, with tetrastyle Doric portico; contiins excellent school-rooms; and gives a classical education to the sons of respectable persons.
Blue-Coat Hospital, School Lane, Liverpool.
The blue-coat hospital, in School-lane, was founded in 1709; was formerly a small building called the Charity-school, educating and clothing 40 boys and 10 girls; is now an edifice so much enlarged and improved as to educate, clothe, and board 250 boys and 100 girls; admits children, chiefly fatherless or orphans, at 9 years of age, and in due time sends them to trade or to service; forms three sides of a quadrangle, with somewhat imposing appearance; and includes a large hall, and a spacious chapel-room. — Waterworth's school, in Hunter-street, has an endowed income of £221.
Orphanages and Schools for the Blind and Deaf
Adult Deaf and Dumb Institute, Liverpool. Opened by Princess Louise. This institution opened 17 years after Wilson published his description of Liverpool.
The school for the blind, in Hardman-street, close to St. Mary's church for the blind, was originally founded in London-road in 1791 ; is a plain but neat building, with a stone front; has accommodation for upwards of 90 inmates; and includes dormitories, refectories, workshops, and sale-rooms. — The school for the deaf and dumb, in Oxford-street, was built in 1840; succeeded a previous one on another site, opened in 1825; is a somewhat plain building, with some Grecian decoration in its front; and both has inmates residing in it as an asylum, and many pupils who pay for their instruction as in other schools. — The female orphan asylum, in Myrtle-street, was established in 1840; is connected with the Church of England; educates, clothes, and boards about 155 orphan girls; and is a handsome edifice. — The male orphan asylum, in Hope-street, was established in 1850, for receiving and educating orphan boys born in Liverpool, or within 7 miles. — The Roman Catholic female orphan school, in Falkner-street, was erected in 1844; is supported, as its name implies, by Roman Catholics; educates and clothes about 100 orphan girls; and is a plain edifice, with some Gothic features.
The Roman Catholic male orphan asylum, in Beacon-lane, maintains and educates about 50 orphan boys, but has accommodation for about 200. The Roman Catholic college, or St. Edward's school, in St. Domingo-road, occupies a quondam residence called St. Domingo House, built on an estate bought with the pro- ceeds of a French prize-ship from St. Domingo; was founded to afford a superior education to Roman Catholic chiliiren of the middle and the higher classes; and has attached to it a small chapel. — St Francis Xavier's Collegiate school, in Salisbury-street, Islington, is another Roman Catholic establishment; and is conducted by a president and five masters.
Industrial Schools
The Liverpool industrial schools, in Kirkdale, were built in 1845, at a cost of £32,000; are in the Tudor style; atford industrial education to about 1,150 pauper children; and have, wthin their grounds, a model of a ship, for teaching the duties of seamen. — "The industrial ragged schools, in Soho-street ; the servants' industrial school, in Smithdown-lane; St. George's industrial school, a Roman Catholic one, in West Derby-road; the very munerous national schools and British schools, in all parts of the town; the Caledonian free school, in Oldham-street; the Hebrews' educational institution and endowed schools, in Hope-place, Hope-street; and eight ragged schools, in various localities, all rank, in some way or other, as public schools. Each of thirty-two national schools, and each of eight British schools, within the borough, besides each of some others in the suburbs, has departments for boys, for girls, and for infants; and each of about twelve more has departments for boys and for girls.
Bibliography
Wilson, John M. (John Marius). The imperial gazetteer of England and Wales: embracing recent changes in counties, dioceses, parishes, and boroughs: general statistics: postal arrangements: railway systems, &c.; and forming a complete description of the country. 8 vols. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton, 1870.Internet Archive online version of a copy in the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Web. 17 September 2022.
Last modified 20 September 2022