I am back on the trail of James Renshaw, who was a Chorlton schoolteacher and not someone who would easily survive in the profession today.
But back in the early 19th century things were a tad different.
He remains a shadowy figure and apart from appearing in the census returns for 1841 and 51, along with references in the trade directories, all we know about him comes from anecdotal comments recorded by our local historian in 1885, a full half century after he died.
From these we can gather Mr. Renshaw was not to be trifled with in the classroom, because his discipline ran from “strict to severity, especially with scholars not in his favour” *
They remembered how he who would strike the boys on the head with his cane and then apply cobwebs to stop the bleeding, and in the case of William Rhodes nearly cut off one of the lad’s fingers. This had been done with an open pen knife which he threw at the young Rhodes who had put his hand on the desk while standing during a lesson.
Despite this, Renshaw was much respected amongst the villagers and was known simply as ‘The Village Schoolmaster’ being consulted on many subjects ranging from the law and medicine to science.
The school master held an interesting position in the rural hierarchy in that he would be respected for his learning which set him apart from most in the village but was less grand than the vicar or curate and certainly more accessible than those who styled themselves ‘gentry’.
Not that Renshaw by all accounts could always play the dignified pillar of village society.
Despite his formidable personality which was much helped by his only having one leg he could still be bested by his students. In a story still told thirty or so years after his death James Renshaw was the butt of more than one schoolboy prank.
There was the story of the lost porridge bowl or I suppose more accurately the tale that started as a conspiracy and ended in a student revolt. Each morning one of the schoolboys had the task of collecting Renshaw’s breakfast from his home and bringing it to the school.
His home was a little further up the Row and on this morning the conspirators had elected Charles Brundrett to bury the spoon and throw the bowl into the pond opposite the school. This stretch of water was known as Blomley’s Fish Pond and extended along the opposite side of the Row up to Sutton’s Cottages and across the centre of this water was a bridge leading into the fields. **
While young Charles Brundrett was engaged on this enterprise, one of the class ‘split’ to Renshaw who rushed out to prevent the deed happening. Not only did he fail but on returning was refused admittance without the promise of a holiday, a tactic repeated by the boys on other occasions and supplemented by hiding his pipe and tobacco.
Charles Brundrett suffered no long term effects from his prank and grew up to run Oak Farm. Not that anything as dramatic might have occurred in that other private school run by Mary Taylor at Clough Farm at Martledge. ***
James Renshaw was a Methodist, and is attributed to being the first in the village **** and so his school attracting children from Methodist backgrounds continued after the establishment of the first National or Church school on the green.
In 1834 he was listed in a local directory as running a school in Chorlton and in 1841described himself as school master. But by 1851 aged 79 he had retired and by 1852 was buried in the grounds of the Wesleyan chapel. *****
Sadly no records of the school fees of Renshaw’s establishment have survived, but over in Stretford in the early decades of the 19th century, Mr Johnson charged “3d to 8d per week with 1d [ 1½p to 3p and ½p] extra for fire money in the winter.
The scholars were allowed one quill a week and had to pay ½d each for any more.” ****** Johnson like our own Renshaw was “a perfect Squeers, inventing all kinds of queer punishments, and in one case made a lad eat a bad exercise he had written.”******* Given the harshness of the times many parents may not have deemed such behaviour as excessive especially if the means delivered an educated child. And Johnson’s fees were not cheap. They were beyond the means of farm labourers and the services provided by James Renshaw and Mr Johnson was limited to the children of farmers and tradesmen.
There was also the Sunday school. The first was set up by the Methodists in the August of 1805 and was held in the chapel later it moved to a building across the road which had been built from subscriptions raised by the Methodists. When this building was lost the Sunday school returned to the chapel.********
Alas no pictures of the man have come down to us, and there is little more, other than that he was born in Chorlton-cum Hardy, never married, and was a member of the Renshaw family who had farmed in the township since the 1760s.
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy,
Pictures; Sutton’s Cottage circa 1892, photograph from the Wesleyan Souvenir Handbook of 1895, and Pigot's Directory Lancashire 1828-29, Stretford Chorlton Page 282, Chorlton Row now Beech Road in 1845
* Ellwood, Thomas, A History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Chapter 24, Shops, schools, April 24th 1886, South Manchester Gazette
** The water ran from where Acres Road joins Beech Road up to just before Wilton Road. Ellwood Chapter 24. Elizabeth Blomley, gentlewoman was living in Chorlton in the mid to late 1820s
*** Pigot’s Directory Page 68, Historicacl Directories Page
***** Pigott 1834 Page 68 Historical Directories Page 337, 8141 census, Enu 8 Page 5, 1851 census Enu 1 Page 11
***** Ellwood Chapter 18, March 6 1886. He died on June 22 1852 and was buried in the Wesleyan chapel on the Row.Owen MSS Vol 42, Edge Geoffrey a claim Ellwood also made for James Baguley
****** Leech, Sir Bosdin, Old Stretford, 1910, Manchester City News Co Ltd Manchester page 38
******* Ibid Leech, page 38
******** The loss of the building is unclear. The Methodist historian Ellwood writing in 1886 wrote that the Wesleyans had failed to convey it to trustees and that the building was sold to Thomas Taylor who charged them rent until 1827, when they were given notice to leave and the building converted into cottages. The land was retained by the Lloyd estate
No comments:
Post a Comment