Hulme Grammar School, Chamber Road, Oldham

EARL SPENCER AT OLDHAM: OPENING OF THE HULME GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. The Right Hon. Earl Spencer, KG, First Lord of the Admiralty, paid a visit to Oldham yesterday and formally opened the Hulme Grammar Schools.  ….. Now the borough has within its own borders an institution which be of the highest value in affording secondary education for its sons. The schools have been built to accommodate 250 boys and 150 girls on a plot of land (about eight acres in extent), bounded by Chamber Road, Frederick Street, Hulme Street, and Windsor Road. The buildings are placed on the crown or the hill, with tube front to the south-west, overlooking Manchester. The largo space of land behind is for the boys for a playground for cricket and football, the land at the front is for the girls, and is intended to be laid out in terraces, with lawn tennis grounds, etc., for outdoor games. The basement floor contains a gymnasium, which will be used by the both, with dressing rooms for each, a workshop for the boys, and a recreation-room for the girls; separate dining-rooms are provided, and drying stoves for wet clothing, fitted up with radial horses. There are staircases to ground floor, one at each end, which, together with the corridors and gymnasium, are lined with glazed brick dados. On the ground floor are separate entrances, with offices or waiting rooms, private rooms for the use of the master and mistress, with lavatories, etc. to same.  The cloakrooms and lavatories for the boys and girls are placed near the entrances. There is a large central hall, capable of seating about 600 persons, with corridors around same on three sides, from which is access to the various classrooms, thirteen in number. All the classrooms have raised galleries. and are lighted from the left.  A space of 15 feet superficial and a separate desk is provided for each scholar. A chemical laboratory is provided and is fitted up with benches to accommodate 30 students working at a time, with a separate bench on a raised platform for the use of the master. There is also a preparation room adjoining the laboratory, and a chemical lecture hall. which has a raised gallery, with fixed benches for the students, and a large demonstrating table fitted up with the most modern appliances. The lavatories are in close proximity to the back entrances and are of easy access from the school and playgrounds. The style of building is Gothic (perpendicular), and built with Ruabon bricks, with red terra-cotta dressings in tracery labels, string courses, copings, etc. with heads and sills of stone. The roofs are covered with Welsh slates and ornamental roof ridges. The whole of the floors are concreted, and laid with wood blocks (except the entrances, which are tiled). All hollow floors hove steel Joists and girders, the corridors from the entrance on the ground floor have tiled dados, and the large hall and classrooms, &c., have dados in timber. The whole of the inside joiners' work is of the best selected red deal. stained and varnished. The whole of the rooms are heated by hot water, low pressure, having ornamental radiators fixed in different parts of the rooms and corridors. The lighting is on the Stott Thorp principle. with ornamental pendants and gasaliers. Ventilation is effected by fresh air inlets with Tobin's tubes, and with outlets in the ceiling connected with a large exhaust ventilator on the main roof of the hall, the outside of which is covered with copper, and forms a very attractive feature in the building. The work has been carried out from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr John W. Firth, architect, of Oldham. [Manchester Guardian 31 May 1895 page 6] 

".... placed upon the southern brow of the hill on which Oldham stands. It is beautiful for situation and will long form a landmark for miles of surrounding country. Its truly handsome hall and its delightful corridors and classrooms are charming embodiments of the beneficent spirit which directed the mind of William Hulme in making his bequest." [ Oldham Chronicle]

Foundation    Stone laid 16 September 1893 by Joseph Travis
Opened        30 May 1895

Reference    Builder 1895: I: 8 June 1895 page 439
Reference    Manchester Guardian 31 May 1895 page 6 - opening
Reference    Hulme Grammar School Oldham archive