Amberleigh ... 1953-1997 ........ that prep school on Wilbraham Road

Sometimes you encounter a story which is well beyond your own experiences.

The Oaks, Wilbraham Road, 1929

And so today I plunge into that world of private education and in particular the schools and academies which flourished here in Chorlton in the first half of the last century.

It is something I was never privy to.  I went from one state school to another, effortlessly moving from Edmund Waller Junior school to Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern and Crown Woods Comprehensive to Manchester College of Commerce.  And then after a post grad year at Didsbury Training College, I spent 35 years teaching in inner city schools.

So, mine was a paid education but one funded by local authorities from the public purse.

Mr. Dadley's Grammar School, High Lane, circa 1911

But today I am looking at the private schools of Chorlton which flourished in the years before the Great War continued into the brave new world after 1945 and lasted into the 21st century.

I have written about them in the past, from the Convent school on High Lane to Mr Dadley, whose Grammar School specialized in training for “Law, Medical Accounts, Prelims, University, and Civil Services Exams”.

What they had in common was that they attracted the “middling people” who had moved into Chorlton during the housing boom which had begun in the 1880s and who could afford to enrol their children in these private educational establishments.

In 1911 there were seven in Chorlton, which slowly fell to four in 1929, and three by 1961. **

Of the last three it is Amberleigh Preparatory School at 398 Wilbraham Road which caught my attention today.  It closed in February 1997 and was listed as an “Independent Selective Mixed School for 4-11’s.***

Amberleigh Preparatory School, Wilbraham Road, 1960

The first reference to it is in 1953 in a street directory and in a series of adverts in the Manchester Guardian offering “a course of Evening Classes for children between the ages of 11 and 13 who will be eligible to sit for the local grammar and municipal scholarships in February 1954.  

The course will cover a period of 23 weeks, consisting of 46 lessons each of two hours duration”.****

To this can be added three articles from 1964 and 65, recording the school’s participation in art competitions run by the Manchester Guardian. Under the heading “Enterprise of imagination” the newspaper described the work exhibited by students from Amberleigh in connection with “the Single-handed Transatlantic Race”, and a family’s sailing adventure to Easter Island. ****

The first competition saw five hundred schools enter and the second six hundred, with Amberleigh winning through on both occasions and featuring in the coverage.

Sadly, although some of the students are mentioned by name, no teacher who quite clearly was something of an inspiration is lost to us.

Advert for Amberleigh, 1953

At present that is pretty much it, although there is a Facebook presence from students who share their memories starting in 1955***** and rolling through into the 80s, and a homemade film of a school day out from the 1970s.******

Just what was taught, the organization of the school day and other stories will I guess come to light as people come forth with their contributions.

Well I hope so.

It now seems quite remote and yet it is well to remember that the Convent school on High Lane lasted into the 1990s and was supersede by the Islamic School for Girls which only vacated the site recently.

Location; Wilbraham Road

Picture; Mr. Dadley’s Grammar School, circa 1911, ,The Oaks College, advert from the St Clements Parish Bazaar Magazine 1928 kindly supplied by Ida Bradshaw, Amberleigh Preparatory School, 1961 m18331,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  Mr. Dadley’s Grammar School, circa 1911, from the Lloyd Collection

*Carlton House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Carlton%20House

&

Denbigh Villas ...... the name that was lost and is found, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2018/08/denbigh-villas-name-that-was-lost-and.html

**1911 Balgarie, Miss Edith, 19 Whitelow Road, Barker, Miss Agnes, 8 Yerk Road, Booth Miss Ann Shepley, 41 Holland [Zetland] Road, Brotherton, Misses Adelaide & Eva, 23 Manchester Road, Dadley Mr. C 57-59 High Lane, 55 High Lane, Convent High School for Girls, 55 High Lane, Timaeus, Mis Kathleen, 21 York Road

1961 Amberleigh Preparatory School, Mis F. Ashcroft, 398 Wilbraham Road, The Oaks College, Miss A Haigh, 643 Wilbraham Road

***Advert, Manchester Guardian, June 12th, 1953

****Get Information about a school Gov UK, https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/105586

***** Transatlantic Adventure, Guardian, September 17th, 1964 & Easter Island Adventure, Guardian September 22nd 1965

*****Facebook,  https://www.facebook.com/groups/wegrewupinmanchester/posts/3490982651176452/

******School Day out, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YcUreTixHo