| Description | A Men's Early Morning Class was started in 1890, meeting in a disused malt-house near the Bell Inn on Bunbury Road, Northfield. While not a branch school of Class XIV Bristol Street division of Severn Street Adult Schools, Northfield Adult School was supported by those working with Class XIV. Severn Street Christian Society, an organisation offering non-denominational meetings for worship to adult school members and their families across Birmingham, soon established a Northfield branch with an Evening Meeting for worship.
In 1892, Northfield Friends' Institute, located off Bunbury Lane, was opened. This building was commissioned by George Cadbury (1839-1922) to house the Men's Early Morning School and by 1899, as well as the main hall, it comprised a post office, a temperance coffee-house, a social club and school rooms. A number of activities took place at the Institute, including a Men's First Day Early Morning Class, taught by George Cadbury Junior (1878 - 1954), a Young Men's Class, a Children's Meeting, a Children's School, a Teachers' Preparation Class, a Band of Hope, a Young Women's Bible Class, a Women's Class run by Elizabeth Cadbury (1858 - 1951) with help from Edith Morland and Gladys Naish, and a Missionary Helper's Union. In the winter there were lantern lectures, and the Institute operated a lending library and a book club. Provident sick societies and savings funds were also available to members. Collections were often made for good causes at the end of the Adult School Meetings, for example during the First World War and in the years after the war there were collections for Serbian Refugees, the Red Cross, the European Famine Fund and also the 'Cripple Children's Home' in Northfield.
Louis Barrow was President of Northfield Adult School for 21 years until 1931, and in that year he had been a member of the Adult School for 26 years. He continued as Vice-President and was still a member at the age of 80. During World War One, he arranged for circular letters to be sent to scholars in the armed forces and Friends Ambulance Unit. Parcels were also sent and included chocolate and copies of the Bournville Works Magazine. From 1923, he took groups of men away to North Wales each Whitsun.
Other Presidents included William Davis, Bernard Shewell, Wilfred Shewell and John Herbet. Vice-Presidents were Hotham Cadbury and John A. Tuckey, and the Secretary for many years was W. Townsend. George Cadbury Junior was appointed Secretary of the Northfield branch of the Christian Society in 1900.
In the second half of the 20th century, Northfield Institute was passed to Birmingham City Council's Education Department and the Adult School moved to Northfield Quaker meeting house.
See MS 703/3/20/1/2/1 for a history of Northfield Adult School by John A. Tuckey, typescript, 1940. |