A little bit of my history and a lot more on the walls of the common room in the Faculty of Education in Didsbury

Now I know that somewhere in a dusty set of filing cabinets or in some long forgotten book on the history of Manchester’s education service there will be a record of the different colleges which over the last century and a bit have offered training to those who wanted to become teachers.

But there is a short cut and here it is in the form of a poster in the common room of MMU’s Faculty of Education in Didsbury.

My friend Pierre kindly sent me the image of the poster after a conversation yesterday about the imminent move of the faculty from Didsbury to Hulme.

Mindful of the rich history of teacher training at the former Methodist College there are moves to discover what priceless documents may lie at the bottom of a filing cabinet or at the back of a cupboard.

In the past institutions have been all too quick to discard their history in the interests of rationalization, saving space and just starting a new.

In some cases just because there was no one interested in collecting the material and once thrown into a skip of burnt it is lost forever.

So I am intrigued at the plaque, which was “placed for safekeeping in the former Manchester College of Higher Education and City of Manchester College of Higher Education” recording “the students of the former Manchester Municipal Day Training College (1910-24) who gave their lives in the First World War.”

All the more fitting given that soon we shall be marking the centenary of the outbreak of the Great  War.

And during this time when we focus on the sacrifice made I would like to dig deep into the records of the young men who went through the Municipal Day Training College and see what can be discovered of their lives.

But for me it is also that here is a little of my history covering my years at the old College of Commerce which merged to form Manchester Polytechnic, absorbed Didsbury Training College and became the M.M.U.

So  I suppose you could say a little bit of me has been preserved on the wall of the common room along with that long line of former colleges all the way back to 1857.

I just hope it makes the move safely to Birley.

Picture; courtesy of Pierre Grace, 2014

Goodbye to that College in Didsbury part 6 .......another wall plaque to the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison

As the last few months of the College at Didsbury tick away and all things are made ready for the shift to Hulme I am back with one of those bits of its history that has spent the last 70 or so years on a wall.

It reminds us that college began as theological training centre  from 1842 till 1942 and included in this story is the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison.

He was at his death the President of the Methodist Conference and had a long record in the service of the Wesleyan faith.

Born in 1882, he trained for the ministry at Didsbury where he studied for three years “completing his B.Sc degree and passing the Intermediate examination in Divinity before becoming Assistant Tutor.”*

From there he moved across the country as a minister, wrote extensively on church history, was awarded the Military Cross in the Great War, and was variously Vice Principal and then Principal of the Westminster Training College from 1921-1940.

“Methodism was in his bones and in his blood; he understood its peculiar genius, loved its hymnology, served it with splendid loyalty and gave his life to serve it to the uttermost.”**

So I am just left wondering when the wooden plaque was placed in the library and if the Manchester Education Committee made a contribution.

In the meantime it is a nice reminder of the long history of college and thanks again to Pierre for sending it to me.

* W F Howard, Wesleyan Historical Studies, 1946

**ibid, W F Howard

Picture; of the plaque, courtesy of Pierre Grace 
Didsbury, Didsbury College of Education, Goodbye to that College in Didsbury, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Polytechnic, My Manchester, Rev Archibald Walter Harrison

Goodbye to that College in Didsbury part three .......a wall plaque and the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison

The plaque

I don’t think I ever noticed the wooden plaque in the library showing the crests of the old Methodist College and Didsbury Training College, along with the name of the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison.

And when the MMU vacates the site later this year I hope it will be displayed somewhere in the new building at Birley in Hulme.

Now the Methodist College which provided theological training from 1842 till 1942 deserves a post all of its own as does Didsbury Training College which can trace its history back 1946 when the Board of Education rented the building as an Emergency Training College and on to its purchase in 1950 by the Manchester Education Committee.

Likewise the Rev Archibald Walter Harrison should not just be dismissed as an obscure name on a wooden board.

The Library in 1911

He was at his death the President of the Methodist Conference and had a long record in the service of the Wesleyan faith.

Born in 1882, he trained for the ministry at Didsbury where he studied for three years “completing his B.Sc degree and passing the Intermediate examination in Divinity before becoming Assistant Tutor.”*

From there he moved across the country as a minister, wrote extensively on church history, was awarded the Military Cross in the Great War, and was variously Vice Principal and then Principal of the Westminster Training College from 1921-1940.

“Methodism was in his bones and in his blood; he understood its peculiar genius, loved its hymnology, served it with splendid loyalty and gave his life to serve it to the uttermost.”**

So I am just left wondering when the wooden plaque was placed in the library and if the Manchester Education Committee made a contribution.

In the meantime it is a nice reminder of the long history of college and thanks again to Pierre for sending it to me.

* W F Howard, Wesleyan Historical Studies, 1946

**ibid, W F Howard

Picture; of the plaque, courtesy of Pierre Grace and the college Library in 1911

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