| Description | On 12th August 1845, concerned by the behaviour of the men and teenage boys he saw in Birmingham's streets on Sundays, Joseph Sturge (1793 – 14 May 1859), a Quaker businessman, philanthropist, and campaigner, invited some of Birmingham's younger Quakers to his house in Wheeley's Road, Edgbaston to discuss whether they could establish an adult school for them. It was to be another 25 years before compulsory primary education would be introduced and many adults at this time had started work as young children so levels of literacy among the working classes remained low. Sturge had been impressed by a visit in 1842 to what is now seen as being the earliest of the adult schools, established in Nottingham in 1798, and he wanted to set up a similar school in Birmingham. The Nottingham school was run by a Methodist, William Singleton and subsequently taken over by a Quaker, Samuel Fox. Non-denominational classes took place on Sundays, teaching men and women reading and writing classes based on the Bible.
The group of Birmingham Quakers agreed that such a school should be established in the city and once a list of volunteer teachers had been drawn up and a set of regulations decided upon, a notice was printed and circulated inviting young men from the age of 14 and above to attend classes at the British School rooms in Severn Street on 12th October 1845. Twelve volunteer teachers welcomed over a hundred men and teenage boys on the first day.
In the first year of opening, attendance at the school was high throughout the winter months, but once summer came, it dropped dramatically. Sturge suggested that some of the teachers should visit his friend Samuel Fox in Nottingham to see whether any approaches and methods used at his successful adult school could be adopted at Severn Street. Following this visit, a number of changes were made. From April 1846, it was decided to alter the time of classes to Sunday morning, from half-past seven to half-past nine, and so the Early Morning School model which was to go on to thrive across numerous suburbs of Birmingham, was born. Classes were preceded by breakfast for the teachers at 7am in or near the school, kindly provided by Sturge, who regularly attended. Although he did not teach himself, he frequently accompanied the teachers and started the day's lessons by reading a chapter from the Bible.
Adults and teenagers were separated into two classes which followed the same format: writing was taught for the first hour, followed by a Bible reading from a teacher and a scholar and then time was spent on reading and spelling, with the last part of the lesson being reserved for the teacher to test the scholars. Weekday evening classes of arithmetic, geography and grammar were also available. The school had a small and popular lending library, which in 1847 comprised 350 books, and from 1848, a Savings Fund was established. Tea parties followed by lectures on a variety of subjects such as the solar system or chemical experiments took place for the scholars, as did excursions to the countryside. Administrative matters relating to the running of the school were dealt with at the Teachers' meeting, held once a month at Sturge's house.
Attendance improved once 'Reward tickets', valued at ½ d were introduced for scholars arriving punctually for 7.30. They could collect a number of these and exchange them to receive an equivalent value of copy books, Bibles and other suitable reading material. Punctuality was also an issue for teachers, who were subjected to fines of 1d, later increasing to 2d, if they were not on time for their class.
The teachers faced some opposition from some in the area around the school. A neighbouring vicar wrote to the Severn Street Adult School Committee, protesting at the teaching of writing on a Sunday. Despite such opposition, in 1848 Friends started a similar school for women and girls over the age of twelve on Ann Street (now Colmore Row), while men and teenagers continued to apply for places at Severn Street Early Morning School. The school's report for 1848 records that for that year there were 56 fourteen to nineteen year olds on the waiting list, some of whom had been waiting three months for a place. It goes on to explain that large class sizes were making teaching more difficult and that an insufficient number of Friends were willing to offer their services as teachers. This continued to be a problem for the following two years but additional teachers were found, and by 1850, 300 scholars were registered at the school, with an average weekly attendance of 213. By 1859, the year of Sturge's death, there were 535 scholars.
Severn Street Adult School went on to flourish throughout the remainder of the 19th century, with a membership of 3000 by the time of the School's jubilee celebrations in 1895. In some part, this expansion was due to the influential work of William White (see SF/2/1/1/13/12), who had become involved in Severn Street in 1848 as teacher of Class I, a position he held until his death in 1900. He not only worked to expand the adult school movement within Birmingham but also across the country. Women's Adult Classes had been established at the Priory from 1848 and in the 1880s Children's Classes were started. The classes soon outgrew their premises at Severn Street and from the 1870s, rooms were taken in the newly developed Board Schools around the city. As rooms were required all week to provide for the increasing number of activities, such as Meetings for Worship, Evening Meetings, temperance work, men's Social Clubs and Mothers' Meetings, these branch classes of Severn Street Adult School wanted their own premises which they could use all week. This led to a number of purpose built sites being built and by 1908, there were 40 Friends Early Morning Schools in Birmingham and its suburbs, known as the Severn Street Schools, 26 of which had their own premises.
Between 1845 and 1901, the schools were managed by the Severn Street Teachers' Meeting. From 1901 it was decided that this function would be taken over by the Severn Street Adult School Council. The Council consisted of around 200 members, half of whom were members of the Severn Street Teachers' Meeting, and half of whom were elected representatives from each of the branch schools. The schools in Severn Street Council were also affiliated to the Midland Adult School Union.
Numerous members of the Religious Society of Friends, including those from the Baker, Sturge, Shorthouse, Wilson, Morland, Cudworth, Lloyd, Southall, Glaisyer, Barrow, Cadbury, Southall, Darby, Littleboy, Tangye, Pumphrey, Gibbins, King, Albright, and Impey families were involved with the adult school movement across Birmingham. A list of teachers up to 1895 can be found in 'The Story of Severn Street and Priory First Day School' by William White, 1895, pp119-127.
See SF/2/1/1/13 for additional records of Severn Street Adult Schools, and SF/3/15 for records of Moseley Road Adult School. |