| Description | Taylor Cadbury delivered this address describing the work of adult schools to a meeting of the Workers' Educational Association which was held at the University of Birmingham in November 1909. Addresses delivered at this meeting, including Taylor Cadbury's, were later published by J. H. Muirhead in his book 'Birmingham Institutions: Lectures given at the University' (1911).
In her address Taylor Cadbury describes the 'distinctive marks' of the Adult School Movement, remarking on the brotherly spirit which united members of adult school classes and the mutual helpfulness of the work undertaken in the schools. She provides a history of the Adult School Movement, tracing its origins to Birmingham and the work of the Methodist William Singleton in 1798. She also refers to the Quaker Samuel Fox who opened a Sunday School for adults in Nottingham and the work of other Quakers in Leeds before Joseph Sturge established the British School in Severn Street, Birmingham in 1845. In addition Taylor Cadbury remarks on the opening of the first Women's School in Ann Street, Birmingham in 1848 and the class started by William White in the city during the same year. She comments that it was 'impossible to estimate' White's value to the growth of adult schooling adding that her husband George Cadbury had been one of the three earliest adult school teachers in Birmingham alongside Samuel Price and Alfred Southall.
Taylor Cadbury comments on developments in adult schooling, referring to the Friends' first-day schools. Her address also features extracts from letters bearing testimony to the 'temporal and spiritual' benefits of the schools. She provides an account of buildings in Birmingham used to house the growing classes of students, such as the Bristol Street Council School, and describes the various clubs which had grown out of adult school work including social clubs, cycling clubs, sick clubs and coal clubs.
Taylor Cadbury's address also provides an insight into Birmingham politics during the late nineteenth century. She includes remarks about William White's role as Chairman of the 'Improvement Committee' appointed by the Town Council to oversee the implementation of Joseph Chamberlain's improvements to central Birmingham in 1875. Her address emphasises how men associated with adult schooling in Birmingham were aided in their public work by their adult teaching experiences.
Reflecting her own involvement in adult school work, Taylor Cadbury's address features a long section examining the work of adult classes established for women in which she describes the Central Women's School at the Priory Rooms in Birmingham. She also alludes to the importance of her cousin Hannah Cadbury (1830-1904) in this work as well as the role of the Midland Union.
Taylor Cadbury concludes her address by stating that 'all new schools open with the idea that they stand for education in the highest sense, of heart and mind and soul, which ultimately must be returned to the community in service'. She emphasises that the 'very centre' of adult school work was 'the development of the spiritual side of man'. |
| AdminHistory | Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury was involved in adult school work from a young age. She worked with girls engaged in professional employment in Paternoster Row in London and taught adult classes of women and men whilst undertaking voluntary work at a medical mission in Belleville, Paris during 1885. Following her marriage to George Cadbury (1839-1922) and subsequent move to Selly Oak, Taylor Cadbury began a class for the wives of the men who attended her husband's class at the Severn Street Adult School in Birmingham. Taylor Cadbury, her sister and daughters remained closely associated with the work of her women's class at Severn Street throughout her life. |