User:Ray3055/Ragged schools

as at Jan 2008 the current article makes no mention of the first school in London - also makes no mention of the London City Mission (1835) and events leading to formation of the Ragged School Union.

Thomas Cranfield

"Thomas Cranfield was more in the John Pounds mould. He was a tailor and former soldier. He had opened a Sunday school on Kingsland Road, London and in 1798 established a day school on Kent Street (close to London Bridge). He was a great organizer and by the time of his death in 1838 had ‘built up an organization of nineteen Sunday, night and infants’ schools situated in the foulest parts of London’ (Eagar 1953: 121). It was with the establishment of the London City Mission in 1835 (and its employment of paid missionaries and lay agents) that the ragged schooling got its name. The fifth annual report of the London City Mission (1840) reports the establishment in the previous year of five schools ‘formed exclusively for children raggedly clothed’ which a total of 570 children were attending. (Montague 1904: 34)"

Old Pye Street Ragged School - Westminster

This was opened in what had been the One Tun pub in Perkins Rents by Adeline Cooper in 1853 and moved to Old Pye Street (where it is marked by a blue plaque) in 1879 becoming a mission until 1930.

1839?

Charles Booth Archive: Interview with Mr A. J. Woodhouse, honorary secretary and treasurer of the One Tun Ragged School and Mission, Old Pye Street, Westminster. Contains printed sketch of mission building nd and annual report of mission 1897, 29 March 1899.

Field lane ragged school

Andrew Provan, a London City Missioner came to the ‘Field Lane’ area in 1841 to teach the children and young people the Christian gospel. So many children came to hear him and learn basic literacy to read the Bible themselves, that a committee was formed of friends and supporters of Provan. The Field Lane Ragged School was then founded. By 1860 the school was teaching up to 523 children and young people every day in one enormous classroom.

started 1841 - Charles Dicken's visit 1843 Field Lane

London Metropolitan archived material: http://www.a2a.org.uk/search/documentxsl.asp?com=1&i=1&nbKey=1&stylesheet=xsl\A2A_com.xsl&keyword=Ragged%20school&properties=0601

King Edward Ragged School

Started in a stable - H R Williams King Edward Ragged and Industrial Schools and Eastern Refuge in Albert-street, Brick-lane. [2]

• The Terrible Sights of London, by Thomas Archer, 1870 - Chapter 1 (pt.4)

Brook Street Ragged School - Hampstead

started 1843. Picture in Illustrated London News 1853 [3]

Law Magazine... 1853 Mr Ellis shoe-maker, also evidence of John MacGregor http://books.google.com/books?id=k88uAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA164&dq=Mr+ellis+shoemaker+brook+street+ragged+school#PPA166,M1

Lambeth Ragged School

Started in 1840s (1845?) by Harriet Beaufoy in a railway arch.

[4]

Charles Booth Archive: Interview with T.J. Briant, of the Lambeth Ragged School Society. Contains booklet entitled 'The Story of the Lambeth Ragged School Society 1845-1895' 1895, 1 August 1899

[5]

Lambeth Ragged School for Girls 1846 picture

The Lambeth Ragged School in Newport Street was built by Henry Benjamin Hanbury Beaufoy, FRS in 1851 as a memorial to his wife.

Illustrated London News: There are two large classrooms – one for boys and one for girls; ... The Ragged Schools were, 'calculated to accommodate about 800 children' and that this 'system' had taken 'many hundreds from a state of filth and misery and raised (them) to one of honourable independence.' At the Lambeth Ragged School's opening, Lord Ashley declared that, 'There was no reason whatever why Lambeth should not rescue itself from the present disgraceful opprobrium which attached to it,' and then, 'Let the great basis of all Ragged School teaching be true sound evangelical Protestantism. (Great applause) The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants. (Hear, hear)

George Yard Ragged School - Whitechapel

• Mr George Holland superintendent (owned George Yard)
• Rev Mr Thornton - incumbent of St Judes
• Secretary Mr Lewis (1861).

Was part of an old distillery - 400 children - mixed sex - daily meals

Boys tayloring, pages, tea meetings etc; Involved in sending boys to Canada

A record of work done for the Lord at the Ragged Schools George Yard,: High Street, Whitechapel, London, E., for the year 1876. annual meeting, held on April 25th, 1877

Charles Booth Archive: Interview with Mr George Holland, George Yard Mission and Ragged Schools, High Street, Whitechapel. Contains printed list of services, classes and meetings nd, printed annual report 1897, printed balance sheet 1896, 3 February 1898.

"Whitechapel," says Mr. Hollingshead, in his "Ragged London," in 1861, "may not be the worst of the many districts in this quarter, but it is undoubtedly bad enough. Taking the broad road from Aldgate Church to Old Whitechapel Church—a thoroughfare in some parts like the high street of an old-fashioned country town—you may pass on either side about twenty narrow avenues, leading to thousands of closely-packed nests, full to overflowing with dirt, misery, and rags." Inkhorn Court is an Irish colony, with several families in one room. Tewkesbury Buildings is a colony of Dutch Jews. George Yard contains about one hundred English families; the inhabitants are chiefly dock-labourers. The other half of the residents are thieves, costermongers, stallkeepers, professional beggars, rag-dealers, brokers, and small tradesmen. The Jewish poor are independent and self-supporting, and keep up the ceremonies of their nation under the most adverse circumstances. In one black miserable hut in Castle Alley a poor Jewess was found burning "the twelve months' lamp" for her deceased mother, although it was only a glimmering wick in a saucerful of rank oil.

From: 'Whitechapel', Old and New London: Volume 2 (1878), pp. 142-146. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45084. Date accessed: 20 February 2008.

C.T.STUDD His biography contains a beautiful story.

His father was extremely wealthy. C.T.Studd was to inherit a substantial amount of money. Now this took place in the 1880s, and at that time it amounted to £29,000. So far as he could judge, his inheritance was £29,000-00, but in order to leave margin for error he decided to start by giving away £25,000-00. One memorable day, the 13th January 1887, he sent off four cheques of £5000-00 each, and five of £1000-00 pounds each. He sent £5000-00 to D.L.Moody, he sent £5000 to George Muller, he sent £5000-00 to George Holland, in Whitechapel, " to be used for the Lord among His poor in London." He sent £5000-00 to Commissioner Booth Tucker for Salvation Army work in India. To others C.T.Studd sent £1000-00 each. In a few months he was able to discover the exact amount of his inheritance. He then gave some further thousands, mainly to the China Inland Mission and that left him with £3400-00.

Just before his wedding he presented his bride with this amount. She, not to be outdone, said, " Charlie, what do the Lord tell the rich young man to do ? " " Sell all."

" Well, then we will start clear with the Lord at our wedding." C.T.Studd took that remaining £3400-00 and gave it away to the Salvation Army. When they had given all their money away, C.T.Studd packed up his little wife and they went to Africa as missionaries for the rest of their days. My .... is that not the gift of giving ? Is that not how God ministers ? Think of what came out of that one man's gift ? China Inland Mission, ( Hudson Taylor ) George Mueller's orphanages, Salvation Army Extensions, and the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. That is how the Spirit of God operates !

York Place Ragged School

York Place Ragged School was founded in 1864 by the philanthropist and educationist Quintin Hogg (1845-1903), inspired by his observation of the poor in London. With Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird (1847-1923, later 11th Baron Kinnaird), he rented rooms in York Place (formerly Of Alley), off the Strand, for a boys' school, initially a day school, which subsequently began to open in the evenings. http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/hogg_early_days.htm

Fox Court Ragged School

5 Fox Court, mixed boys and girls, daily and Sunday. Ref: Town Swamps and Social Bridges (1859) http://books.google.com/books?id=Ww4HAAAAQAAJ&dq=Fox+Court+Ragged+School&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

Charles Booth archive: Interview with Mr Thomas Fagg, honorary secretary of Fox Court Ragged School and Mission. Contains printed photograph of Mr Fagg nd, printed sketch of ragged school building nd, printed extract concerning services nd, printed extract concerning school cash account 1897, 22 June 1898

Smithfield Ragged School - West Street

• The Ragged School, West Street (Previously Chick Lane),

George Cruikshank poster

1849/50: "I have the honour to transmit herewith the Chief Emigrant Agent's Return of Immigrants arrived at Quebec during the month of August, and the Abstract Quarterly Return for the quarter ending the 31st July.

I beg to call your Lordship's attention to the remarks therein made with respect to the 12 boys sent out by the Ragged School, in West-street, Smithfield. (Signed) Elgin & Kincardine

"On board the "Denham," from London, there were 12 boys sent out by the Ragged School, in West-street, Smithfield. Two of them proceeded, on arrival, up the country; the remainder, on receipt of their landing-money, went to lodgings in this city. Several of them have been employed in discharging and loading the vessel; four have shipped themselves as sailors, and have returned to England, and the remainder are now desirous of making a similar arrangement. In future, the passage of such parties should be secured as far as Toronto, or instructions should be given, authorizing the application of their landing-money to this object, otherwise they will remain in idleness about the city as long as their money lasts, and then endeavour to secure a passage back to England, defeating altogether the object for which they were sent out."

BUROSS STREET RAGGED SCHOOL & MISSION

BUROSS STREET, ST. GEORGES IN THE EAST, LONDON

Gray's Yard Ragged Church and Schools

Charles Booth Archive: Interview with A. G. Fraser, honorary secretary of Gray's Yard Ragged Church and Schools, Gray's Yard, James Street. Contains booklet - annual report 1896 - 1897, newspaper article entitled 'Homeless in London for 50 days' nd, invitation to the Mothers hour Gray Yard Mission nd, 24 February 1899.

Listed in Dickens list of charites (1880)

• FOX-COURT RAGGED SCHOOL, Hon. Sec., 5,Fox-court, Gray's-inn-rd.
• MILTON'S YARD RAGGED SCHOOLS AND MISSION, Master, Cloudesley-pl, Islington. For working boys and girls

Lord Shaftsbury

At his funeral at Westminster Abbey on October 8 1885 he drew vast crowds in a way not matched until the death of Diana, Princes of Wales in 1997.The eight pall-bearers were John MacGregor, H. R. Williams (King Edward Ragged and Industrial Schools) , Sir George Williams (founder of the YMCA), W J Orsman (Golden Lane Mission), Joseph George Gent (Hon. Secretary of the Ragged School Union from 1844 to 1879), William Williams (secretary of the Refuge for Homeless and Destitute Boys), George Holland (George Yard Ragged School), John Matthias Weylland (author of The Man with the Book, who served the London City Mission for forty years)

W J Orsman

Another East End worker was W. J. Orsman, a member of the Tabernacle and a recipient of funds from Spurgeon and other church members. Orsman's Golden Lane Mission was a multifaceted operation typical of urban mission work in Victorian London. Besides the church, Sunday school, and Bible classes, the Mission had a free day-school, provided free meals to the needy in winter, took children on summer excursions into the countryside, and ran a soup kitchen and a variety of clubs. Spurgeon incidentally disclosed his own method for working among the poor when he commended Orsman at the close of an article describing the Mission. From: [6]Urban Pilgrims and Pioneers: Charles H. Spurgeon and the Poor

H R Williams

In this vast neighbourhood one building stands out from its sordid surroundings, a striking example of what might be, if only the great London public could be made to see its deep necessity. Who has not seen that drop of water in the gas microscope - that one single drop of water, of which one rapid glimpse makes us recoil in horror, and go home to order a filter? Were it possible to flash upon the mental sight of the public a single glance of what one girl-child's life is, and will be, amongst the poor and depraved in Spitalfields and Whitechapel, we should all cry out to build a dozen more moral filters like the Girls' Refuge in Albert-street, and should take a more lively personal influence in a work intended to save our country from pestilence. Alas, this sight has been given but to a few; so that the one building, amidst all that teeming population, is not yet completed, and more buildings of the same kind are needed in order to carry on the work so successfully [-199-] begun, not by holding out a premium to negligent and even criminally indifferent parents, but by admitting those children who are now actually destitute, either through the desertion or the death of those on whom they were dependent. Twenty years ago this labour of love was begun by some ardent and yet patient gentlemen associated with Mr. H. R. Williams, the present treasurer of the institution. The commencement of the work was the formation of a ragged school in a dilapidated stable, the first building that could be procured; and after such sanitary improvements as could be effected were completed, that stable - not unsuggestive of a certain manger 'wherein the Infant lay' - was opened for instruction to the children and some of the grown people of the neighbourhood. There is no need to tell how the school grew into an influence; how by degrees funds were accumulated, and the first stone of the King Edward Ragged and Industrial Schools and Eastern Refuge in Albert-street, Brick-lane, was laid; how on the site of the stable a ragged church arose, where above a hundred boys assemble as a day-school, and where a congregation, less ragged perhaps than the first attendants, now go on Sunday evenings to hear something of God's love for them, having become not the less ready to believe it, inasmuch as they have learned a little of the love of their fellow-men. Let those who would see what may be done for the 'worst of London' pay a visit to the Refuge itself, for it is of the Refuge for girls that I now wish more particularly to speak.

John Matthias Weylland

Round the tower : or the story of the London city mission London : S. W. Partridge & Co., 1874? These Fifty years 'Bible Distributors and Works in London' [1884]

Ragged School Union

• Samuel Robert Starey

First Public meeting -

At its formation it was decided that its area of operations should be within a radius of twenty-four miles round Charing-cross; by far the larger number of schools being within a five miles radius, but five more districts at Hill Street in Croydon Old Town, at Gravesend, Brentford, Kingston, and Woolwich.

The objects were to encourage and assist those who taught in Ragged Schools and to help by small grants of money where advisable; to spread information about schools in existence and to promote the formation of new ones; to suggest plans for more efficient management of the schools and for instruction of the children of the poor in general; to visit the schools and observe progress; to encourage teachers' meetings and Bible classes; and to assist the old as well as the young in the study of the Word of God.

All teachers and superintendents representing ragged schools, and all subscribers of at least ten shillings per year could become members of the Union and have the privilege of attending its meetings.

The financial affairs are conducted by the managing committee, treasurer, and honorary secretary (to be elected at the annual meeting of the members), whose services are entirely gratuitous.

The Union does not interfere with the financial concerns or the internal management of particular schools, farther than to ascertain that any money granted by the union is applied to the purpose for which it is given; and those schools only are in union with this society where the admission is entirely gratuitous, the authorised version of the Scriptures used, and those children alone admitted who are destitute of any other means of instruction, while no denomination of evangelical Christians is excluded from its provisions.

1904 Diamond Jubilee -

Offices:

• 1844-1891 - No. 1 Exeter Hall, Strand, secretary, Mr. J. G. Gent. Outer office at no 13.
• 37 Norfolk Street
• 32 John Street, Theobolds Rd, WC

Presidents: Earl of Shaftsbury - till death in 1885, then Earl of Aberdeen, till 1893 when he bacame gov. gen. of Canada, then Earl Compton - Marquis of Northampton.

Hon Secs: 1844 - 1846? Mr Starey (was present at Jubilee in 1894) 1846 - 1863 (1879? - see John Kirk bio) Mr Locke retired to Margate 39-57 1849 - 1880 Joseph George Gent - asst to Mr Locke, then sec John Kirk - asst sec 1867, sec

Patrons: 1887 - The Queen

• http://sirjohnkirkbio1.blogspot.com/2005/09/chapters-iv-and-v.html

The Ragged School Union, began in 1844. The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury was its first president, which he actively remained for 39 years. During his chairmanship, it is estimated that 300,000 destitute children received free education. There was an emphasis on reading, writing, arithmetic and Bible study, but some schools also expanded to teach industrial and commercial subjects. Many of the schools developed to service the wider community. They organised evening classes for adults, provided hostel accommodation and food to homeless children, established sewing and knitting classes for women, and offered coffee and reading clubs and savings advice and Penny Banks to local people.

The Ragged School Union was renamed the Shaftesbury Society in 1914. It continued to provide services that met the needs of the people most marginalised by society.

Ragged School Magazine

First published Jan 1849. Monthly 1849- 1876. The Magazine changed its name in 1888 from the Ragged School Union Quarterly Record to The Record of The Ragged School and Mission Union. In 1896, it changed again and became The Record of The Ragged School Union and Shaftesbury Society. 1880 - Ed R J Curtis. [7] Jan 1908 - The Shaftsbury Magazine

Annual Prizegivings

ILN

London City Mission early work

David Nasmith and two friends. Nasmith had been involved in various religious improvement schemes and the establishment of city missions in Glasgow, Paris and New York. London City Mission began in a small terraced house by the canal in Hoxton. -- The aim was to work among the largely non-church-going populations of inner-city areas who had been neglected by churches. London City Mission quickly attracted support, and developed into one of the largest and most successful missions in the UK. Amongst other things, it pioneered and financed evangelists. The first paid missionary was Lindsay Burfoot http://www.infed.org/socialaction/london_city_mission.htm

• Campbell, John. Memoirs of David Nasmith: his labours and travels in Great Britain, France, the United States, and Canada. London: John Snow, 1844.

The YMCA in Glasgow, as we know it today is the result of an amalgamation in 1877 of two Societies. The Young Men's Society for Religious improvement and the Glasgow Young Men's Union. The former was founded in 1824 by David Naismith. This evangelist was born in Glasgow in 1799. "Following his death in 1839, it is recorded that in the United Kingdom, France, and America, he had been instrumental in establishing seventy Young Men's Societies". (Red Triangle News, 1924).

The Society became known as the Young Men's Christian Association in 1848, after a visit to the city of George Williams, who had founded the YMCA Movement in London in 1844. The other partner to the 1877 amalgamation (the Glasgow Young Men's Union) was formed in the city after a visit by the evangelist D. L. Moody, in 1873. This visit had many significant results for the religious life of Glasgow.

After the amalgamation in 1877, the YMCA, with the Scottish Sunday School Union and the Glasgow Foundry Boys Religious Society - moved into the new Christian Institute, which was being opened in Bothwell Street, in 1878. Ref:

• "History of YMCA Glasgow." http://www.ymcaglasgow.org/history.asp

External Links

http://www.infed.org/youthwork/ragged_schools.htm

Needs also to mention work of:

• Dr. Barnado
• Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts
• Charles Dickens

on Census - see GenDocs

Ragged School, Chicksand Street, WHITECHAPEL [1871] Ragged School, Wentworth Street, WHITECHAPEL [1871]

External Links

• List of schools

References

• Mayhew 1849-50:

Ragged Schools have been established in the following places: EASTERN DIVISION: Foster-street, Bishopsgate; Dolphin-court, Spitalfields; Vine-court, Spitalfields; Thrawl-street, Spitalfields; King-street, Spitalfields; Spicer street, Spitalfields; Goldsmiths'-row, Hackney-road; Twig-folly, Bethnal-green; King Edward-street, Mile-end; North-street, Whitechapel-road; Cumberland-place, Whitechapel-road; Lomas-buildings, Stepney; Cotton-street, Poplar; Bere-street, Ratcliff; Darby-street, Rosemary-lane. CENTRAL AND NORTHERN DIVISION: Field-lane, West Smithfield; Plumtree-court, Shoe-lane; Golden-lane, St. Luke's; Turk's Head-yard, Clerkenwell; Lamb and Flag-court, Clerkenwell-green; Vine-street, Liquorpondstreet; Fox-court, Gray's-inn-lane; Yeates-court, Clare-market; Brewers'-court, Great Wild-street; King-street, Drury-lane; Neales-yard, Seven-dials; Streathamstreet, St. Giles; Irish Free School, St. Giles's; Phillip's-gardens, New-road; Little Camden-street, Camden-town; Agar-town, St. Pancras-road; Compton-place, Judd-street; Ceram-place, Little Coram-street; Britannia-street, King's-cross; Elderwalk, Islington; Brand-street, Holloway; Phillip-street, Kingsland-road; Providence-row, Kingsland; Stoke Newington. WESTERN DIVISION: Westminster Juvenile Refuge and School of Industry, 56, Old Pye-street; New Pye-street, Westminster; Pear-street, Westminster; Broadway, Westminster; New Tothill-street, Westminster; Exeter-buildings, Chelsea; Camera- street, Chelsea; Temperance Hall, Hammersmith; Richmond-street, Lisson-grove; George~street, Lisson-grove; Paddington Wharfs; Huntsworth-mews, Dorset- square; Brook-street, New-road; Union-mews, Wells-street; Grotto-passage, Marylebone; Grotto-place, Marylebone; Hindes'-mews, Marylebone-lane; Edwards-mews, Portman-square; Gray's-yard, James-street; Hopkins-street, Golden-square. SOUTHERN DIVISION: Lambeth; Little East-street, Lambeth; Jurston-street, Lambeth Grove-lane, New-cut; Windmill-street, New-cut; Waterloo-road; Broadwall, Blackfriars; Chapel-place, Great Suffolk-street; John-street, Mint; Mitre-Court, Mint-street; Henry-street, Kent-street; Vine-yard, Tooley-street; Jacob-street, Dockhead; Deptford, Duncan-yard; Greenwich, East; Greenwich, West; Blackheath, Queen-street; Peckham, High-street; Camberwell, Nelson-street; Clapham, White's-square; Clapham, Union-street; Walworth, Crown-square; Newington, Francis-street.