Catalogue description COWHILL COUNCIL SCHOOL, CHADDERTON

The records comprise Log Books and miscellaneous papers

Oldham Local Studies: A Centenary Memorial or Brief Record of the Origin and Progress of the Wesleyan Sunday Schools in Oldham and the Neighbourhood by Rev Jabez Marrat, 1885 [RO:F:RG]

Cowhill School, 1849 - 1949 by One of its Scholars [RO:FO:RG]

Cowhill Council School, Chadderton

Photocopying of these records might be permitted, depending on their size and condition. Please see a member of staff

Accession 2001-017 (B-S6/1/1-2 formerly SMCH/3/1-2) transferred from Lancashire Record Office

Accession 1996-014 (B-S6/2/1)

A school had been erected sometime between 1815 and 1825 at the expense of Sir Thomas Horton of Chadderton Hall and the National Schools Society on the opposite side of Cowhill to the site of Glenby Mill on land which had been the bowling green of an inn. It was used as a Sunday school and an occasional day school initially independent of any church, but the concept of all denominations working together failed to work in practice. Consequently the Methodists in Cowhill established a Sunday school of their own in 1828 and began regular services in the school, but these were discontinued in about 1835. (This school building was demolished in about 1876 due to the construction of the embankment for the Oldham/Hollinwood Railway).

However, a Methodist Sunday school was re-established in part of an old mill at Alder Root in about 1847 but due to the distance from the Brunswick Chapel a new school was built in Rutland Street in 1855. The school was managed by a group of Trustees who appointed head masters and teachers, the students paying up to 4d a week.

In 1894 the Trustees, unable to financially support the school, let the premises to the Chadderton School Board.

The school closed on 19th June 1905, the building being considered too redundant for educational use, and most of the students were transferred to the new Stanley Road Council School.