FROM BOARD SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY.

A GREAT ENTERPRISE. THE sum of thirteen shillings and threepence to a poore
scholler, in Sheffield towards the settinge him to the Universytie of
Chambridge, and buying him books and other furniture." That item occurs in the
accounts of the Church Burgery for 1573, and marks what must be considered as
the first step taken in Sheffield--other than that of a parent on behalf of his
child-towards securing to one of its inhabitants something more than the mere
rudiments of an education. It does not stand alone in the Church Burgery
accounts for that sixteenth century; many other entries prove that definite and
generous interest was being manifested towards education. We know that the early
days of the seventeenth century saw the foundation of the Free Grammar School,
on land leased by the Church Burgesses for 800 years, at one shilling a year
rental.  Thirty years later, new premises were built and, what many people in
the city to-day remember with gratitude as their Alma Mater, the school in St.
George's Square, over which Dr. Jackson acted with such a firm and able hand,
came into being in 1825.  Not that only.  In 1835, Lord Wharncliffe laid the
foundation stone of the Collegiate School, destined to be a notable rival of the
school in St. George's Square, with keenness in  examinations, but with the boys
at the Collegiate apeing a little-social superiority--real or fancied--over
those across the town. When Sir Joshua Fitch inspected it on behalf of the
Grammar School Royal Commission, in 1864, he said that few of the proprietary
schools in the district aimed so high or achieved so much as the Collegiate
School in Sheffield.  The course of time took the Grammar School from St.
George's Square to the premises of this Collegiate School; the site of the old
Grammar School became a pulsating part of the Technical School and in  due 
course,  at  Collegiate' Crescent,  students  gave  place  to  nurses  and
stricken men; and tuition and the playing of many games to the alleviation of
human suffering caused by the war. To these, Wesley College has to be added. It
was not opened under that title, it was the Wesleyan Proprietary Grammar School,
and its opening aims were not unworthy of those which animate the authorities of
the present day, when the Wesley College has been merged into the King Edward
VII School. A letter was received on December 25th, 1904, stating that "the King
had been graciously pleased to consent to his name being given to take the place
of the Free School of James I, and that he commanded it be called in future the
'King Edward VII School' at Sheffield." In 1838, when the Wesley College was
started, amidst what must have been the most perfect surroundings, with scarcely
a house, save such as stood in its own grounds, between it and the great
swelling bank of Sharrow, it was proudly stated that the College was founded to
preclude the necessity of having to resort to the Universities for what was
regarded as "the finishing course of scholarship," and the late Prof. Green
reminded us that, in the 'forties, an application was granted, constituting the
Sheffield Wesley College a College of the University of London, and empowering
it to issue certificates "to candidates for examination for the several degrees
of B.A., M.A., B.Ch. and D.Ch." It was to a voluminous and highly interesting
report by Prof. Michael Sadler in 1902 (warmly praised in the following year by
the Marquis of Ripon) that Sheffield actually owed the co-ordination of its
schools, though credit for the inspiration of that report belongs to the
Sheffield Education Authority, acting under the powers conferred upon it by the
Act of that year. In his report Prof. Sadler, to whom the city owed much during
its long struggle to secure University status, declared that it was advisable to
bring about an amalgamation of the Grammar School (into which the Collegiate had
been merged) and Wesley College, and that the Central Higher Elementary School
(1880) should become a Secondary School, aiming at "feeding the Technical School
with a steady stream of well-educated lads, and the Pupil Teachers' School with
a similar stream of girls." The result was--as the Professor had dared to
prophecy--a complete success, though at first, what appeared to be a lessening
of the status of the Central School created some criticism and discontent. One
thing which greatly facilitated the very notable change in Sheffield's
educational system was the fact that, in 1906, it was found possible to acquire
the Firth College as a very necessary enlargement of the old Central School. 
The buildings of the old Collegiate School were at the same time adapted for the
purposes of a Training College. It would not be permissible to close this
summary without reference to the Girls' High School, which, in its charming
quarters in Rutland Park, has had such an honourable career, served as it has
been by head mistresses of almost national reputation.

SOME EARLY SCHOOLS. The story of education in Sheffield is one full of interest.
Always, there have been plenty of schools; even at the time when this story
opens, we know quite sufficient to indicate that education was proceeding on
sound lines, though not then controlled as it was in the days which came a
little later.   The Free Grammar School, the first educational establishment in
the town, had its headquarters  in  St.  George's  Square,  founded by  letters
patent, in the reign of James I, and endowed by Thomas Smith of Crowland in
Lincolnshire, with lands producing, in 1603, £30 per annum. This, later, was
exchanged for other lands producing £200 per annum, by which from thirty-five to
forty boys were educated at half the usual fees, and probably treated by sons of
wealthier parents with a quite traditional contempt.  The school was originally
held in Townhead Street, but the new premises were built in 1825, and at the
opening of our story, the Rev. P. Bowen was head. The Collegiate School was
founded ten years later, by a company of proprietors, and built in Broomhall
Park, with a capital of only £3,000, raised by shares of £25  each. The building
cost £10,000. Wesley College had come into being, "a mile west of the town," and
was regarded as "one of the most spacious and elegant scholastic institutions in
the kingdom." It was completed in 1838, at a cost of nearly £15,000, and thus,
within a period of thirteen years, we had the establishment of the three
schools. In the early 'sixties, the Rev. S. D. Waddy was governor and chaplain
of Wesley College, and Mr. H. M. Shera its head, whilst its standing was
evidenced by the fact that even then its staff consisted of eighteen teachers.
The Boys' Charity School was in East Parade, with its income of about £1,000 per
annum; and the Free Writing School in School Croft, established pursuant to the
will of William Burley who, in 1715, left £900 for the purchase of an estate,
from which one-third of the rental was to go to the establishment of this
school. The head master, Mr. H. Wild, received a salary of £50, and taught some
thirty boys reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography and
mensuration--the education of a future apprentice, and really a groundwork which
served many a clever boy with the means for a great future.  The Ragged Schools
were in Pea Croft, established in 1848 by the Rev. John Manners, and new
buildings were erected there in 1856, at a cost of £1,000.  There, about 270 of
the most destitute of the boys and girls in the town were given an education,
whilst at the Lancasterian Schools in Gibraltar Street, education was provided
for 500 more. Church schools were numerous in those days. The S. Paul's Schools
were built in 1844, in Charles Street; S. Peter's Schools in New Street, in
1854; and the Central National Schools, in Carver Street, were attended by over
600 children.  S. Mary's Schools then, as now, were in Hermitage Street, built
in 1830, and attended by 800 scholars; S. George's National Schools in Beet
Street, built in 1844, had amongst the teachers of those days Mr. Nathaniel
Sanderson, who died an honoured veteran.  Then S. Philip's National Schools were
built in Hoyle Street, in 1832; S. John's in School Street, Park;  Neepsend
Church Schools were built in 1837; Trinity Schools in Johnson Street, Wicker;
the Pitsmoor National Schools were erected in 1836; and Dyers Hill School in
Granville Street some time later. There was then a Gilcar Day and Sunday School
on the site of the old gaol, but new premises were being erected for them in
Hodgson Street, and about 150 children then attended. At this point, other
schools were being built in connexion with S. Jude's, this being at the junction
of Milton Street and Bowden Street. The Wesleyan Methodists also had many
schools: Red Hill, Norfolk Street, Brunswick, Ebenezer, and Stafford Street;
whilst the Roman Catholic schools were in Surrey Street, White Croft, and S.
Mary's Road.  Of the Red Hill School much may be said, and it is closely
associated with the Sunday School movement in the town. The first school of this
type was established in the home of Mrs. Loftus in West Street, a site now
covered by the Royal Hospital, and was opened in 1875. No general system of
education had then been propounded; Brougham had sought something of the kind,
but his efforts had been frustrated by party prejudice and by ecclesiastical
fears.  It was said that little more, even at Eton, was taught other than Latin
and Greek, class books were indifferent, and, though there were then very many
charitable foundations in the country for education, they held enormous abuses,
which were ruthlessly exposed by Lord Brougham in his campaign.  He cited one
case where the charity yielded £450 per annum, and only one boy was boarded and
educated, and another case where the revenues were £1,500, and the incumbent
left the care of the school to a carpenter, to whom he paid £40 a year and
himself took the remainder of the revenues. Whilst England suffered, Ireland was
then taking, through a period of trial, a system of national education, and in
Scotland matters were much more satisfactory.

ROBERT RAIKES. The Sunday School movement was brought into being by the fervour
of Robert Raikes, editor of the Gloucester Journal.  Struck by the wretched
appearance of children in the streets, he found that on Sundays these children
were released from their work, and it was an ensuing profanation of the Sabbath
which induced him to think of schools for them on that day. So he engaged
several women who kept schools in the neighbourhood to receive such children as
he should send and give them instruction in the catechism and reading, and he
paid each of those women a shilling per week for her trouble. He gathered the
children together, gave them books, and settled their little quarrels, until his
example was copied elsewhere in the city, and in a few years Sunday schools were
established in almost every part of the country.  Mr. Raikes' experiment first
came into being in 1781, and my readers will remember the centenary of the
movement as celebrated in Sheffield.  In the course of five years it had spread
so greatly that it was then estimated that 250,000 children were receiving
education in the Sunday schools, and a Sunday School Society was formed in 1785
for encouragement of such schools by pecuniary aid.  The movement spread all
over the world, America accepting the idea in 1816. Harking back, we find the
movement accepted in Sheffield in 1785. This first school on the site of the
Hospital was moved to Holly Lane, or Blind Lane, as it was then called.  Another
school was founded by a Wesleyan, Mr. James Vickers, the founder of the white
metal trade in Sheffield, and in 1789 suitable premises were found for it in
Garden Street. Nine years later the first denominational Sunday school was
formed by the Wesleyans on the site of the old chapel in Garden Street. In the
life story of Henry H. Longden, grandfather of William Longden, founder of the
Phoenix Foundry, there appears an interesting statement respecting this new
movement: "11th February, 1798.  This morning we have begun a Sunday school,
many brethren and sisters having offered their services as teachers, and many
children were admitted.  Surely this is the beginning of a good and a great
work." At that time, though the movement had been proceeding so long, there were
only 800 Sunday school scholars in the town. Other schools of the same kind
sprang up--at the Assembly Rooms in Norfolk Street, Spring Street, Fountain
Street, Solly Street, Queen Street, and eventually land was bought in Red Hill
for £250, this being in 1811, and a building erected there for £1,350.  This was
inaugurated in the following year by the Rev. Samuel Bradbourn, preaching in the
lower school, and the Rev. Valentine Ward in the open air on Red Hill, the
children walking in procession from their old schools.  Branches were instituted
at Owlerton in 1812, Bridgehouses in 1813, the Park in 1814, and the Manor in
the same year. Whiteley Wood School was built at the sole cost of Alderman T. R.
Gainsford, taking the place of a much smaller school nearer Fulwood.  The school
was conducted by Miss Upton, who seems to have been a lady of much culture, but
the growth of the district made a larger school compulsory, and Mr. Gainsford's
benefaction proved of great value. It cost over £2,000. The Fulwood district
also claimed the well-known Ronksley's School. This William Ronksley was born
about 1650 at Fulwood, and educated at the local grammar school.  The bent of
his inclination was in the direction of founding and endowing chapels and
schools.  Quite early in his life he endowed one at Hathersage, and on removing
to Bakewell he devoted considerable time to drawing up Regie Grammaticae Clavis,
or two parsing tables. Milk Street Academy was quite one of the famous Sheffield
schools where very many sons of manufacturers were given education. "Dicky"
Bowling was a great believer in physical correction when things went wrong. But
he, like Robert Irvine at Sharrow, produced scholars in spite of themselves, and
this Milk Street Academy always had its desks well filled by scholars.  Also,
within easy reach of the centre of the town, was Arnold's School in William
Street, with a prominent school-yard feature in the "giantstride." In what were
then the suburbs of the town stood Sharrow Moor School in Bigod Street,
afterwards changed to Bagshot Street.  On it was a stone inscribed with the date
1668, thus claiming equal distinction in point of years with the Grammar School,
the Free Writing School, and others.  It was enlarged in 1769. Another stone in
the building bore those figures, and it was at that time the only school in the
Bierlow of Ecclesall with the exception of that at Broad Oak.  It was very
solidly built; its walls were two feet thick, its windows tiny, and everything
betokened great age; its playground, as remembered, was at one time part of a
large orchard, but the masters of those days found it essential that the trees
should be cut down. The brothers Wilson, who in later years were destined to be
such princely benefactors to the Church, were educated at this school. The Broad
Oak School at Ecclesall owed its name to the stately trees which survived much
cutting down in the days when Broomhall's groves were thinned by demand made by
our fleets for the wars with Napoleon. Small benefactions were given to the
unpretentious school from time to time, and thus it was made possible to give
instruction to some 25 scholars.

Dr. Munro's School at Ecclesall, a large and in every way commodious building,
stood near the church at Ecclesall, and has since been transformed into a family
residence.  Its founder was a well-known resident in Sheffield at that time, a
very clever native of Aberdeen. The school at Howard Hill, now forming part of
the St. Joseph's Home, was built in 1826 by William Wright, then second
classical master at the Sheffield Grammar School. He left that school in 1823,
and, whilst his own was being erected, held classes in Bank Street, successfully
carrying on the new school to the end of his life. So we reach Norton, at whose
school Francis Chantrey received his first education under Thomas Fox, who
relates that the great sculptor of later years read with him in 1787, wrote with
him in 1788, and did accounts with him in 1792.  It is a little lane-side school
of which there were scores surrounding every large town in those days, and a
tablet has been fixed upon it to the memory of its greatest scholar. Montgomery
College was built by the Rev. R. H. Irvine (died Sept. 16th, 1905), a Scotsman,
next to Mr. Overend's residence at the top of Cemetery Road.   He was an
iron-schoolmaster, having little mercy on the dullard, but his school turned out
many fine scholars, perhaps a natural result of tuition from which the cane was
never far away. Other schools may be mentioned.  One reads of the Model Schools
in Cemetery Road, in existence in 1865. The Sheffield Commercial School in
Portobello held quite a commanding position and, though used for other purposes,
the building is still in existence.  The school was well known generations ago
when under the rule of Mr. Adams, but later it fell into other hands.  The
Christian Israelites had their headquarters there; they wore no hats; they wore
their hair as long as it would grow; their prophet was John Wroe; and the sect,
of which the Sheffield body was a mere fragment, built a mansion, which I very
well remember when at school, at Silcoates, near Wakefield, and which was then
maintained in hourly anticipation of the coming of the prophet. The old Grammar
School or Latin School was at the top of School Croft--a low-built building with
high-pitched roof and a porch not unpicturesque.  Much of it was below the
general level of the street; its floors were of stone and the benches of oak.
Its general picturesqueness was added to by the fact that its walls were
wainscoted in black oak; quite probably this treasure vanished into private
houses at bargain prices. That has been the custom far too often in Sheffield.
As recently as 1904 the Sheffield Moor School was pulled down, having its origin
as far back as 1668, and made out of farm-houses.   It maintained its popularity
right up to the end, despite the attractiveness of the Board Schools at Hunter's
Bar, Greystones, and Nether Green.  One of the early teachers in Sheffield was
Mr. Abraham, at one time bead of the Milk Street academy, but also associated
with Holy Green House, where he took in boarders.  Holy Green House was situate
between Eldon Street and Prince Street, and at one time possessed a long green
lawn in front.  Afterwards, on Mr. Abraham's death in 1839, the Sisters of Notre
Dame secured the premises prior to going to Convent Walk, and, later still, it
became headquarters of the Ecclesall Club, this being in 1870.  Thus we get here
two definite reminders of old Sheffield--a long green lawn stretching down from
the neighbourhood of Button Lane to Sheffield Moor, and farm-houses on Sheffield
Moor itself. Broom Bank School was the scene of educational beginnings by many
well-known Sheffielders.  Here the Rev. Thomas Howarth had his school for many
years, quite high class, and rightly regarded during one period as the leading
school, privately owned, in the town. There was a large number of boarders, the
school was eminently prosperous, and Mr. Howarth's scheme of education is
described as dictated with regard to the real interests of his scholars.  
Following Mr. Howarth's death, the school was carried on by Mr. Waltham, a
curate of Walkley. When Broom Bank was a leading school in its day, the Rev.
Peter Wright was one of its best-remembered masters.  He had his own school in
Gell Street.   Thence he migrated to S. George's School in Regent Street and had
troops of scholars, all of whom had a fondness for their master. He was a noted
classical scholar; and it is stated that amongst his scholars were boys bearing
well-known names in Sheffield's history, such as Favell, Atkin, Crowley, Ward,
Biggin, Cocker Hutton, Swift, and Laycock. Sheffield was a very closely-confined
town in those days; its suburbs were on its doorsteps, so to speak, and Dr.
Flory's school at Myrtle Spring, Heeley, was within easy walking distance.  The
life story of the founder, descendant of a Huguenot family, was full of romance.
 He fled from France on revocation of the Edict of Nantes and went to
Lancashire, where he was dragged from his bed to serve against Napoleon, and
actually fought at Waterloo.  He rose to be sergeant-major and, leaving the
Army, settled in Holland, there founding a successful school and marrying well. 
He was persuaded to return to this country, and did so in 1829, becoming very
successful as teacher of languages, and eventually opening the Myrtle Spring
Boarding School.  This was in 1837, and to the time of his death in 1863 he
usually had from thirty-five to fifty boarders.  The premises eventually were
covered by the operations of a Building Society, but the school, in its
twenty-six years history, secured a great local reputation for the soundness of
the tuition and very notably for foreign languages.  It was said by one writer
that "the healthy, elevated situation, environed by beautiful woodland scenery,
no doubt contributed to its marked success."

THE CHILDREN'S CHARTER. Compromise marked the Education Act of 1870 and, as its
sponsor, Mr. W. E. Forster, declared, in introducing the measure in the House,
that the object was "to complete the voluntary system and to fill up gaps," not
to supplant that system.  The Education Department became charged with
ascertaining whether or not there was a deficiency of public school
accommodation, and provision was made for the formation of School Boards in
every school  district  requiring  further  public  school  accommodation.  
Such accommodation might consist either of public elementary schools as defined
by the Act, or schools giving efficient and suitable education. The voluntary
schools were continued as State-aided schools under private management, side by
side with the new rate-supported schools.  The Cowper-Temple clause also came in
under which it was provided that no religious catechism or religious commentary
distinctive of any particular denomination should be taught in the schools.  The
Apostles' Creed was specifically excluded from this provision, and the giving of
religious instruction was left as a purely permissive matter. School Boards were
given wide powers under this Act, being empowered not only to acquire sites for
schools under powers of compulsory purchase, but also to take transfers of
existing voluntary schools from their managers. It did not introduce either
direct compulsory attendance or free education, but carried such matters
forward, enabling attendance to be compulsorily secured, and providing that the
school fees might be paid where parents were proved unable to pay them
themselves. The Act was accepted as the greatest Education measure up to that
time, and progress under it was extraordinary. In the year it passed through
Parliament there was accommodation in inspected day schools for about 2,000,000
children, the average attendance being 1,168,000, and the number on the books
about 1,500,000. It was then computed that, exclusive of the children of the
well-to-do classes, there were quite a million and a half who did not attend
schools at all or, at all events, schools under inspection. By 1876,
accommodation had been provided for 3,500,000 children, and of the extra
2,000,000 places so provided almost two-thirds were provided by voluntary
agencies. These agencies received grants in aid for approximately one-third of
the schools they had built, the grants defraying about one-fifth of the cost of
the aided schools.  On the other hand, the growth of the School Boards was very
rapid, notwithstanding the permissive character of the Act, and the strenuous
efforts of the voluntaryists to keep pace with the new demands. In 1872,
9,700,000 of the population were under the School Boards, and in 1876,
12,500,000.  In the same period the annual grants had gone up from £894,000 in
1870 to £1,600,000 in 1876; whilst in 1881 they had risen to £2,200,000.

Mr. Mundella's short Act of 1880 was notable in that it made the framing of
by-laws compulsory on School Boards and School Attendance Committees, thus
completing the system of universal direct compulsion. By it the country was
possessed of a national elementary education, and the question of free education
was brought within the range of practical politics by the adoption of universal
compulsion, though in 1880 the principle was only advocated by a comparatively
small body in the country. It has been said of the Act of 1870 that "it is to
Forster's enduring credit that, imperfect as it was, it established at least
some approach to a system of national education in England without running
absolutely counter to the most cherished English ideas and without ignoring the
principal agencies already in existence."

At the time when Sheffield's first School Board was elected there was in the
town a school population of 40,000 children and the total accommodation was no
more than 28,000, regarded as ample at that time inasmuch as in those days the
average attendance was no more than 12,000 scholars per day. However, thanks to
the legislators at Westminster, everything of this kind was about to be changed;
it was beginning to be realized that brains as well as brawn represented
national capital, and it was not very long before attendances were tightened up,
desks became full, and in many a street in Sheffield, as in all other towns, the
dread cry of "'spector's comin'," caused widespread woe in the juvenile truant
army. It was to this problem of non-attendance that Sheffield's first School
Board turned its attention, it was no use building new schools so long as those
in existence were only one third filled, and whilst Sheffield was one of the
first provincial towns to take advantage of the provisions of the Education Act,
1870, and.secured a Board in November of the year named, it also made
straightway to the root of the education evil in Sheffield by obtaining a census
of all the children in the town under 13 years of age. That actually was the
first real step forward made by the new Board. To make this efficient and
reliable the borough was divided into its ecclesiastical districts, and the
return was made compulsory by investing the Chief Constable of the town with
plenary powers.   Following this was the natural sequitor, whether the existing
schools would suffice for those who were about to be forced into knowledge or
whether new premises would have to be erected under the Act.

THE FIRST SCHOOL BOARD. It is interesting to go back to the report of H.M.
Inspector on this question.  He declared that, calculating the number of
children of the class to be dealt with at one sixth of the population (239,941,
according to the census of 1871), the number to be provided for in new schools
would be about 2,000. On this report the Board resolved to adopt the provisions
of the Act giving powers to compel school attendance, and in addition to this
decision came one to proceed straightway with the erection of the new schools
which would be necessary for the new army of scholars. The constructive work of
the Sheffield School Board was not long in growing before the eyes of the town,
and on August 18th, 1874, the first great day of the Board came.  This was the
day on which no fewer than five new schools were opened, at Walkley;
Crookesmoor, Lowfields, Attercliffe, and Carbrook. The Archbishop of York opened
the schools, speeches being delivered by the Archbishop, the Rt. Hon. W. E.
Forster, M.P., Mr. J. A. Roebuck, M.P., Mr. A. J. Mundella, M.P., Mr. Mark
Firth, Mr. Skelton Cole, Mr. W. C. Leng, Mr. Robert Leader, Sir John Brown,
Alderman J. Fairburn, Mr. Alfred Allott, the Rev. George Sandford, the Rev. J.
E. Blakeney, the Rev. J. Burbidge, and the Rev. C. G. Coombe. These gentlemen
spoke at the different schools, several of them making two or three speeches
during the long and memorable day. Mr. Forster confined himself to one speech, a
masterly exposition of education  requirements and policy, delivered at the
opening at Carbrook.  He was of course the father of the Act which had brought
such schools into being and was surrounded on that day, as the above names show,
by many who were destined to take high places in the same sphere of work. The
first meeting in connexion with the election of Sheffield's first School Board
under the new Education Act was held in the Town Hall on November 11th, 1870.
Twelve schools were decided upon, all built on the outskirts of the town, where
population had grown greatly within the past decade, and all these were to be
finished by the close of 1873.  It was estimated that they would accommodate
8,982 children, and of the whole sum so expended £75,255 was borrowed from the
Public Works Loan Commissioners at 3 and a half% to be repaid in 50 years by an
annual charge on the rates. These first twelve Board Schools were Newhall,
Broomhill, Netherthorpe, Philadelphia, Walkley, Crookesmoor, Lowfields,
Attercliffe, Carbrook, Pye Bank. Park, and Darnall, whilst later still came a
further group of four schools, Grimesthorpe, Springfield, Manor, and Fulwood. 
The list is interesting inasmuch as it shows that the Abbeydale district at that
time was not developed, nor was Heeley in any great degree, whilst Crookes, as
opposed to Crookesmoor, was also largely undisturbed.  The whole of the sixteen
schools here enumerated were completed within eight years, a remarkable rate of
progress, and the following table is of interest as indicating how the total
accommodation aimed at was met.

School.       Accommo-   Area.    Cost Of Site.  Cost of    Total Cost. dation, 
sq. yards.              Buildings, Fittings, &c. £             £           £
Newhall ...     664      2,409       1,546        5,057        6,603 Broomhill  
    326      2,277       1,151        3,304        4,955 Netherthorpe  1,015    
 3,450       3,016        8,608       11,624 Philadelphia  1,009      3,895     
 3,744        6,661       10,405 Walkley ...     773      3,000       1,080     
  7,286        8,366 Crookesmoor     835      2,560       1,790        8,084    
   9,874 Lowfields       793      3,055       2,473        7,225        9,698
Attercliffe     794      2,600       1,254        7,123        8,377 Carbrook...
    791      3,000       1,487        7,578        9,065 Pye Bank        902    
 3,000       1,139        8,560        9,699 Park            787      2,227     
 2,561        7,200        9,761 Darnall         753      2,500         600     
  6,195        6,795 Grimesthorpe    813      3,000         857        7,508    
   8,365 Springfield     833      2,782       5,047       10,639       15,686
Manor           241      3,000         602        5,961        6,563 Fulwood ...
    132      2,722         262        1,622        1,884

Totals  ...  11,461                 28,609      109,111      137,720

At the January meeting of the Sheffield School Board in 1874, held in the
offices of the Board in the Old Haymarket, it was proposed that a central school
be built carrying with it suitable provision for the Board.  It was argued that
the need for such a school was very great, notably in connexion with the deaf
and dumb children in the town.  At least one large hall should be reserved for
lectures.   Mr. John Brown, referring to the proposal, reminded his hearers of a
day, not so many years before, when the then Mayor sought to arouse interest in
the proposal to found a school of metallurgy, the Duke of Devonshire coming over
to Sheffield to give the movement a good send off, but the scheme had never
quite taken root as its promoters desired.  After a time it lost vigour, but
with the growing importance of the coal, iron and steel trades, such a school
was very greatly needed in the town.  He had great hope that the proposed
central school movement would create facilities for the scheme he had mentioned.
In Sheffield a requisition was sent to the Mayor, Mr. Mark Firth, and on
December 3rd, 1874, a preliminary meeting was held in the Mayor's parlour to
consider the adoption by Sheffield of the proposed scheme.  It is of interest to
recall the names of those who attended the meeting. Amongst them were the Mayor,
the Rev. Rowley Hill (Vicar of Sheffield), the Rev. S. Earnshaw, himself a
Cambridge man of very high attainments and a double first, the Rev. C. G.
Coombe, the Rev. C. C. Tyte (of Broompark), the Rev. G. Sandford, the Rev. C. E.
Lamb, the Rev. J. E. Blakeney, the Rev. E. Newman, the Rev. J. Cardwell, the
Rev. E. B. Chalmer (of Ranmoor), the Rev. J. Flather, Alderman Fairburn, Mr.
Chas. Atkinson, Mr. S. Roberts, Mr. W. K. Peace, Mr. Wm. Bragge, Mr. Wm. Smith,
Mr. W. Rolley, Mr. R. Leader, Mr. R. E. Leader, Mr. Skelton Cole, Mr. W. H.
Brittain, Mr. Chas. Doncaster, Mr. T. R. Gainsford, Mr. J. Webster, Mr. John
Yeomans (Town Clerk), Mr. J. F. Moss, Mr. J. Wycliffe Wilson and Mr. H. J.
Wilson.  It was proposed by the Rev. S. Earnshaw, seconded by the Vicar of
Sheffield, "that it was highly desirable that the advantages which the
University of Cambridge offered for promoting higher education in populous
towns, should be placed before the public of Sheffield, and that a provisional
committee be appointed for such  a  purpose."    This was carried, and at that
meeting sums amounting to £730 were subscribed to place the movement on a proper
footing. A town's meeting was held on December 10th of the same year, at which
Mr. Mark Firth referred to the scheme as one certain to prove a great boon to
the town of Sheffield.  Professor Stuart attended the crowded meeting, saying
that the country was on the eve of a great new educational movement.  Instead of
the existing 4,000 students, he had complete belief that there would soon be
40,000 at the schools all receiving a high class education.  On January 18th,
1875, a school was inaugurated in Sheffield giving the first glimpse of the
ultimate intention to provide permanent accommodation for classes, an intention
which was crowned by the establishment of Firth College. At the inauguration
which Mr. Mundella attended, possibly not then dreaming of the great work he was
to do and the great triumphs he was to win in education, Mr. Mark Firth said
that what the forefathers of this generation never dreamed of had come about,
for a gentleman in the town had been found to assist the poor clever boys to go
to Cambridge and work for a degree which would be an honour to them and to their
town.  The Rev. W. Moore Ede, the present Dean of Worcester, followed, saying
that he hoped the time would come when Sheffield would have a college of her
own, with lecture hail and class rooms.

Mr. Mundella said he had watched the growth of the scheme with absorbing
interest.  At first he confessed he thought it premature--he almost doubted if
it were practical; but it had succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectations. 
He had come to believe that no more practical or able scheme was ever before a
British public, and he moved with pleasure that the scheme be highly approved
for Sheffield, this being seconded by Mr. Wrigley, of the Sheffield Trades
Council, who said he hailed its coming with very great delight.  Canon Morse, of
Nottingham, later in the meeting, said that Nottingham had given £10,000 for
buildings and equipment, all of which would ultimately prove to be a University
for the town, and he challenged Sheffield to beat Nottingham in what had thus
been done.

Mr. Mark Firth ventured to believe that Sheffield would not allow herself to be
beaten by Nottingham, and very soon afterwards it was announced that he had
decided to erect a building with private rooms for classes.   Casting about for
a suitable site he found the land at the corner of Bow Street, and as the School
Board was then building there, he and the Board agreed to erect a pile of
buildings superior to any in the town.

The result of the first scholarship examinations in connexion with the
elementary schools were published in January, 1875, from the offices of the
School Board in Fitzalan rooms.  The examiners were Dr. Cardwell, of the
Collegiate, and Dr. Jackson, of the Grammar School, the object being to find
students likely to train on in the higher branches of education with the
possibility of proceeding to the University.  At the Collegiate School the
successful students were David Dewar (13), son of a picture frame maker in
Tenter Street, who had attended the Parish Church Schools since 1868 and who
earned the right to attend the Collegiate School, having £15 for two years, £20
for the third and £25 for the fourth year.  The other successful student was
Moses Jacobs (10), son of a tobacconist, who had attended the Parish Church
Schools and who earned the right to go to the Collegiate with a grant of £10 for
two years.  Then John Arthur Slater (13), a student at the Public Elementary
Schools, earned the right to go to the Grammar School on the same terms as Dewar
at the Collegiate, whilst John Herbert Marsh (10), of S. Paul's School,
Shortridge Street, Attercliffe, was successful in the same way as Jacobs, and
went to the Grammar School. The first University Extension Lectures held in
Sheffield were in the Cutlers' Hail on January 26th, 1875--one in the Old
Banqueting Hall by Mr. C. Hargrove on English Literature, and the other in the
Lower Hall by the Rev. W. Moore Ede on Political Economy. The attendances were
large in each case. The first report of the Examiners was quite satisfactory. 
In Political Economy 63 students sat, of whom 2 gained special honourable
mention, 20 obtained first-class certificates and 38 second-class. In English
Literature 38 students sat, of whom 23 obtained first-class certificates and 8
second-class, whilst the balance in hand on the first year's working of the
School was £143.  The certificates were presented at a big public meeting held
on August 19th, 1875, and the second session was commenced shortly afterwards.
Then two days later, when Mr. Edward Carpenter was lecturing in Sheffield on
"Comets" in connexion with the University Extension Movement, he said he was
proud to have had such an audience to speak to, and he could not leave without
thanking the town for the invaluable aid given to him by the Students'
Association.  He thought that no other town in England had so well organized an
association, nor had he seen the same amount of good work done anywhere else.
The dissolution of the University Students' Association came about through the
loss to Sheffield of its President, the Rev. Moore Ede.  That gentleman, very
well remembered by many in the town, was at the time lecturer under the
University extension Scheme in Sheffield, and also curate at the Parish Church,
and he relinquished those appointments on securing the position of Professor of
Modern History in the College at Newcastle-on-Tyne.

The meeting to consider the advisability of proceeding with the Cambridge
University Extension Scheme took place in the Cutlers' Hall on January 18th,
1875, but from the newspaper reports it is evident that the scheme was little
thought of. Apart from a full report of the speech made by Mr. Mundella, little
information is given. Indeed, to such an extent is this the case that one reads:
"The Rev. W. Moore Ede gave a very exhaustive description of the character of
the work proposed to be done"; but not a word is given of it.

Mr. Mundella said that of all the magnificent banquets which had been given in
the Hall the one then set before them was the grandest; a banquet of the senses
and for the mind. The system had even then been established in Nottingham, and
he believed that in Sheffield there would yet be a branch of the University, and
one which would be called the Sheffield University. As a result of the first
fifteen months working at Nottingham a sum of £10,000 had been offered by which
the lectures might be sufficiently endowed.  That looked very much as if
Nottingham were to have a University of her own, but he was quite sure if he
knew anything of Sheffield that she would not lag behind.  It was very desirable
that the barriers between class and class should be broken down, for the
greatest barrier was ignorance, and it was impossible for ignorant and educated
men to associate, just as one could not mix oil and water. He strongly appealed
to the working-men not to believe, because their own elementary education had
been neglected, because their reading and hand-writing were bad, that such
lectures and classes as were being provided under this scheme would be of no
advantage to them.  They were being given privileges which seven years before
were undreamt of. The University Extension Movement had its birth in a very
obscure way, its parents were not wholly distinguished, its future was shadowy
and unformed.  In 1867 a series of lectures was established for ladies in
Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds, and Manchester, under the direction of Mr. Stuart,
of Cambridge University.  Generally speaking, the lectures were well attended
and to a certain degree successful.  These were days anterior to Mr. Stuart
securing his professorship, though he had already secured the rough outlines of
a scheme which was to make his name famous throughout the kingdom. The very
first of these lectures was delivered in Sheffield, a fact which has been
regarded as giving Sheffield the right to say that the great University
Extension Movement began in this town.  It did not; it really began at Cambridge
in Mr. Stuart's busy brain.  What Sheffield can claim is that the first
practical test of the scheme was made within her borders; yet it is also an
uncontrovertible fact that, after a time, Sheffield's interest in these lectures
so far dwindled that they were given up! Gradually, Mr. Stuart's brain was
giving him new ideas.  The opening lectures to ladies were good enough in their
way.  Everywhere, save in Sheffield, they had been as successful as their
originator could have wished, and in due time he essayed a course at Rochdale, a
scheme of his own with diagrams, and be found this new fashion of giving
illustrated lectures a very great success indeed. It is worth recalling that, at
one of the first of these Rochdale lectures the diagrams had been misplaced, and
those who had gone to listen wandered about the place rather aimlessly until
some of them found the missing diagrams, and when they, in turn, were found by
Mr. Stuart he was straightway asked many questions respecting the diagrams,
which the finders had been busy studying.  That was the very thing Mr. Stuart
wished to secure--the intelligent, eager interest of the people, the awakening
of dormant senses; and from that moment the success of the Rochdale lectures was
assured. In this success the authorities at Cambridge recognized definite signs
of the times and began to move out of the old grooves, realizing that a
University had a duty to perform, so that, if the people could not go to the
University, the University could go to the people, with all its many benefits. 
Thus, in 1873, the University of Cambridge appointed a syndicate, which made
enquiries in all the large centres of industry in the country, and, in response,
found that there existed a great and growing demand for higher knowledge and
facilities for learning, on the part of ladies, young men in business, and
working-men. This was quickly followed by a further action on the part of the
authorities at Cambridge, and the University Extension Scheme was duly launched.
 It was not rushed; the University authorities made the most careful enquiries,
and it was eventually decided that, as part and parcel of the scheme,
examinations should be held periodically and certificates given for proficiency.
 By April, 1875, this scheme had been taken advantage of in fifteen towns, and
the lectures had been attended by 4,000 people drawn from all classes, the
average cost being 6/3 per head per term, exclusive of local expenditure. A very
important meeting in furtherance of Sheffield's participation in the University
Extension movement, was held in the Music Hall, on August 18th, 1875, Mr. S.
Roberts in the chair.  It was then reported that during the previous session
sixty students had gained certificates in the classes for political economy,
thirty-one in those for English literature; and the report of the examiners was
that excellent progress had been made, and that Sheffield could not fail to be
gratified with the success secured. The report stated that great assistance had
been given by the Ladies and Artisans Sub-Committees in diffusing various means
of information respecting the scheme, and the principle of free admission to
selected students had proved very successful.  The Rev. W. Moore Ede had given a
series of twelve lectures on Political Economy, with a regular attendance Of
450; and Mr. Charles Hargrove had lectured on English Literature, to classes of
much the same size. For the double course of English Literature, 168 tickets had
been taken out; for lectures only, 220; with 84 family tickets and 57 free
admissions, making a total of 529.  The Economic section had produced equally
satisfactory results, the double course having been taken part in by 289 ticket
holders; the lectures only by 135; with 50 family tickets and 2 free admissions,
or a total of 476, making an aggregate for the session of 1,005. Prof. James
Stuart was present at this meeting, and said many encouraging things.  The
spread of elementary education must inevitably mean the higher education as
well; what had to be done first was to supply the mind with objects of thought
and information, and then exercise the mind in habits of methodical and accurate
thought. Training the mind was an imperative part of general education, yet up
to that time it had only been properly done at the Universities, where the
students were able to devote their whole time to education and could not spare
the time for matters outside. However, the Universities had come to realize
that, since very many people could not go to them, they must go to the people.
Very soon they would find Sheffield a centre of education, formed in close
connexion with University methods, from which teachers could go out to other
large centres of population, and the prospect was daily drawing nearer to them.
He did, however, believe that, in Sheffield particularly, the system of
education would not be complete until there was another institution working side
by side with the one with which they were associated; a reference, presumably,
to the need for a properly equipped and strong technical school in the town. The
certificates presented included winners in Emerson Bainbridge, Thomas Cole, W.
F. Wardley, Robert Styring, John Wilson,and Walter Wynn, all in Class I of
Political Economy; and in Class II, Robert Holmshaw, Charles Longden, Edward
Priestman, and W. Rolley; whilst in English Literature, Miss Kate Hovey, J. C.
Wing, and J. F. Ironside all took certificates. In September, 1876, a meeting
was held at the Cutlers' Hall, when prizes gained by the students and given by
the Cobden Club were awarded. Dr. Sorby, who presided, said he was very glad the
scheme had reached Sheffield, and was delighted to hear from the report that the
classes were filling up so well, 328 in physical science, 316 in economic
science, 495 in literature. Prof. Stuart, after distributing the prizes, said
the movement took in all classes, it induced continuity in study, and the aim
had been responded to in the country in a manner quite undreamed of by the
University which promoted it.  Sheffield was making headway, and, so soon as its
building was ready with the endowment, the University would be ready with a
definite curriculum of study.  Elementary education was no more education than a
knife and fork meant a dinner, each represented means to an end. Mr. Mark
Firth's building would do wonders for Sheffield from the moment it was ready,
for its advantages would not merely be educational, but moral and intellectual.
On April 3rd, 1876, it was announced that the Sheffield School Board, having
purchased all the land lying between Bow Street, Smith Street, Orchard Lane and
Sands Paviours, and having sold a portion of it to Mr. Mark Firth for the
erection of his College for £2,750, gave instructions to Messrs. Robson and
Flockton to prepare plans for a Central School and Offices on the residue of the
area set out.  Recollections of the morally unhealthy reputation of Sands
Paviours suggest that, to the authorities at the Town Hall, its sweeping away
would be a relief.  Also, in 1876, it was stated that the Sheffield School
Board, having spent £80,000 in building and furnishing fourteen schools, had
been taken with a sudden fit of economy and proposed to begin cutting down
expenditure by reducing the salaries of pupil teachers by £2 10s. per year.  The
total number of such teachers was then about 120, and thus the Board would save
£300 a year. A pupil teacher in his first year, at the age of thirteen, received
3/10 per week; and in his fifth year, when eighteen, 7/8 per week. The first
meeting of the newly formed Council of Firth College took place on July 8th,
1879, at the School Board offices, Mr. Mark Firth in the chair.  There were
present Canon Blakeney, the Rev. S. Earnshaw, the Rev. Dr. Stacey, Dr. Carpenter
of London University, Dr. Stuart of Cambridge University, Mr. H. J. Jackson of
Cambridge University, Mr. W. H. Brittain (Master Cutler), Ald. T. Moore, Ald. F.
T. Mappin, Mr. C. H. Firth, Mr. B. P. Broomhead, Mr. J. S. Firth, Mr. H. E.
Watson, Mr. Henry Stephenson, Mr. Skelton Cole, Mr. Charles Doncaster, Mr. J. H.
Barber, Mr. S. Roberts, junr., Mr. J. B. Jackson, Mr. John Hobson, Mr. Robert
Leader, Mr. H. J. Wilson, Mr. G. W. Knox, and Mr. J. F. Moss. Mr. Mark Firth
said that all the property had been placed in the hands of trustees and the
Council. The Rev. S. Earnshaw was elected VicePresident, Mr. S. Roberts,
Treasurer, and Mr. J. F. Moss, Secretary; whilst an Executive Committee was
formed as follows: Mr. Mark Firth, Rev. S. Earnshaw, Rev. Dr. Stacey, Mr. W. H.
Brittain, Mr. P. B. Broomhead, Mr. S. Cole, Mr. S. Roberts, Mr. G. W. Knox, and
Mr. Moss, members of the Council, together with Mr. David Ward, the Mayor.  An
Investment Committee was elected, this being Mr. Mark Firth, Mr. S. Roberts, Mr.
R. Leader, Mr. B. P. Broomhead, Mr. H. E. Watson, and Mr. J. H. Barber. A long
discussion took place over the appointment of a Principal, as it was recognized
that whoever was appointed must be a gentleman of high ability and educational
status.  It was decided that the salary should be £300 a year, plus half the
fees of his own classes and 10% of the fees of all other classes, the total
minimum salary being guaranteed at £400 a year. It was further decided that the
Endowment Fund must not be less than £25,000 "for the possibilities so
magnificently provided," as Mr. Stuart Wortley said, and towards that sum Mr.
Mark Firth had given £5,000 and Mr. S. Roberts, senr., £1,000. Mr. Mark Firth
added to his benefactions to the College in 1879, when he presented a Chair of
Chemistry to the value of £150 a year, the first Principal being Dr. Thomas
Connelly of Owens College: whilst at a meeting of the Council on October 18th,
of the same year, Messrs. Edward and C. H. Firth offered to furnish the
laboratory at a cost of £1,000, and Prof. Charles Harding Firth, nephew of the
founder of the College, was appointed Professor of Political Economy and Modern
History for a year. In October, 1879, Mr. A. T. Bentley, then of Owens College,
Manchester, was appointed first Principal of the Firth College.  Mr. Ensor Drury
was made Registrar, and the Firth College was handed over to the Trustees, on
May 20th, 1879; and the Rev. Samuel Earnshaw was elected President of Firth
College, in succession to the deceased founder, on April 26th, 1881. The Times,
on October 23rd, 1879, had a very interesting leading article on this question
of University extension, and having particular reference to the movement in
Sheffield.  It said, "this promises to be a distinguished example of one
particular manifestation of the modern craving for academical education.  Until
very recently, England was flagrantly backward in instructing its people in the
ordinary branches of general knowledge. That there was any special profit in the
learning acquired at the Universities, very few of the University authorities
themselves believed, but gradually life began to stir in those slumbrous bodies.
 They grew to have faith in their power to develop the intellectual nature, and
the sentiment infected, in due time, the rest of the country." Coincidentally
with that, said The Times, came to the outside public a sense that education had
a wider meaning than the accumulation of facts; there came a desire for the
cultivation of the adult faculties. The University of London was known to
believe that education did not end with the schools, and the success of Owens
College at Manchester was another proof of that new desire for the appliance of
higher education. Any University was no University which did not aim at
something beyond what a grammar school, and at something yet more than a
technical school, could provide. "Firth College has been designed to assimilate
the teaching and tendencies given there to the teaching and tendencies of the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and so definitely and clearly have the
lines been traced, that it is said that the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
are  willing to accept the product of  Mr. Mark  Firth's  munificence, so that
students of Firth College may account themselves students of Oxford and 
Cambridge, and that the three years spent at Firth College shall be as essential
a part of their academical residence as the two years they would be called upon
to spend at the University itself. And Oxford and Cambridge men who have been
Firth men instead of Balliol or Trinity men will not be less enthusiastic sons
of their University.

"This bodily migration from Oxford and Cambridge into Bristol, Sheffield, and
Nottingham, is not the least interesting educational experiment of the period. 
Cambridge commenced the movement by its scheme of what has come to be called
University Extension, but Oxford, or rather a single College of the University,
went a step further, and the scheme of intermittent instruction given by
intermittent tutors was, by it, consolidated and crystallized by the
establishment of a permanent teaching body in Bristol, a kind of chapelry served
by Balliol preachers.  Firth College differs from Bristol College in its general
splendour of apparatus, and a more independent application to the Universities
themselves." In 1896 St. James's buildings were leased on the opposite side of
Church Street, the Arts department of the College work being carried on there,
and the laboratories in Firth College were greatly extended.  In 1899 came the
first of the Parliamentary grants, one of £1,200, out of a total of £15,000
spread over the entire country that year to University Colleges. Since 1895 the
College had been linked up with the Medical School and Technical School. 
Fourteen years before that the authorities had tried to give technical teaching
at Firth College, but with indifferent success.  Two years later the City and
Guilds of London made a grant of £300 a year for five years to establish a
Professorship of Mechanical Engineering.

A CULTURED PRINCE. Prince Leopold's visit to Sheffield to open the Firth
College, and with it to inaugurate Sheffield's share in the University extension
movement, came on October 18th, 1879, and was one of the most notable of all
Royal visits to the town.  The Prince proved himself a highly-cultured
gentleman, and one who regarded no personal trouble as too great so long as he
satisfied the desires of his host, Mr. Mark Firth, who had been responsible for
bringing to the town the first Royal visitors it had known in the persons of the
Prince Of Wales and his consort Alexandra in 1875. Some two months prior to the
visit, Mr. Firth had visited Prince Leopold at his home, and there made a very
pleasant stay with the most charming of hosts.  Sheffield had made itself very
greatly interested in the visit to the town for many weeks prior to its taking
place, and when the Prince's train steamed into the Victoria Station at
half-past four in the afternoon, the station approach, as well as other parts of
the long route to Oakbrook, was thickly crowded by eager sightseers, and much
bunting was displayed in the centre of the town.  In those days the higher art
in decoration by use of flowers had not become known, and such definite schemes
as were seen consisted of Venetian masts and flags.  At night, however, there
was a very general scheme of illumination in the town, and generally speaking
Sheffield did well. The Corporation address was presented at the station by the
Mayor, the Prince making a brief reply, and then the carriage drove right away
to Oakbrook.  A grand concert had been arranged at the Albert Hall, with Miss
Zimmerman as solo pianiste, but the Prince did not attend. On the following
Sunday morning he attended service at Ranmoor Church with his hosts, the
preacher being the incumbent, the Rev. Dr. Chalmer, and in the afternoon a
little party drove from Oakbrook to show the Royal visitor some of the beauties
of Sheffield's surroundings, notably at Moscar. On the morning of Monday a visit
was paid to Firth's almshouses, quite unexpectedly so far as the institution was
concerned, but giving great pleasure to the inmates, and in the afternoon the
opening of the Firth College took place.  There Mr. Mark Firth said that his
original idea was that the College might take up the work of general education
at whatever point it had ceased in Sheffield Board Schools.  However, he had
been induced to change his mind, so that what he did might include the system of
technical education for due qualification of the artizans of the town in the
several trades in which they were engaged, and also to prepare such students as
gave evidence of greater proficiency to go up for matriculation to one of the
great national Universities, and thereby secure a complete University training. 
That meant a rearrangement of the range of instruction which had been originally
contemplated. Prince Leopold, in declaring the buildings open, spoke at very
considerable length, but with the greatest ease, and this speech beyond question
was the most polished ever delivered by a Royal personage in the town.  He said,
speaking of what Mr. Mark Firth had previously done, that he could not wonder
that when a man had once tasted happiness through great and generous actions he
was eager to enjoy that high delight again through conferring on his townsmen a
lasting good. There was no town in England in which a greater care had been
displayed in connexion with elementary education, and her Central Schools,
"whose facade falls in so well with the buildings of this new College, forms one
of the best illustrations which England has to show of her boast that, in
however low a rank an Englishman might be born, his country afforded him the
chance of rising by education to whatever position his talents entitle him." He
went on: "I have lately been reading a book about Sheffield as Sheffield was
more than a generation ago, written by a great master of style and language, and
giving a startling picture of things as they were then. The book is 'Sybil, or
the Two Nations,' by Benjamin Disraeli, and "the two nations of which the title
speaks are the nation of the rich and the nation of the poor."  He added his
belief that the wide gulf which then existed between class and class had been
bridged since that book was written. Continuing, the Prince laid especial
emphasis on the phrase "his or her degree," and added, amid applause, "I spoke
of 'his or her degree' advisedly because your new College offers equal
facilities for both sexes. The University of London does so, and those of Oxford
and Cambridge are moving in the same direction, and the new Victoria University
of Manchester is not far behind."  References to John Ruskin and Professor
Stuart, men to be blessed by future generations, were made, and a much acclaimed
peroration wound up with graceful tribute to what had been done for education by
Peabody of London, Owens of Manchester, Mason of Birmingham, and Firth of
Sheffield. The opening of Firth College's first session took place on January
27th, 1880, Mr. Mark Firth presiding, with Professor Bentley as Principal. On
October 22nd the Prince paid a visit to the Ruskin Museum at Walkley, in
anticipation of which the founder had come to Sheffield some days before,
staying at the museum pending the visit of his Royal patron. This visit was paid
after an early morning visit to Birchlands, where the Prince spent close upon an
hour looking at the superb gallery of paintings which Mr. John Newton Mappin had
got together, and by which the town in later years was to benefit so handsomely.
Shortly after one o'clock the memorable visit ended. The first report on the
working of Firth College was issued by the Principal, Professor Bentley, on July
13th, 1880, at a meeting during which Professor Roscoe was received on his
appointment by the University of London as a member of the Council. The report
stated that classes had been started in January of that year, and that during
the session there had been 283 students, of whom 200 had been attending the
evening classes. Classics had attracted 72 students, mathematics 82, chemistry
67, physics 5, modern history 99, ancient history 23, harmony 55.  Work had only
been begun at the end of January, and the figures were regarded as most
encouraging, whilst the professors and teachers spoke enthusiastically of the
interest shown by the members of their classes.   It was at that meeting of the
Council that Mr. Samuel Feilden, of Todmorden, gave £120 a year for four years
so that a demonstrator in chemistry might be appointed. The "Red Earl," Earl
Spencer, opened the new Central Schools on July 15th, 1880.  He was then Lord
President of the Council. The scheme of the Central Schools had matured towards
the end of 1873, and had the full approval of Mr. W. E. Forster, then
Vice-President of the Board of Education.  The aid of Mr. Robson, of London, was
sought to advise as to the buildings necessary.  He had paid visits to Germany
and the States seeking information on such matters for years past. In Sheffield
the schools were built to solve the problem of connecting the very earliest
elementary education with higher knowledge, and opening up the possibility even
of a University education to the poorest boy in the lower schools.  These
Central Schools cost £70,000, and the handsome pile of buildings which arose
later was the work of Mr. T. J. Flockton and Mr. Robson as joint architects. The
opening ceremony took place in the great hall built into the roof, and
accommodating 800 people.  Mr. Skelton Cole was then chairman of the Sheffield
School Board, and presided at this opening. The Earl was very complimentary to
Sheffield.  He said it had done a noble work in carrying out the provisions of
the Elementary Education Act of 1870 in its primary schools, early work whose
crowning came that day.  The spread of elementary education of a sound and
sufficient character inevitably produced a demand for secondary education
similarly arranged, and it again in turn provided a stimulus for still higher
tuition, all three working in happy unison.  He understood that the Sheffield
scheme was closely identified with the Science and Art departments, a fact which
meant that it must have a great and important bearing on the trade and future of
Sheffield.  It was, he added, worth remembering that a similar association of
education and the technicalities of trade had been carried out on the Continent
to a very much greater extent than in England, and the example of the Continent
was worth studying and copying.  It was of the utmost importance that, in
England, attention should be turned at once and very fully to the soundest and
best possible system of technical education, because of the certainty of
increasing rivalry in trade concerns. Other speeches were delivered.  Sir John
Brown said he thanked God for the Act of 1870, giving the children of the poor
chances such as their fathers never had, and opening to them possibilities of
education which must, if properly taken advantage of, be for the good of the
town in which they lived.  Dr. Percival (President of Trinity College, Oxford)
made a brief speech, in which he expressed his amazement at what he had seen in
the Sheffield schools that day. A mass meeting was held in the evening in the
Albert Hall, packed to the doors, which were closed half an hour before the
start of the meeting. A school choir of 500 voices, a feature which Sheffield
came to be very well acquainted with in succeeding years, sang glees prior to
the meeting, Mr. Tallis Trimnell being at the organ, and, though Earl Spencer
had been summoned back to London, the meeting was full of good speaking.  Mr.
Mundella, Vice-President of the Board of Education, distributed the scholarship
certificates, and representatives were on the platform from the School Boards of
Nottingham, Birmingham, and Leeds. Mr. Mundella said that in this country it was
impossible to declare where the lower class ended and the middle class began; in
education it was like the milk and cream, the cream rising from the very bottom
to the very top. Just in the same way there was no hard and fast distinction
between elementary and secondary education. It was impossible to deal out
education as a pauper dole, and he advanced the argument that what was being
done by the Central School system in Sheffield was in no way a competition with
secondary education, and his predecessors in office, the Duke of Richmond, Lord
Sandon, and Lord George Hamilton, had all been firm in their approval of the
step taken by Sheffield. The town in all its history had never been taxed for so
good a purpose as it had been for the School Board. The Archbishop of York
declared that in Sheffield the whole phenomena of the establishment of the
School Board had been a very remarkable thing indeed.  The Board in Sheffield
had scarcely ever been divided in its opinions during the nine years
chairmanship of Sir John Brown, who, engrossed as he had been by the great
affairs of the town, had found time to give his services magnificently to the
cause of education. Not everybody was in favour of the Central Schools. At a
meeting of the School Board in February, 1881, when it was agreed to raise the
standard from the fourth to the fifth, Dr. Shera seconded the proposal. He
believed that the Central Schools were unnecessary, they had cost a great deal,
and would continue to do so.  In his judgment the Board had not been entitled to
build the schools; they were not within the spirit and meaning of the Act.  It
was not fair for the Board to set up an antagonism to the denominational
schools, and one which formed an attraction to boys in the fourth standard. That
was a real grievance, and it was necessary that the standard should be raised to
the fifth, and make the school high class. That would be doing something at all
events to promote higher education amongst the poorer people. The proposed
increase in the standard was carried by six votes to five. Less than two months
after the death of its founder, the Firth College found itself lacking necessary
funds, and at a meeting of the Council of the College held in January, 1881, an
estimate was given showing that the income from the endowment fell short of the
requirements of the College by £400 a year. Mr.B.P.Broomhead proposed that a
scheme of subscriptions should be invited extending over three years, and said
that at the end of that period it would be possible to consider a further scheme
of endowment.  A fortnight later it was announced that subscriptions amounting
to £400 a year for three years had been promised. It was at this meeting that
Professor Bentley expressed his wish to resign, and this was accepted on
February 8th, 1881.  On May 20th the vacancy was filled by the appointment of
Prof. J. Viriamu Jones, B.A., B.Sc., as Principal of the College. He was Fellow
of the University College of London, a scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, where
he was demonstrator in the Clarendon laboratories, and a very high authority in
mathematics, physics, chemistry, and geology.  There were 67 candidates for the
position. The new Principal said that it was imperative to the Firth College
that there should be allied to it an Applied Science Department, and technology
for those who wished for a systematic teaching in the scientific principles on
which the manufacturing processes depended. The study could not be overrated in
England, and in the College they were doing everything that was possible. 
Professor Carnelley was devoting himself to a course of lectures, with
demonstrations, on electro-plating, and the chemical laboratory was quite
complete.  He hoped to see a school of engineering founded in connexion with the
College, for no town was so well adapted for one, and he also trusted that
before long there would be extensive metallurgical training. Ignorance, he
declared, was tenacious of precedent; it shook its head at change, and turned
away to follow the old ruts, and that was a danger to Sheffield which had to be
eradicated. For a long time after he had been howled down at Mr. Chesterman's
Cutlers' Feast, Mr. Mundella did not visit the town which he represented in
Parliament, but he came to the Albert Hall on January 30th, 1882, to distribute
prizes and scholarships gained by students of the Lancasterian schools. He
declared that in education this country was running a race against every other
country in the world; it was incumbent that she should not allow herself to be
deceived by what seemed to be progress, for competitors abroad were making even
greater strides and sacrifice. They were actually attaching workshops to their
elementary schools, they were teaching mere children the use of tools and the
appliances of science, and the progress made in France was simply extraordinary.
It was imperative that England should not lose a single point in the struggle. 
Paris, with half the population of London, was spending far more on education
than London--art and technical instruction, together with applied science, were
taught everywhere in France at the expense of the municipality.  He appealed to
them to give their children a chance, to give them a handicraft, and not let
them be ashamed of honest labour, for it was essential that the best brains of
England should be carried into the workshops. Hardly ever during the whole of
his long association with Sheffield had Mr. Mundella a greater welcome than at
this meeting. The education system in this country was very different to that
obtaining in Germany before the war.  There every teacher was State appointed,
the result being that instructions were periodically issued from head-quarters
of the education authority stating on what lines teaching should proceed. By
this, the duties and responsibilities of patriotism, in themselves of course
admirable, and the necessity of obedience to higher commands were inculcated
until the German people grew up from very early life imbued with just those
instincts and teachings which made them so compliant and submissive whilst their
sons were butchered to enable the vanity of their Kaiser to be gratified. 
Couple this up to the other fact that the clergy were also State appointed in
Germany, and add to that the oft-quoted remark of a Roman Catholic priest, who
said "Give me the children and I will make the religion of the country," and it
will be realized how far the spirit of independence had been killed in Germany,
and dumb submission learned in childhood had taken its place.

STRAIGHT FOR THE SUN. The application of the Sheffield University College to be
included as a College of the Victoria University of Manchester was dealt with by
the Court the University at Owens College on June 7th, 1898. The decision was
unanimously against Sheffield's application. The report presented to the Court
set out several facts, and stated that the Court, on receipt of the application,
had made all necessary enquiries as to the Sheffield College-its  constitution,
staff, finances, curricula, buildings, equipment, and the number and type of its
students. The application was that it might be under the independent control of
its own governing body.  The total capital was £136,003, which, with other
donations to come, would be increased to £139,503.  The total income was
£15,471, of which the large proportion of £7,943 was apportioned to the
technical department. A very large proportion of the remainder of the income was
wholly dependent on grants, and therefore insecure.  It was ill-provided with
permanent buildings, and there was no possibility of extension of the existing
buildings.  A very large sum would have to be expended in equipment, the
provision for chemistry was very poor, there was no lecture room for anatomy,
the teaching of medicine was carried on in a separate building and was
inadequate, the number of class rooms and laboratories was insufficient, and a
large sum would have to be paid for a new site. The first dinner of the
Sheffield University College was held at Endcliffe Hall on October 5th, 1899,
Ald. George Franklin in the chair. Ald. Hughes proposed the toast of "The
College," and in reply Dr. Hicks said that it had passed out of the state of
apology, and was now in lusty youth. He regarded its future with confidence, for
it had grown through the stern discipline of poverty.  The result of the past
few years was startling to all of them, and perhaps the greatest relative
development had been in the medical department. On October 9th, 1899, the Duke
of Devonshire opened the new Pupil Teacher Centre in Holly Street, and in his
speech pointed out that, after trial for fifty years, education had become a
science. At the annual meeting of the Court of Governors in 1901 a resolution,
moved by Sir Frederick Thorpe Mappin, seconded by Sir Henry Stephenson, and
supported by the Duke of Norfolk and others, was passed to the following effect:
"That in order to enable the College adequately to carry out its work as a
University College for Sheffield and South Yorkshire, North Notts., and
Derbyshire, it is indispensable to provide a greatly increased accommodation, on
a single site, for all departments, and that this meeting of the Court cordially
approves of the action taken by the Council to raise funds wherewith to secure a
site and to erect and equip thereon suitable buildings." So we reach the days
when Sheffield educationists "flew straight for the sun" and sought University
status. At a meeting of the College in January, 1902, it was decided to petition
the House of Commons that, when application was made by Leeds for a "Yorkshire
University" on the lapse of the Victoria University, Manchester, the claims of
the Sheffield University College might be recognized, and that an intimation of
the petition be forwarded to the Yorkshire College at Leeds. On the dissolution
of the Victoria University a largely attended meeting of the Yorkshire College
was held in Leeds.  Mr. Ensor Drury's letter from the Sheffield College was read
pointing out that it existed by Royal Charter, as did that of Leeds, and that
neither could rightly claim the title "Yorkshire." Important alterations in the
proposals respecting the Sbeffield University College were decided on in August,
1902, at a meeting of the subscribers. In the autumn of 1901 it bad been decided
to remove the whole undertakings of the College to a site with frontage along
St. George's Square, but the alternative scheme was that the technical
department should remain there and be completely modernized, and that the
College proper, with its offices, arts and medical departments, and library be
removed to a site in Western Bank.  It was proposed to purchase property from
Mr. J. F. Bramwell, of Western House, with 1 and three quarter acres of land
attached, fronting the Park on two 1 sides. At the annual meeting of the Court
of Governors of the Sheffield University College, on November 11th, 1902, the
Duke of Norfolk said that the future of the College was complicated owing to the
action of many of the institutions connected with the Victoria University,
Manchester, which desired to see the foundation broken up.  The Council of the
College had decided that it would be best for Sheffield to appear by Counsel
before the Committee, in case the threatened disruption of the Victoria
University took place.  If Leeds desired to have its College made into a
University, Sheffield would be able to claim to be united with that city as
forming one great Yorkshire University.  Personally, he hoped the disruption of
the University in Manchester would not take place, but it was imperative that
Sheffield should look ahead and make proper preparations even for such an event
as he had foreshadowed.

On March 2nd, 1903, Messrs. Gibbs & Flockton's plans for the new University
College buildings in Western Bank were accepted, the cost being £67,500
exclusive of the Library, which would add a further £7,500 to the total. The
area was to cover 11,821 square yards, 8,000 having been purchased for £7.000,
and the rest bought for £3,500 by Dr. H. C. Sorby, and presented by him to the
College. The buildings planned by Messrs. Gibbs & Flockton were to surround a
quadrangle 154 feet by 110 feet, with room for extension.

When Prof. C. Harding Firth was the chief guest at the University College
dinner, he gave some very interesting reminiscences. He reminded his hearers
that he had left Sheffield twenty-one years before, and  recalled one incident
of his life in the town, when putting up for the Town Council. His agent came to
him on the polling day and said very confidentially, "You are doing very well,
all the illiterates are voting for you." So far as Sheffield's great enterprise
was concerned, that of the University, he urged the proper equipment and dignity
of the Arts side. That, in his opinion, was going to be the chief weakness of
all the new Universities, the competition with the older ones would be so very
great. Sheffield must have no one-horse show when its University was commenced,
but be fully prepared in every branch and detail, for it would affect local life
at every point.  The Arts side was indispensable to culture in the city, just as
perfection of the Science side was to the city's industries.  He referred to the
very admirable libraries possessed by the Universities of Liverpool and
Manchester, and trusted that before long, Sheffield's University would be
similarly endowed. On March 19th, 1903, a meeting of the Yorkshire College,
Leeds, was held, at which it was decided to prepare a Charter for a separate
University. The Marquis of Ripon said he was sorry to find himself opposed to
his friends in Sheffield--"a very large and growing city."  He added, "Sheffield
has resolved that, in the event of Leeds persisting in its refusal to join with
Sheffield as a federal University, steps be taken to apply for a University for
Sheffield, with power to admit other Colleges fulfilling suitable conditions."
Mr. A. J. Hobson said he had gone over to Leeds, not as representing the
Sheffield College, but because of his position as Master Cutler.  He said,
Sheffield was informed that Leeds did not desire a partnership in the matter. 
Had it done so, the resolution which had been read would never have been passed.
Sheffield did not want an unwilling partnership. He could, if it were necessary,
point out that the financial support from Sheffield to its University College
had been greater than that of Leeds to the Yorkshire College, and the endowment
was twice as great.  He had no doubt that, if there was not a federal
University, there would be a separate Charter for Sheffield, and if there were
two Universities, Sheffield would be ready to work with Leeds to maintain a high
standard for both. The crisis in this movement towards the establishment of a
Sheffield University came in due time, for, at one Council meeting, when
proposals for a joint Charter between Sheffield and Leeds were to be considered,
it was straightway reported that Leeds had cut adrift from the suggestions which
had been made, and was proposing to move for a Charter on its own account. That,
in the expressed opinion of Sir Frederick Mappin, meant the end of Sheffield's
ambitions in this direction.  However, equally determined that the end was not
in sight were Sir William Clegg, Sir George Franklin, Alderman Styring, and
others on the Council, and the meeting was eventually adjourned, so that an
effort might be made to find a way out.  At the subsequent meeting, those who
had seen nothing but blackness through the step taken by Leeds had become
reassured, confidence returned, and bit by bit Sheffield's proposals took
concrete form. There is, however, no doubt whatever that at the first of these
two meetings it was quite in the balance whether the whole of Sheffield's
efforts to secure a University would not fall through. On March 10th, 1903, the
Council of the University College, prepared and sent out a circular letter, in
support of the claim which was being made. It was sent to the County Councils of
the West, East, and North Ridings, the Mayors and Town Clerks of the Yorkshire
towns, and the Members of Parliament for the boroughs and divisions in the
county.  The circular, dated March 6th, 1903, stated that the authorities of the
Yorkshire College, Leeds, were understood to be preparing a Charter for a
Yorkshire University, and did not propose to proceed on the basis of a
federation, but to secure a single College at Leeds for the whole county. This,
the Sheffield University College most strongly opposed from a purely academic
standpoint and that of population of the two cities, which were acknowledged to
be equal, and Sheffield had a right to be considered in the step which was being
taken at Leeds.  The circular was signed by Sir Henry Stephenson, Vice-President
of the College and its chairman.

Perhaps it is undignified to say so, but it is a fact, that Sheffield went to
London on a definite touting expedition, when Mr. A. J. Hobson, Master Cutler,
gave a dinner in the London Cutlers' Hall.   It was in aid of Sheffield's effort
to obtain a University Charter, and Mr. Hobson had a very imposing and
significant assembly of guests. Sir Marcus Samuel, Lord Mayor of London, was
there with his Sheriffs, with the heads of all the important Guilds and
Companies; the Duke of Norfolk attended with most of the best known men in
Sheffield. Mr. Hobson spoke on the Sheffield University College objective, and
pointed out that by the Council's offer of the product of 1d. in the £ on the
rates, £200,000 had been secured as an endowment fund. The Lord Mayor of London
proposed:"Success to the Sheffield University College," saying "that Sheffield
intended, in its University, to represent all the faculties--those of art,
science and medicine--with a library. No University was nowadays complete
without medicine and surgery." The Duke of Norfolk, in one of his happiest
speeches, said, "that at the bottom of the whole movement was the terrific
energy of the Master Cutler, a thing from which no one had suffered quite as
much as he had."

A NOTABLE FREEMAN. The freedom of the city was conferred on the Lord Mayor of
London, the Right Honourable Sir Marcus Samuel, on June 30th, 1903, advantage
being taken of his visit: to secure his presence at Weston Park, where he laid
the foundation stone of the new University buildings.  It proved a very sunny
day, and the processions were watched by great crowds in the streets.  Very
early in the morning a procession was formed at Beech Hill, moving thence to the
Town Hall, and the equipages brought down from London, including the Lord Mayor
of London's State coach, caused infinite interest; and in other carriages came
the Sheriffs of London, the Duke of Norfolk and other dignitaries. The Park was
crowded by invited guests, and the scene was especially memorable through the
perfection of the weather.  A procession of the College professors was followed
by the heads of the Corporation and the Lord Mayor of Sheffield.  Prayers were
offered by the Bishop of Sheffield, and a trowel and mallet, the gift of Sir
Henry Stephenson, handed to the chief visitor.  Bouquets were afterwards
presented by two girl graduates in Miss Radford and Miss Styring. Opening
speeches were delivered by the Duke of Norfolk and Alderman George Franklin, the
latter pointing out that in 1879 the College staff consisted of three
professors, a registrar, and an unpaid medical staff, that being on the
formation of Firth College.  On November 21st, 1902, on the other hand, there
were forty lecturers and demonstrators.  Then the capital was £40,000, now it
was it £200,000; then there were very few classes, now there were classes for
everything, and the influence of the College in South Yorkshire, North Notts.,
and North Derbyshire was very great. So far as the new project was concerned,
the building scheme meant the spending of £71,500, of which £51,383 had been
subscribed.  Other speeches thanking Sir Marcus for his presence were given by
Sir Henry Stephenson and others. Harking back to the laying of the foundation
stone of the University buildings, it may be pointed out that the first lecture
ever given in connexion with the school, which was merging into a University,
was delivered in 1866 in Sheffield which, through that lecture by Professor
Stuart, had identified itself in a manner which no other town could claim with
the University Lecture Extension Scheme.  In 1897 the Sheffield Medical School
(1828), the Technical School (1883), and Firth College became incorporated as
the Sheffield University College by Royal Charter. The new scheme surrounding
the stone-laying that June afternoon was to cost £100,000, with an endowment of
£10,000 per year, half of which was expected to be supplied by the Corporation. 
Of the original trustees of Firth College only five were living when this
stone-laying ceremony took place, those being Sir Henry Stephenson, Dr. Sorby,
Mr. J. Bradley Firth, Mr. S. Roberts, and Mr. J. F. Moss. The others, who had
died, were Mr. Mark Firth, Sir John Brown, Mr. S. Roberts, senr., Mr. B. P.
Broomhead, the Rev. S. Earnshaw, the Rev. James Stacey, Mr. Skelton Cole, Sir
Henry Watson, Mr. C. H. Firth, Mr.J.H. Barber, Mr. J. W. Pye-Smith, Mr. R.
Leader, and Mr. John Hobson. The "case" prepared by the authorities of the
Sheffield University College for presentation to the Privy Council was published
on November 26th, 1903. It recited that Sheffield was the only city of over
400,000 inhabitants in the British Empire to be without a University; that no
Federal College for Yorkshire was really possible; recognized that the new civic
Universities had to establish the values of the degrees they granted; and
declared that great inconvenience would arise if Leeds and Sheffield were
united. Parts 1 and 2 of the case dealt with the origin, progress, and existing
position of the Sheffield  University College;  part 3  related what work the
proposed Sheffield University would be ready to perform; part 4 compared the
existing position of the Sheffield University College with similar institutions
in cities which had been raised to University rank--Owens College, Manchester;
the University College, Liverpool; the Yorkshire   College, Leeds; and the Mason
College in Birmingham.  It was shown that by including the capitalized value of
the aid from the rates and under the Local Taxation Act, the capital value of
the Sheffield College in 1903 was £713,182 against the £639,000 of the Mason
College, Birmingham, in 1900; £150,000 of the Yorkshire College, Leeds, in 1887;
£190,000 of the Liverpool College in 1884; and the £409,000 of Owens College,
Manchester, in 1880.  It also showed that Sheffield's teaching staff was larger
than that of the other Colleges, but admitted that the gross income of Leeds in
1903 was £35,609 against £26,637 in Sheffield. Part 7 urged that it was required
to meet special local needs; part 8, that the existing position of University
colleges was intolerable; part 9, that public feeling was strongly in favour of
the establishment of a Sheffield University, and quoted several experts, both
local and national, on the subject, such as Lord Kelvin, who, on October 30th,
said that such a University would be very beneficial to the public in respect
both to higher Education and to the need for increased scientific knowledge and
research in connexion with the special industries of the city.  Sir Norman
Lockyer said, on October 22nd, that Sheffield might be relied upon to establish
and maintain a school of metallurgy and mining of world-wide importance and
usefulness, and other opinions were also given from Professor Warren, of Oxford,
and Professor Michael E. Sadler, of Leeds. The Leeds University sprang from a
parent institution in the Yorkshire College of Science, which was founded in
1874, its first President being Lord Frederick Cavendish, who, just after being
appointed Secretary of State for Ireland, was murdered in Phoenix Park, Dublin. 
The College was opened by the Duke of Devonshire in 1875, that nobleman having
given £2,000 towards the funds of the new College.  In 1887 the Yorkshire
College became a constituent part of the federal Victoria University, together
with Owens College, Manchester, and University College, Liverpool, and it
achieved the status of a separate University of Leeds in 1904. The Sheffield
University College, created by Royal Charter in 1897, meant the fusion of three
long-existing institutions in the town: the Sheffield School of Medicine,
founded 1828; the Firth College, founded by Mr. Mark Firth in 1879, and the
Sheffield Technical School, opened as a branch of Firth College in 1884.  In
1889 this school was established as a separate institution.  The three
Presidents of Firth College were the founder (Mr. Mark Firth), the Rev. Samuel
Earnshaw, and Dr. Henry Clifton Sorby, and the Principals Professor A. T.
Bentley, Professor J. Viriamu Jones, and Professor W. M. Hicks, the last named
being elected Principal in 1883, and becoming first Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Sheffield. The Sheffield School of Medicine existed in Surrey
Street for a number of years, being then moved to new and more commodious
buildings in Leopold Street. Thus, formed out of three very important schools,
the Sheffield University College took its place, with the Duke of Norfolk as its
President up to the coming of the University proper. The first Vice-Presidents
of the College were gentlemen highly honoured in Sheffield: Sir Frederick Thorpe
Mappin, Sir Henry Stephenson, Dr. H. C. Sorby, and Dr. William Dyson. On
November 26th, 1903, Messrs. Gould & Coombe, acting for the Sheffield University
College, reported the receipt of a letter stating that the Lords of the Privy
Council were prepared to recommend the charter for a University in Leeds on the
understanding that the West Riding County Council made substantial subventions
towards its maintenance, and that the promoters undertook to raise a capital sum
of at least £100,000 at the earliest possible moment. They did not see their way
at that time to grant the application from Leeds for the title "Victoria
University of Yorkshire," though they might be prepared to accept other
collocation of the names in question that would not appear to imply, on behalf
of the University to be established with its centre in Leeds, a possessory
interest in the whole of Yorkshire.

On February 25th, 1901, Messrs. Gould & Coombe, acting solicitors for the
Sheffield University College, referred to a letter received by them from the
Privy Council stating that the Lords of the Committee of the Council had had
under discussion the representations made as to the proper designation of the
University, and were strongly of the opinion that there should be a University
of Leeds and a University of Sheffield, but thought it desirable that a
conference should be held, three  representatives from each of the two cities
being present before the Privy Council. This conference took place on March 2nd,
the members of the Privy Council present being the Duke of Devonshire, Earl
Rosebery, Lord Balfour of  Burleigh; Leeds being represented by Messrs. Lupton,
Anderton, and E. Bodlington, and Sheffield by Alderman George Franklin, Colonel
Hughes, and Professor Hicks. The question was very thoroughly and amicably
thrashed out.  The inauguration of the University of Leeds took place on October
6th, 1904, the Marquis of Ripon presiding as Chancellor. A speech of
congratulation was made by the Duke of Devonshire, late President of the Privy
Council.  Degrees were presented to the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Cross, Lord
Kelvin, Lord Allerton, and Sir John Barren. The text of the Sheffield University
Bill was published on December 21st, 1904, and on March 4th news was received in
Sheffield that the Privy Council was prepared to recommend a Charter for the
Sheffield University so soon as the buildings were completed and the endowment
was assured.

THE CHARTER IN SHEFFIELD. In June, 1905, Mr. J. Newton Coombe, as solicitor for
the promoters, had the honour of receiving the Charter of the University of
Sheffield, delivering it up to the Pro-Chancellor (Alderman George Franklin) on
behalf of the Duke of Norfolk, then Chancellor.  The Charter is engrossed on
many sheets of parchment, bears the Great Seal of the Kingdom, and also the
signature of King Edward VII.  The students of the University had their first
real day when the Charter was brought home. They formed a somewhat unruly crowd
massed in front of the Great Central Station, and carrying the University
colours, black and gold.  It was quite a pleasant evening for such an exhibition
of students' humour.  The crowd had to wait fifty minutes on the station
platform before the train steamed in, and the Pro-Chancellor was then received
by the Vice-Chancellor (Professor W. M. Hicks), the Treasurer of the University
(Alderman H. K. Stephenson), and the Registrar (Mr. W. M. Gibbons).  Afterwards
a procession was formed, headed by the band of the Hallamshire Rifles and
police, and followed by a long string of carriages and the staff of the
University.  The nroute was by Blonk Street, Lady's Bridge, Waingate, the
Haymarket to High Street, Leopold Street to the Firth College, where, in the
Lecture Hall, the reception took place.  There Alderman Franklin described his
reception of the Charter in London, also outlining the work done during past
years, which had had so successful a culmination. Alderman Stephenson also
spoke, and to Professor H. W. Appleton was left the honour of tracing the
progress of the institutions which together had been welded into the Sheffield
University.

The crowning of the Sheffield University enterprise came on July 12th, 1905,
when King Edward and his gracious Consort--reawakening memories of their visit
in 1875--came to open the University Buildings in Western Bank, and also,
amongst other duties, to unveil the Memorial to the Soldiers who took part in
the South African War, which stands in the centre of the railings of the Parish
Churchyard.  The visit was attended by "Kings' weather," the sun streaming down
from cloudless skies, and the July day being hot and perfect.  Sheffield has
seldom been aroused to such profound enthusiasm.

The various routes traversed by the Royal procession extended over five miles;
there were grand-stands everywhere, and a wealth of decoration never excelled in
any provincial town.  One predominant feature in this was the use of flowers,
and June, the month of roses, lent her sister of July many thousands of gorgeous
blooms for the beautifying of the streets. This was particularly the case in
Barker's Pool, where a wide canopy, largely composed of flowers, was a very
striking and unusual feature.

Particular attention had been paid to the part to be played in the proceedings
by the children, and into this, from Mr. J. F. Moss down to the lowest grade of
teachers, the greatest enthusiasm was thrown. As a result, 80,000 school
children received special medals as mementoes of the occasion, and a very great
part of these were enthusiastic spectators of the pageant in various parts of
the city.  Some 50,000 had what were known as privileged places along the route;
10,000 were at the Midland Station, ready and very eager to give voice so soon
as the King and Queen emerged into the sunshine, and all Commercial Street and a
goodly slice of the Wicker was reserved for other juvenile sightseers. At the
Midland Station, the King inspected the Guard of Honour, and, beyond all
question, the spectacle which greeted their Majesties' eyes outside the gloomy
station was one of the most stupendous seen all through the day. Everywhere were
great masses of cheering people, hemmed in and surmounted by streamers and great
schemes of decoration. The lower slopes of Howard Street were one mass of faces;
all along the walls of Station Road or Sheaf Street were crowds hanging on
precariously where stands had not been built; across the street were fluttering
welcomes, and it was perhaps no wonder, when all this multitude broke into a
sudden tremendous welcome, that a trooper was unhorsed, and for a moment was
thought to be badly hurt.  Along the route to the Town Hall, by way of
Commercial Street, Market Place, High Street, and Fargate, enthusiasm was
unbroken and unbounded, indeed, without repeating the fact, it can be said that
everywhere along the five miles progress, from the University as its westerly
limit, to the River Don Works in the east, a sustained and very eager volume of
welcome was paid.

A SPLENDID MEMORY. Military and police lined the route, the people gathered for
hours before the procession could be expected to pass, and outside the Town
Hall, packed behind the barriers, occupying the many stands, fluttering
handkerchiefs from almost priceless window-vantage-points, was a huge concourse.
In the Reception room there were present the Archbishop of York and Mrs.
Maclagan, the Duke of Norfolk and Lady Mary Howard, the Lord Lieutenant (the
Earl of Harewood), the Earl and Countess of Scarbrough, the Earl and Countess
Fitzwilliam, the Earl and Countess of Wharncliffe, Viscount Galway, Lord
Londonderry being Minister-in-Waiting. Addresses were then presented, that of
the City being the work of Miss Pilley, whose father had done similar work when
Queen Victoria visited Sheffield. It was in fifteenth century style, bound in
blue levant morocco, with the Royal Arms in gilt.  It was enclosed in a royal
blue velvet case with white silk lining. The address from the Cutlers' Company,
presented by the Master Cutler, was bound in red crushed morocco.  Ald. Brittain
presented the address from the Town Trustees, in the absence of Sir Frederick
Mappin; and Mr. H. H. Bedford, that from the Chamber of Commerce.  Each of the
last three addresses was the work of Mr. R. C. Honey. Following the receipt of
these came the presentation to the King, of the Deputy Lord Mayor (Ald. J.
R.Wheatley), Sir C. T. Skelton, Col. Armitage, Col. Hughes, Col. Allen,V.D.,
Ald. H. K. Stephenson, Ald. Robert Colver, Mr. B. A. Firth, Dr. Hicks
(Vice-Chancellor of the University), Sir Alexander Wilson, Sir J. E. Bingham,
the Lord Bishop of Sheffield, Ald. Batty Langley, Mr. J. F. Hope, M.P., Mr. S.
Roberts, M.P., Sir W. Holland, M.P., Mr. H. J. Wilson, M.P., Col. T. E. Vickers,
the Recorder of Sheffield (Mr. J. Scott Fox), Judge Mansel Jones, Mr. R. A.
Hadfield, Ald. T. R. Gainsford, the Stipendiary Magistrate (Mr. E. M. E. Welby),
Mr. Colin M. Smith, Mr. H. Sayer (the Town Clerk), and the Secretary of the
Education Committee (Mr. J. F. Moss). The procession re-formed, and started from
the Town Hall for the real business of the visit, the opening of the University.
 The Royal route was by Pinstone Street, Sheffield Moor, Fitzwilliam Street,
Glossop Road, and Clarkson Street, whilst a second procession went by way of
Fargate, Church Street, and West Street. It is rather difficult to write of the
scene outside the University; it naturally differed from anything else on the
long route.  For the first time since their arrival, the Royal visitors saw
trees in Sheffield.  In all their summer fullness of foliage, the trees in
Weston Park afforded a background of splendid green. As the carriages came up
Clarkson Street and turned to the main entrance of the University, the sunshine
was at its hottest, there was a shimmering haze, and even far away, down where
the east end works lay, one could pick out every detail and see no trace of
smoke. The King and Queen were met by the Duke of Norfolk, as Chancellor,
descending the steps to their carriage.  There were 3,500 guests in the
University, 350 members of Sheffield's Festival Chorus being given places on the
West side of the quadrangle opposite the Royal pavilion. Here, presentations
were made of Dr. H. C. Sorby, Dr.W. Dyson, Mr. A. J. Hobson, Mr. A. Wightman,
Mr.J. N. Coombe, Mr. Simeon Snell, Mr. Albert Harland, Mr. E. M. Gibbs (the
architect of the buildings), Prof. Denny, Prof. Ripper, Prof. Appleton, Prof.
Cocking, Prof. Arnold, Prof. Moore Smith, Prof. Leahy, Mr. R. J. Pye-Smith, Mr.
A. Hall, and Mr. W. M. Gibbons, the Registrar. The procession to the quadrangle
was headed by Mr. Gibbs and the Registrar, then came the Master Cutler and Mrs.
Hall, Ald. H. K. Stephenson and Mrs. Stephenson, the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Hicks)
and Mrs. Hicks, Pro-Chancellor Ald. George Franklin and Mrs. Franklin, the
Chancellor (the Duke of Norfolk) and Lady Mary Howard, the Lord Mayor (Ald.
Joseph Jonas) and Mrs. Jonas; their Majesties the King and Queen, the Marquis of
Londonderry, the Countess of Gosford, the Hon. Charlotte Knollys, the Earl of
Denbigh, the Earl Howe, the Lord Knollys, the Hon. H. Stoner, and Ald. W. E.
Clegg and Mrs. Clegg. So to the quadrangle where the Festival Chorus sang two
verses of the National Anthem. The chorus sang "Daughter of Ancient Kings," from
Elgar's "Coronation Ode," to the very obvious delight of their Majesties and the
Suite, and Miss Evelyn Stephenson presented a bouquet of yellow orchids to the
Queen, completing her task with the daintiest of curtsies, and Her Majesty
smilingly taking her by the hand as she retired.  Prayer was offered by the
Archbishop of York, and the Lord's Prayer was recited, Their Majesties joining
in the utterance, and then the University's Address was presented.

Always a fluent and a ready speaker, the Duke of Norfolk rose to his very best. 
He said that "Sheffield owed the origin of the movement, which had culminated in
that University, to Mr. Mark Firth, a name always held in affectionate reverence
in Sheffield, and, in 1902, Sheffield had felt it desirable to gather together
into one the various sources of educational work which a University should
supply, and so it had gathered in that building the faculties of Art, Pure
Science, and Medicine, with Applied Science in another building quite close at
hand.  The masters of the great works, the workmen, and the women had all shown
the greatest interest in the  movement. They had, in contemplation, the thought
that £200,000 might be required to build and sufficiently endow the University,
or £170,000 after allowing for the sale of old  property. That day, they were
within £20,000  of the amount, as Mr. William Edgar Allen had then made known
his intention to give £10,000 to the funds of the University, for the purposes
of a Library.  Sheffield would ever most deeply esteem and treasure the memory
of the honour done by Their Majesties visiting the city and opening the
University."

Al. H. K. Stephenson handed the Key to the King, and His Majesty in a clear
voice said: "I have great pleasure in declaring these beautiful buildings open,
and of expressing my fervent hope and desire for a long continued prosperity of
the Sheffield University."  A fanfare of trumpets followed, and the chorus broke
into "O, Gladsome Light !" from Sullivan's "Golden Legend."  All this time, the
King and Queen had been standing, surrounded by their Suite, afterwards
inspecting the noble Firth Hall, and then passed into the Park, the King turning
to give a special greeting to a personal friend in Mr. Henry Steel of Tapton
Court. Here, again, was a very imposing spectacle. The Park, with its wealth of
trees, the noble facade of the Art Gallery, and the massed crowds of people, was
bathed in golden sunshine, just beginning to slant from the west. The University
lunch had been given in the Art Gallery, and the Officers and friends of the
K.O.Y.L.I., had lunched in a spacious marquee in the Park.  The incident here
was probably the most picturesque of the whole day--the presentation of the
Colours. Thirty years before, the Queen, then Princess of Wales, had presented
Colours, whilst in Sheffield, to the Green Howards, thereafter being known as
the Princess of Wales' Own.

Col. Whitaker was in command of the K.O.Y.L.I.; a brilliant picture being
presented as the 700 men marched in to the point of the Royal dais. The Clergy
who took part in the ceremony were, the Archbishop of York, the Chaplain-General
to the Forces (Bishop Taylor Smith), the Bishop of Sheffield (the Right Rev. Dr.
Quirk), Archdeacon Brooke of Halifax, the Rev. A. H. Goodwin of Owlerton
(Chaplain to the Regiment), and the Rev. Bramall Burton of Cherry Burton.  In a
special enclosure were 240 Reservists of the Regiment in civilian dress.  A
farewell was paid to the remnants of the old Colours, presented at Dinaford,
India, on March 16th, 1868, by Sir W. Mansfield, tattered and torn through long
usage. In the usual three sides of a square the new Colours were unfurled and
piled upon the drums.  They bore the names of great battles-Corunna, Fuentes
d'Onoro, Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Neville, Orthes, the Peninsula,
Waterloo, Pegu, Ali Musjid, Afghanistan (1878-80), Burma (1855-87), South Africa
(1899-1902), and the Modder River. The presentation was brief, the new Colours
being turned to face the line and given a general salute, sounded by the
thirty-six silver trumpets of the Battalion.  Slowly they were taken to their
places, as "God Save the King" was played, and a magnificent scene, watched with
absorbing interest, was closed by the Royal salute.  A garden party, attended by
some thousands of guests, wound up the proceedings in the Park. From the
University the route was back to the centre of the city, down Waingate, the
Wicker, Savile Street, and the last hour was spent in the Vickers' River Don
Works, the Royal pair evincing such absorbing interest in the many marvels shown
that the visit had to be cut short on account of the waiting train in the
siding.  That train steamed out at 5.20; but less than 4 and a half hours of a
visit had given almost countless thousands in the city the chance of witnessing
scenes which will never be forgotten. A military tattoo was given in the
Barracks at night, and an evening party at the Town Hall, whilst the whole city
was one long range of illumination, and the passing of the illuminated tramcar
from point to point gave one last touch of colour to an historic day.  At the
River Don Works Master Oliver Douglas Vickers had the honour of presenting a
third bouquet to the Queen. Without question, the Royal Visit number of the
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, on July 13th, was one of the finest newspaper issues
the country has known.  That is said without hesitation, and doubtless there are
very many copies of that particular newspaper very carefully and deservedly
treasured.  It consisted of 16 pages printed on specially-made paper, and was
printed generally in royal blue. On the first page-this, by the way, was printed
in gold--appeared excellent portraits of the Royal visitors, and a capital
pen-and-ink drawing of the Town Hall, taken from Pool Square, the work of Hubert
P. Templar, who, in another part of the issue, had a six-column picture of the
new University. On July 12th, 1905, Professor Ripper appeared in a new ro1e,
acting as special correspondent to The Times newspaper, and dealing with the
aims of the new University that day opened by King Edward VII. The final report
of the Sheffield University College appeared in the newspapers on November 23rd,
1905. The one lack at that time, the report stated, was provision of a suitable
building wherein to house the University Library, and the difficulty had been
cleared away by Mr. Edgar Allen's munificent gift of £10,000 to be specially
devoted to that purpose. In December the Council had before it a letter from Dr.
Hicks referring to the impossibility of the work of Vice-Chancellor and
Professor of Physics being carried on by one person, and stating his intention
of ultimately resigning the principalship and of continuing the professorship.
The Council recognized the force of the argument, but in view of the great
services by Dr. Hicks to the College decided to put his name in the Charter as
Vice-Chancellor and to take steps to secure a successor.  After careful
enquiries  Sir  Charles  Eliot  was appointed Vice-Chancellor, and the scholarly
lectures that gentleman gave on several occasions will be well remembered,
though his association with the University was comparatively brief. Sir Chas.
Eliot had had a distinguished career, educated at Cheltenham College, and
Balliol College, Oxford, was Hertford scholar in 1881, Boden scholar in 1883,
Ireland 1883, Craven 1884, M.A. 1885, and Fellow of Trinity, Oxford.  He was at
the Embassy at St. Petersburg in 1888 until 1892, Charge d'Affaires in Morocco
1892-3, second secretary at Constantinople 1893, Bulgaria 1895, Servia 1897,
second secretary at Washington in 1898, Special High Commissioner at Samoa in
1899, and His Majesty's Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief for East Africa
Protectorate and Agent General at Zanzibar 1900-1904. Very few gentlemen
associated with Sheffield life have held such a record of Imperial service as is
here given.  He resigned his position at Zanzibar following a heated discussion
with the Foreign Office and its chief, Lord Lansdowne, then administering a
territory whose area was almost three quarters of a million of miles, and
ultimately an enquiry was held into the circumstances in which he found himself
unable to carry out the orders of his chief. He wrotes a long letter to The
Times, closing with the words: "If my language has been too strong, if my
request for an enquiry was irregular, I desire to offer my most sincere
apologies, and I specially regret if I have seemed wanting in courtesy to Lord
Lansdowne personally.  My object was to call attention to the misunderstandings
about grants of land in the East Africa Protectorate, and to secure the
introduction of a system more in harmony with the interests of the country."
That letter availed him nothing save application of "The Thunderer's" weightiest
 denunciation.  In a long comment, The Times spoke of a lamentable illustration
of the extent to which injured vanity may pervert the judgment of a man in whom
brilliant abilities and exceptional attainments are united with a varied and
considerable experience in the service of the State.... his letters betray a
total misconception of the relations between the writer and his official
superior ...; are of a kind which no responsible head of any private business,
to say nothing of the responsible head of a great public department, would
tolerate..., it is only after he has made it clear that he is obdurate in his
insubordination that the Secretary of State at last reluctantly decides that he
has no choice but to allow his recalcitrant subordinate to sever his connexion
with the service." KING EDWARD VII SCHOOL. An important step forward in
education for Sheffield came in February, 1904, when the amalgamation of Wesley
College and the Sheffield Royal Grammar School was announced to form a secondary
school with the work carried on in the Wesley College buildings.  Each of the
institutions named had an engaging and very interesting history, and had been
fortunate in strong and able head masters. The last prize distribution at Wesley
College prior to its change of name was on July 20th, 1905, when prominent
members of the Sheffield Education Committee were present in Alderman Clegg,
Councillor John Derry, and the Rev. J. W. Merryweather. Councillor Derry
presided, and spoke of Sheffield's pride in the foundation which had been so
very beneficial to the town, and said always there would exist a deep sense of
gratitude for the way in which education had been conducted within those walls. 
It had possessed a breadth which would not need extending even though the school
was becoming a public instead of a denominational one, and its close was as
honourable as its career had been. The Head Master (the Rev. V. W. Pearson)
said, though the change had been known, there had been no slackening in work
during the year.  The school which was so soon to lose its identity was founded
in 1838, and for fifty years was carried on under the dual control of governor
and head master. Its governors had been Maclean, Keeling, Waddy, James, Harvard,
Jessop, and Dallinger; its head masters Manners, Shera, Findley, and himself. He
declared his belief that the future of the school would be a great one, for the
city was determined to make it the finest day school in the country through
ample equipment, noble environment, adequate staffing, and municipal sympathy.
Altogether, at the time when it was opened on November 2nd, 1906, by Mr.
Augustine Birrell, then President of the Board of Education, and just at that
time grappling with the House of Lords on his Education Bill, which was
ultimately thrown out, Sheffield's King Edward School had cost £46,809,
including the school, head master's house, and playing fields.  The opening gave
rise to some rather notable speaking.  Mr. Birrell began by a strong protest
against the multiplicity of terms commonly employed in connexion with education,
and declared that the jargon of the Board was simply terrible.  It
differentiated between elementary education, higher education, higher grade
schools, lower grade schools, technical schools, schools of cookery, and so on.
"What does it all mean?" asked the speaker. "There is no difference between them
all really, for the only real point of difference in education is that which is
bad and that which is good."  Unhappily, too many people thought that education
lay in the province of the Board of Education, and was controlled by that body,
whereas people began their education on the day they were born, and they learned
more from their nurses than they ever learned from a Regius Professor. Parents
dared not imagine that they could transfer to the rates and teachers their own
responsibilities, and it was their duty and privilege to give every hour they
could afford to the education of their children.  Education, as such, must not
specialize too early in the pupil's life; it could afford to turn a deaf ear to
the boy who declared that he could not do such and such a thing, for, as a
matter of fact, that boy usually proved that the subjects which he declared he
could not tackle were those in which, under proper training and through care, he
shone the most. "I am," said Mr. Birrell,"very fond of the boys. Give me my boys
and you can have all my inspectors." Just at the same time there came the last
of the Sheffield Royal Grammar School, with its career extending over three
centuries, and on July 25th, 1905, that career ended with the school premises
gaily flagged, and with parents and scholars in great numbers present for the
last time. The Rev. A. B. Haslam (head master) was cheered with great
heartiness, leaving Sheffield as he was to devote himself to a quiet life at
Grassington.  He spoke at great length and with marked feeling, saying that
during his fifteen years life there, there had been three aims in the work
done--maintenance of the University standard, the open door, and the third the
religious basis. He believed that in all three success had been achieved. He
knew what incalculable advantages the education ladder (by means of foundation
scholarships) had conferred upon boy after boy and home on home, and it was from
the ranks of those very boys that their University standard had been most
largely recruited.  He trusted that in the new school there would be no
diminution of that invaluable aid to meritorious boys and sacrificing parents.
They had in that school striven to found all their work and life upon the
religious lessons of home life, intercourse, and pleasure, and he hoped the same
aims would be before the new school which was to succeed the Grammar School so
very dear to them.

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE. The People's College filled a large part in the
educational history of the town. On May 7th, 1879, its career came to an end,
and a farewell gathering took place in the Cutlers' Hall, the opportunity being
taken to make a presentation to its long-time Principal, Mr. Thomas Rowbotham. 
He delivered a most interesting address on the school's history. It had existed
for 37 years, begun by the Rev. R. S. Bayley, minister at Howard Street
Congregational Chapel, long ago vanished from our midst, but remembered by many
of us as a little square box place, cosy enough, suited to the needs of the old
town when so many of the best families lived in close proximity to it. Mr.
Bayley's School was opened in George Street on August 11th, 1842, with classes
held "before and after the hours of labour," that is to say, from 6.30 to 7.30
in the morning and from 7.30 to 9.30 at night.  The fees for each student worked
out at ninepence a week, and it is interesting to note that from the
commencement women students were admitted.  In the next year it was removed from
its original premises in George Street to Orchard Street, public examinations
being then held with very gratifying results. However, trouble overtook it
later, for, when a split came in the chapel, the leader of the school, Mr.
Bayley, sought to weld religion and education, and brought over to the school
the remnant of the congregation which remained faithful to him, and there
established a mission room. That practically killed the school, and when, in
1848, Mr. Bayley removed to London, the People's College was as near death's
door as was possible. However, there were strong, determined spirits amongst the
students, and sixteen of them decided to carry on at all costs. They met and
drew up a code of regulations which, it may be noted, was never altered in the
slightest degree during the continuance of the College.  They also elected
officers, the president being Mr. Rowbotham, the treasurer Mr. James Wilson, and
the hon. secretary Mr. Edward Birks. In October, 1848, a public meeting was held
in the College, Mr. Wilson Overend in the chair, and at that time the band of
students did not possess a penny of College money or a book, whilst there was no
furniture at all.  Help was offered, but steadily refused, because that was
against the code of rules, and on the heels of the movement came pronounced
success. At the end of the first month there were 200 students; at the end of
the first 47 weeks working the names of 530 students were on the books, 426
young men and 104 women, with an average attendance of 135, and a sum of £205
already obtained for fees. Day classes were established in the second year of
this new establishment, and, in 1853, it was found possible to take advantage of
an opportunity which presented itself and purchase for the College a magnificent
collection of scientific instruments which came on the market for £100.
Eventually the College fell in with the system of examinations instituted by the
School of Art, and as aresult, in 1856, it sent one student to London for
examination; in 1857 two to Huddersfield, and in 1859 had 14 candidates of whom
12 obtained certificates. Mr. Rowbotham mentioned several who had been very
prominent in this great success of the College, amongst them Mr. Edward Birks,
Mr. James Wilson, Mr. John Lister, Mr. H. Brown, Mr. J. Jackson, Mr. J.
Pashley,and Mr. Caleb Carr, as teachers and monitors. Thomas Rowbotham died on
August 14th, 1898. He was born in Eyam, and came to Sheffield to learn brush
making, but became a teacher at the People's College, all his tastes being
literary.  The College, with its great traditions, was broken up in 1878, when
the town purchased the property in Orchard Street, and in the following year a
farewell dinner of those connected with it took place, with a historical review
of the school and the work done there, given by Mr. Rowbotham.

It is very seldom that one finds so many boys destined to take Prominent parts
in the town's history, proving so successful at the same time, as are shown in
the subjoined list.  It was provided by the result of the Cambridge local
examinations in 1865 (December).  Frederick J. Talbot, 14 years (Collegiate),
passed in Religious Knowledge, English and Latin; J. C. Skinner, 15 years (Milk
Street Academy), passed in Religious Knowledge, English and French; John
Fanshawe Atkinson, 15 years (Myrtle Spring School), passed in Religious
Knowledge, English, French and German; W. Mitchell Eadon, 15 years (Broombank
House School), passed in Religious Knowledge, English, Latin, Greek, French, and
secured 3rd Class Honours; J. Turton Parkin, 14 years (Broombank House School),
passed in Religious Knowledge, English, Latin, Greek, French, Pure Mathematics,
was distinguished in Music, and secured 2nd Class Honours; J. A. Brailsford, 14
years (Collegiate School), passed in Religious Knowledge, English, Latin,
French, Pure Mathematics, and had Honours in Drawing; S. G. Richardson, 14 years
(Collegiate School), passed in English, French, Latin, Greek, Pure Mathematics,
and had Honours in Religious Knowledge, securing 1st Class Honours; George
Francis Lockwood, 15 years (Collegiate School), passed in Religious Knowledge,
English, Latin, Greek, Pure Mathematics, was distinguished in French, and
secured 1st Class Honours; Sidney Oldall Addy, 17 years (Collegiate School),
passed in the Seniors in Religious Knowledge, English, Greek and French, was
distinguished in Latin, and obtained 3rd Class Honours.