Building record 5547 - Macclesfield Industrial and Ragged School

<1> Cheshire East Council, 2010, Cheshire East LDF Local List of Historic Buildings (Report). SCH5404.

Brook Street Mill is a brick building with arched timber windows and stone sills with a flat roof, dating from the mid nineteenth century.

<2> Calladine A & Fricker J, 1993, East Cheshire Textile Mills, p.148, p.161, p.163 (Book). SCH1093.

Started in 1858 an Industrial and Ragged School was started by the Reverend Henry Briant, to house, educate, and train poor, orphaned, and homeless children. After the passing of the Industrial Schools Act in 1865 the school opened new premises on Brook Street, with 130 beds, a dining room, school rooms and a gymnasium. Built in the style of a mill.

<3> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 254/2, 1849 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

This area is not mapped in detail on this map, but is described as building land.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1873-4, Metric Ten Foot Scale Town Plan of Macclesfield (Maps and Plans). SCH4489.

This map depicts a U shaped building located on the corners of Brook Street, Turnock Street, and Parker Street. It is labelled Ragged and Industrial School. To the rear is a yard labelled Play Ground and Ball Alley.

<5> Davies C S (ed), 1968, A History of Macclesfield (Book). SCH73.

Macclesfield Industrial School, also known as the Ragged School and the Certified Industrial School, originated in 1858 when the Vicar of St. Paul's collected about a hundred vagrant or orphaned children and provided a school for them in a former wheelwright's workshop on Turnock Street. New premises were opened in Brook Street in 1866 comprising workshops and offices on the ground floor, a school room, dining room, and master's room on the first floor, and dormitories on the second floor. To the rear was a playground. In 1868 places were made available for children from the rest of the county who had been sentenced by the courts to prison. The school continued to provide care, education and industrial training for neglected children until the 1920s.