Board School. Tootal Road, Weaste

The memorial stone of the new Tootal Road Board School Weaste was laid on Thursday morning by Mr C Christopher Heywood MA MB member of the Salford School Board. The mayor presided over a large attendance of parents and the scholars of the temporary Board schools adjoining. Among those present on the temporary platform were the Revs A Parkinson and H F Radbourne, Dr Bradley, Dr lstenholme, Messrs J Broxap, RV Smith, Alderman Jenkins JP, Mrs McDougall, members of the School Board, the Rev C P Wilson(vicar of St Luke=s, Weaste) Dr Ray, Messrs O Duthie ( Clerk to the School Board), H E Stelfox (architect), G MacFarlane (contractor), R A Freeman (inspector of schools). The proceedings began with the singing of the hymn AO God our help in ages past,@ after which the Rev C P Wilson offer up prayer.

The school is to provide accommodation for 1,275 scholars in three separate departments viz., infants on the ground floor girls on the first floor, and boys on the second floor. At each end of the building are separated entrances and staircases leading to the various departments; with cloak rooms, lavatories, and a teacher=s room placed conveniently near in each case so as to command both cloak rooms and entrances. On each floor also are provided a store room for books and stationery, a caretaker=s room supplied with hot and cold water, hoist for coals and other requisites. The class rooms, seven in number on each floor, are grouped on three sides of the central hall, the fourth side being formed by an external wall with windows for light. Three of the classrooms are divided and separated from the central hall by folding partitions of wood and glass. In the boys= and girls= departments one classroom is to be specially fitted up for the teaching of elementary physics, accommodation for other special classes, such as manual instruction, cookery and laundry work, being provided in detached buildings. A caretaker’s cottage completes the scheme. The floors of the building are composed of cement concrete and steel joists, the upper layer being of specially composed breeze concrete, to which the boards will be nailed direct. All steps, landings lintels and beam casings will be of concrete composed exclusively of Portland cement and granite chippings, this being also used to fill in the hollow spaces in terra cotta blocks. The class rooms hall etc, will have a tiled dado and plaster above; the cloak rooms passages a staircase will have a salt glazed dado and plastic stock brick facings above. Externally the buildings, in the style of which the English Renaissance has been followed, are to be faced throughout with plastic red facing bricks, stone sills, and other dressings of Burmantoft’s terra cotta. The whole of the building will be excellently lighted by day and the electric light will be available when daylight fails. Heating will be by hot water on the low pressure system, ventilation by windows all being arranged to open for cross ventilation Tobin=s valve inlets in each class room, and extraction by means of vent flues and roof extractors. The buildings have been designed by Mr H E Stelfox ARIBA, Manchester, and are being executed under his supervision by Messrs G MacFarlane and Sons, also of Manchester.

The Mayor said a drive from the Salford Town hall to the new school showed the magnitude of the borough of Salford. The extension of that district and its great growth of population were really wonderful. He hoped the new schools would be a success and he had pleasure in asking Mr Heywood to perform the ceremony of laying the stone.

Mr Stelfox here presented to Mr Heywood a handsome silver trowel, and the builder, Mr MacFarlane, presented him with a mallet and level. The trowel bore the inscription “Presented to Mr C C Heywood by the architect on the occasion of him laying the memorial stone of the Tootal-road Board Schools, Salford. April 24 1902.”

Mr Heywood, after declaring the stone well and truly laid, said that this was the fourteenth public elementary school erected by the Salford School Board. The school was being built in order to make provision for the new population now living in the district. At the census in 1891 the population of the parish of St Luke’s, Weaste, was 6,126 whilst in the last census the population had risen to 17,145, an increase of 11,019 or nearly 200 per cent. According to the usual method of calculation, school places for nearly 2,000 children would be required to meet this increase in population. Pending the building of the permanent school a temporary school had been placed upon the site, at which there are now 419 children in attendance, the mixed department of the school being over-full. There would be no difficulty in filling the new school when it was completed, and it rested with them to make it one of the best schools the Salford School Board had ever had to manage. The new school was arranged in three departments, an infants’ department which provided accommodation for 395 being on the ground floor, a girls’ department for 440 on the first floor and a boys’ department for 440 on the second floor, making at total of 1,275. As the site covered 3,400 square yards the playgrounds would be ample in size, ad this was an important matter. The cost of the buildings, including the caretaker’s house, would be £15,738. They could not get a good building unless they paid for it, and it was the truest economy in the long run to get a good building.- applause.   Hearty cheers were the given and a vote of thanks was accorded to the Mayor on the proposition of Mr R V Smith, seconded by Dr Wolstenholme. The inscription on the stone was as follows: “This memorial stone of the fourteenth school erected by the Salford School Board was laid by C Christopher Heywood MA MB. Member of the School Board. April 24 1902.”

Reference    Manchester City News 11 May 1901 (tenders)
Reference    The Salford Chronicle Saturday 26 April 1902 - memorial stone