Goodbye to that College in Didsbury part 1 ........ thanks for all the teachers

The admin building in 2012

The M.M.U. is leaving Didsbury and so will end nearly 200 years of students on the site opposite the village green

It began with a school in what had once been the home of William Broome, became a theological school in 1841 and from 1946 a centre for training teachers.

So the departure of the Faculty of Education in July marks a very big moment in the story of the site and I suppose Didsbury itself.

There will be fewer students and as a result  I think the area will lose a little something, but no doubt there will be some residents who welcome the change.

Offiically the Faculty will close on July 18th and the buildings and the campus will go quiet awaiting its future development.

Meanwhile the staff and students will relocate to Hulme in what was recently known as Birely Fields but I am told will now just be called Birley.

Inside the admin building once a private residence

Now anyone who has been involved in such a move will know just how traumatic it can be and the very real danger that bits of the priceless history of the site will get lost, overlooked or just thrown away.

So I am pleased that my friend Pierre who works there has begun sending me photographs of some of its history ranging from wall plaques to posters and a lot more.

And by way of a start I have decided to represent some of the pictures he took  of the admin block which dates from about 1744.*

Sometimes referred to as the Pump House this was William Broome’s home till his death in 1810 when it was sold later became a boarding school run by a Miss Meek.**

In 1841 the Methodists who purchased the property for a college, clad the exterior in stone extended the building and built a chapel nearby.

Inside the Pump House

And since then thousands of young people have passed through the building starting with those theological students and on to all those who were to become teachers.

I was there for a year in 1973 dong a post grad course and since then I have met and worked with many who also went through its doors.

So goodbye to the college and thanks for all the teachers.










Pictures; of the admin block of the Faculty of Education, Didsbury, courtesy of Pierre Grace.

*Inside an 18th century house in Didsbury, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/inside-18th-century-house-in-didsbury.html

**A New History of Didsbury, E.France & T.F. Woodall, 1976