Chapter 22

Education

Before the 1870 Act brought compulsory education, academic learning was only for the few. Except for that provided at the old Grammar School the process was largely haphazard, confined to the upper classes and mainly for boys – though not entirely so, for when W. Gell toured the Lakes in 1797 he spent an evening on Crummock Water when

• “we rowed two of the village maidens and a friend of theirs whose nicer feelings, for she had been educated in Cockermouth, could neither bear the motion of the boat, or the landing on the new island where the grass was not perfectly free from dew”. [I]

Apparently, a Cockermouth education had its disadvantages! The survey of religious houses, etc., which Henry VIII had made in 1546 includes the entry

• “Cockermouthe. A stipendarye in the parishe there used to kepe and teach a grammar schole there and to pray for the soulle of the founder for ever. Rowland Noble, incumbent and master of the said schole, of thage ofxxxvj yeres, hathe the clere yerely revenue of the same for his salarie … Cxvj s. (£5.80)” [2]

In 1676 the free grammar school was built where All Saints Church Rooms now stand, subscribed for by some or all of Philip Lord Wharton, Sir George Fletcher, Sir Richard Graham, Doctor Smith (the Dean but later Bishop of Carlisle), Richard Lowry and Richard Tubman. An inscription over the door ofwhat was an outstandingly good building for the town at that time read

” SCHOL : HUJUS FUND:

JACT: FUERENT XXV DIE

MENSIS MAIJ AN DOM:

MDCLXXVI”

viz: “The foundations of this school were laid on 25th day of the month of May 1676 “[3] (Plate 20).

The Rev. Gaven Noble, assistant master at Appleby, came to Cockermouth as master of this new school, becoming also vicar of All Saints from 1679 to 1691. Part of a tablet in the school, which has been incorporated in the porch of the present church rooms, reads:

“Has aedes pulchras cum postera viderit aetas

Et Lowry et Tubman sit grate utrique Richardo,

Ultima cujus habet superscriptum linen nomen

Hajus erat prima gymnasiarcha scholae.

GAVENUS NOBLE, 1676″.

This translates as “When posterity sees this beautiful building give thanks to Lowry, Tubman and Richardo. The first master of the school – Gaven Noble 1676.”

However, there must have been some school between the backward look of “used to keep’ in 1546 and the opening of 1676. As early as 1554 Henry Fletcher, vicar of Towne-Malling and brother of William of Cockermouth Hall, left £80 in his will for a schoolmaster at Cockermouth. [4] A list of church possessions in 1673 has several references to endowments and equipment of the school. In 1672 lOs. was paid for “rent of Schoole”, suggesting that it used a hired room or possibly met in the church. This was the opinion of a West Cumberland Times leader – “Before 1676, the year the school was built, there was a free grammar school in Cockermouth, which lacked an appropriate habitation”. [5] In 1717 the income was £26-15s. per year – £10 from Fletcher Vane, impropriator of the living; £5 from Mrs. Fletcher of Tallentire; £5 from the Duke of Somerset; £5 from house rents; 35s. interest. By 1847 the endowments were £24-3s-1d., including 6s-8d. from Embleton, for the school was the Free School of Cockermouth and Embleton. For some years Lord Lonsdale added another £10 to the tithe money which came via him. [6] In 1869 a national Schools Enquiry Commission reported on endowed grammar schools and went into considerable detail on the running and accommodation of the Cockermouth school, and of the difficulties which confronted the newly appointed master.

• “The endowment is small. … Some small payments are made by the churchwardens to the master .. which have amounted to about £ 15 in the last three years. The school had sunk very low when the present master was appointed, and the yard or playground had been appropriated by the inhabitants of the neighbouring cottages. He has, however, begun to raise it in the estimation of the townspeople …. few boys .. but the numbers are increasing …. 15s. per quarter for ‘reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, and history” for boys under 12 years of age. For boys above that age instruction in the classics … one guinea a quarter. French, music and drawing are ‘extra subjects’. Boys from a distance may be lodged in the town with persons approved by the master … 8s. per week. The master may take boarders, but at present has no house, none being attached to the school. The school buildings are very old and weather-beaten, but are sufficiently comfortable inside …. This ought to be a good school … A body of trustees should be chosen out of the magistrates and landowners of the neighbourhood …..” [7]

The school building was within the church grounds and its whole life very much under church influence, the Bishop of Chester granting “licence and faculty to teach and instruct Children in the Art of Grammar, Writing, Arithmetick, and other lawful and useful learning in the free School in Cockermouth“, the master to teach the catechism every week in Latin or English and to take the children to church every Sunday and Festival Day. [8]

The hopes of the Commission seem to have been realised to some extent, for in 1875 the local press complained that the school’s prize-giving and entertainment held in the large room of the New Auction Company was overcrowded. [9] A press advertisement of the same year stated that the curriculum included preparation for Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations, Professional and Commercial pursuits and Universities. [10] It was only after two government commissions had reported in the 1860s that the narrow curriculum of all grammar schools began to be broadened, some science, literature and commercial arithmetic gradually being added. In some ways the curriculum of a private girls’ school was more related to life, the study of art, music and literature being regarded as a necessary preparation for marriage. The school did have some old boys who made names for themselves – Wordsworth, Fearon Fallows astronomer royal and Fletcher Christian of the ‘Bounty’ mutiny amongst them. Little seems to have been done to improve the building. As far back as 1828 the Charity Commissioners had described the schoolhouse as “very old and requiring repair”, The 1869 report above describes it as old and weatherbeaten and a few months before the 1875 prize giving two boys had fallen through the floor when a rotten beam gave way. [11] A vestry meeting was called in April 1875 to discuss rebuilding but five years later it was still described as “a dilapidated apology for a school”. [12] It is significant that about 1880 the town was trying to acquire Wordsworth House from Lord Lonsdale for use as a grammar school. [13] In 1895 the building, already disused and the school apparently ended, was conveyed by the Charity Commissioners to the vicar and churchwardens of All Saints Church, the endowment to be paid to the schoolmaster during his life. There was strong opposition to a suggestion that the endowment be transferred to S1. Bees school, as Cockermouth people still hoped that the grammar school might be revived. [14]

The records of the Senhouse family, who in the 1700s sent their children to Cockermouth School (later generations went to Hawkshead and St. Bees), show that, at least for some periods, there was provision for girls as well as boys. The family accounts for 1735 include £14-5s. for two years boarding and drugs for Billy; £6-19s-3d. for Joe’s boarding, books and shoes; and six guineas for boarding Kitty, Joe and Nanny, including the cost of their inoculation. The basic payment was a guinea a year for teaching, with up to a guinea entrance fee for children of ‘respectable parents”, “the children of the poor nothing but the cockpenny“. The ‘cockpenny’ was 5s. [25p] for a Senhouse in 1750. [15]

Earlier in the century, Bishop Gastrell wrote that “ye curates who teach school have only twelve pence p. quarter, with the addition of whittlegate (board in parishioners’ homes) and ‘harden Sark (a coarse shirt), the right to keep sheep on the common and the cockpenny and any other income possible from the schools.” Collingwood commented that a schoolmaster in Cumberland had a poor life, possible only to a native! [16]

At the opening of the 19th century there were three types of school – the public schools for the few, giving a classical education and noted for bad discipline; the old endowed grammar schools, such as Cockermouth School, many of which were in a state of decay; and privately run schools catering chiefly for the dissenting middle class, with better discipline and offering a more scientific and more modern education. Also at this time were beginning two systems of schooling which developed side by side throughout the country in the 19th century. The British Schools, run by the free church organisation of the British and Foreign School Society and offering undenominational Bible teaching, were soon followed by the National Schools, developed as a counter-measure by “The National Society for the Education of the Poor according to the Principles of the Church of England” . Cockermouth’s British School was in Market Street [17] and, apart from a comment in 1847 that it was well attended, no records appear to exist The National School began in New Street and this we shall consider presently. As the century progressed an increasing number of private schools opened in the town. Jollie in 1811 mentioned three schoolmasters, Parson and White have nine ‘academies’ in their directory of 1829 and Mannix and Whellan 11 schools in 1847, including the Grammar, British, National and Union (workhouse) schools. At various times there were a day classical and commercial school in Globe Lane, a ladies’ boarding and day school in Castlegate, a ladies’ seminary in Moorfield House and Mr. J.S.R. Rodham’s high-class school for young gentlemen at Weston Lodge in Brigham Road, with accommodation for a limited number of boarders. Moving into the 20th century, Harford School was in the clinic building in Crown Street, then moved to Norham House and later to St. Helen’s School, the girls to be seen walking in formation in the town in their brown uniforms. At first only children of professional people were admitted to Harford, but the owners were forced to widen the intake to include those of tradesmen. Fees were at one time £3 a term, with astronomy and Latin amongst the subjects taught.

Returning to the 19th century, the government first showed an interest in education when it made a grant of £20,000 in 1833 to the British and National Societies, both of which used the cheap monitorial system – each child cost about 16s-6d. a year. Parliamentary grants and interest increased, until the unfavourable report of a commission on education resulted in the Education Act of 1870. This act made education compulsory and also legislated for the setting up of school boards to provide primary education where the efforts of the voluntary societies were found to be insufficient. In the next 20 years attendance was quadrupled, absence being punishable by fine from 1876. The immediate result in Cumberland was that the ratio of 38 children to one teacher in 1851 rose to 53 in 1871,[18] but gradually fell during the next 20 years as more teachers were trained. In spite of compulsion a quarter of the county’s children still had no regular education, largely because of the growth of industry and the value to parents of their children’s earnings. Many who did attend were over-worked, undernourished, badly clothed and too tired to benefit.

Even before the 1870 Act Cumberland seems to have a good record in education, in spite of some short-comings, to judge from marriage statistics. In 1839-45 forty one per cent of those marrying in England and Wales were unable to sign their names in the register, but Cumberland couples did much better than this with 26%, second only to London. The proportion continued to improve – down to 23.4% in 1861 and 21.6% in 1871. [19]

Under the Act a school board of seven members was elected for Cockermouth. [20]

The School Board rate was 3d. in the pound. The clerk was paid a salary of £15 per year with an additional £ 15 for his duties as attendance officer. The Board met fortnightly and one of its first decisions was to take over New Street schools, [2]] from which the National School had recently moved to new premises in Kirkgate. The arrangement was made that the buildings should be used for elementary education from Monday to Friday, for which the Board would pay a nominal rent of Is a year and do all repairs, and that the Vicar and Churchwardens of Christ Church should use them on Saturday and Sunday. However, the New Street premises with their accommodation for 325 proved too small, as places were needed for 230 girls and for a similar number of boys. Additional accommodation had to be found. There were in March 1874 ten private schools in the town, including four dame schools. [22] These ten were asked to make returns of their facilities, etc., which the dame schools with their unsuitable accommodation and inefficient instruction were understandably reluctant to provide. The most hopeful solution to the problem was to use the schools of Miss Harley and Miss Garnett for 50 and 38 girls respectively and the government inspector was asked to visit them, as a result of which they were approved by the Education Department. Also the Board informed the parents of five to seven-year- olds attending dame schools that they must transfer them to efficient elementary schools, but they relented over this as it would have caused hardship to the four women who earned a living this way. Dame schools had one attraction for children over other schools – crowded round the ‘dame’ in a small room they kept warmer!

The early days of the Board were not without difficulties. Relationships with All Saints National Schools were very strained. The Board paid All Saints 3d. per child per week. The All Saints fee was 4d., but the Board was legally limited to 3d. At meeting after meeting the question arose of the selection of children by All Saints. If a number arrived for admission they chose the brighter and cleaner ones, sending the others to New Street or Fairfield on the pretext that All Saints was full. They were even accused of expelling dull and dirty children, for the Board schools to take, in order to make room in All Saints for more promising applicants and of simply refusing to admit dirty children when there was room for them.

A further persistent problem was attendance, some scholars being very irregular. Monday was the worst day. Mr. Black, headmaster of New Street, reported 62 absences on a June Monday in 1874 they were helping to herd sheep and cattle at the market. Other factors working against regular attendance were the demands of the farms on which many of the children lived and the lack of boots and decent clothing of the poorer pupils. In July 1876 there were in the town 879 children aged from 5 to 13 and another 438 under five, 658 were boys and 659 girls. The returns showed that 112 were attending All Saints, 211 New Street, 87 Fairfield, 31 Miss Harleys and 27 Miss Gamett’s. The efficient private schools of Mr. Haughton, Mr. Rodham, Miss Shaw, Miss Naisbit, Miss Wise and Miss Herd had another 79, while the dame schools of Mrs. Brough, Mrs. Shearman, Miss Wilson and Miss Fletcher had a total of 94. Only 21 children over five were not at school, but against this apparently satisfactory state must be remembered the poor attendance of many who were registered.

These were the days of payment by results and 149 children at New Street were presented for examination in 1875, of whom 133 passed in reading, 90 in writing and 113 in arithmetic. Grants due totalled £l61-6s-ld. The inspector’s remarks on the mixed school (above infant age) included:

• “… numbers largely increased … great Improvement.. .evidently been conducted with vigour and ability .. .improvement in arithmetic very marked …spelling still weak in the second and in lower part of the third standard … handwriting of the lower standards too small … Great care should be taken to induce children to come to school with clean hands and faces … The pupil teachers have done their papers well, and are efficient in their school duties ..” [23]

There were also suggestions about improvements to the premises and equipment. At one time this examination of pupils decided whether they could leave at 11 or had to remain until 12 years old, a matter of interest to parents who needed their earnings.

When faced with the problem of accommodation the School Board considered in March 1874 the site of Wilson’s hat factory, recently offered to the Local Board of Health, but it was rejected because of the noise of the nearby street and market. Attention was turned to the Fair Field, but the Local Board at first refused to sell as there was doubt about the legality of such a sale. However, a quarter of an acre was sold for a school site for £400, with another £300 being paid for land adjoining for a schoolmistress’s house.

The purpose of the latter was that her presence would reduce broken windows and other damage, but the house was finally omitted from the scheme on grounds of economy.

The girls’ school was erected at a cost of £1800 in 1875 and formerly opened in April 1876 as “Fairfield Girls Board School” with a fee of 3d. per week including books and apparatus. There were seven applicants for the position of mistress, which carried a salary of £90 per year. There was also an assistant mistress, and a sewing mistress was appointed to teach for 1 Yz hours on each of three days a week for £13 a year.

The boys needed more room and a boys’ school was opened on the Fairfield site in 1884, the cost being about £3,300. The boys left New Street and by the end of the year plans had been submitted by the Primitive Methodists for converting the building to a chapel.

The accommodation on the Fairfield site was now 465, but the girls were still short of classroom space in their building and had to sit so near the fires that it was necessary to rotate round the rooms. A public meeting in the Court House on 24 March 1887 decided to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee by buying 550 square yards of land to enlarge the playground of the girls and infants, to enlarge two classrooms and to possibly build a caretaker’s house with a cookery room in the basement. [24] A voluntary rate was agreed, but there were difficulties in collecting it so the scheme was passed to the School Board. The house was not built, but the playground and sanitary accommodation were improved, the smaller classroom enlarged and the seating rearranged in the larger one, the extension bearing the words

• “This school was enlarged in the Jubilee Year of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria. 1887.”

The reference to rearranging seating implies that the seats were fixed and tiered as they were also in the infants school – the ground floor of the 1884 block, of which the boys occupied the upper floor. The buildings had accommodation for 700 children – 250 boys upstairs, 200 infants downstairs and 250 girls in the single-storey block. Average attendances at the turn of the century were 220 boys, 200 girls and 180 infants. [25] (Plate 21).

The area of Fairfield has been gradually nibbled away by the auction mart, school buildings, a car park and a small office block and in 1970 the juniors from Fairfield School began to move into a new building which occupied the remaining area of the once public field, this new school for 320 being completed in February 1971. This development was disputed as it took common land and blocked rights of way, one of which through the school grounds has been restored. Most of the original buildings were taken over by the infants school, with accommodation given as 181. Not until 1977 did the infants acquire indoor toilets. The boys and girls of junior age have for long been joined in one school, but the infants still remain separate under their own headmistress.

Meanwhile the National School of All Saints continued. The New Street schools had been built in the 1840s largely through the efforts of Rev. Charles Southey, son of the poet laureate. At first only partly filled, numbers had increased until a new building became necessary and the Kirkgate school was erected in 1869 for about £2000 on land given by Lord Leconfield. Additional rooms were added on this site, but in 1973 the school moved again, to a new building at the end of Slatefell Drive.

St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic School began in premises adjacent to the church in Crown Street in 1877. The first page of the log book reads

• “1877 May 4th. This school was opened on Monday April 30th. by Annie Couleham (3rd. class) The school apparatus provided at that time consisted of Two sets of Reading Books, Copy Books, Dictation Books, Grammar and Geography Books for Standards II, Ill, IV, with slates, pencils, pens, maps, Reading Sheets, and Form, Colour and Animal Sheets for Infants. About fifty-four children presented themselves for Admission the first morning.” [26]

The school moved to new premises on The Level in 1967 and now has accommodation for about 112 pupils. Until 1959 girls from all schools in the area attended cookery classes in the Fairfield building and the boys had woodwork in a hut on the small plot of ground opposite what was formerly “the gun shop” by Jubilee Bridge. The numbers taking part in the 1887 Jubilee procession [27] and tea show the various school sizes ;

Industrial School for boys – 120

Workhouse School Flimby – 90

Dovenby and Bridekirk – 200

St. Josephs – 100

All Saints National – 350

Fairfield Board – 700

Private schools of Miss Harley, Mr. Rodham, etc. – 100

As far back as 1785 a Vestry meeting record referred to seats in church for children from the Charity and Sunday Schools and in 1809 a school of industry was established to provide education for 30 poor girls. [28] For boys the Cumberland County Industrial School was opened in 1881 by the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt. [29] This stood in Grayson Close at the corner of Lorton Road and Strawberry How Road (and still stands as the Cockermouth Grammar School); in 1891 staff and boys totalled 173 . The cost of the building and part of the maintenance grants came from county rates, there being a government grant towards maintenance. Management was by a committee of county councillors, the school being under a superintendent and matron (a husband and wife appointment) and education under a schoolmaster. In addition to general education the boys, sent there by the courts for vagrancy or crime, were taught a trade – tailoring, carpentry, boot and shoe repairing, etc. The school’s band was well known. The upper floor consisted of long dormitories in the front portion and the two wings, with small rooms for staff strategically placed. On the ground floor were the craft rooms, later converted to school laboratories, etc., the laundry for example becoming part of the art . room. The number of Cumberland children in the school decreased and it was closed at the end of March in 1921. The various suggestions for the future use of the premises will be mentioned shortly. Meanwhile developments had been taking place in the country’s educational system which affected Cockermouth. In 1902 School Boards were abolished and education passed to council control. Aid was given to old grammar schools and to Anglican and Catholic elementary schools to improve their standards. The leaving age was gradually raised.

Secondary Education

We have seen that the town was reluctant to lose its grammar school at the end of the 19th century. In 1918 a secondary school was proposed as a memorial to E. L. Waugh, for at that time any pupil wishing for more than elementary education had to travel to either Keswick or Workington. The decision regarding the Waugh Fund was that the £1550 raised should be invested in War Bonds, bringing an income of £77-10s. a year to be used to provide scholarships for Cockermouth children to attend Workington Grammar School. [31]

When the Industrial School closed in 1921 there were a number of suggestions for the use of the premises. The Cumberland Education Committee said that a teachers’ training college was needed in the county. [32] Dr. Morrison, medical officer, had a scheme to use them as an institution for children mentally and physically handicapped; [33] a home for delicate children was required and Cockermouth parents and the staffs of local schools wanted a secondary school, emphasizing that although this would need a penny rate there would be a great saving on fares paid for children attending Workington and Keswick Schools. [34] These schemes were discussed for some years, then finally in 1926 Lord Eustace Percy, President of the Board of Education, approved of conversion to a secondary school and visited the building himself. [35] The County Council postponed conversion because of lack of funds, but in February 1929 approved expenditure of £4000 for adaptation. [36] It was opened later the same year as Cockermouth Secondary School by Canon A. Sutton. with a board of 14 governors and Mr. Macintosh as headmaster.

In its first session the school was awarded five out of the six County Minor Scholarships granted to pupils already attending secondary schools. [37] It opened with 38 pupils, rising to 78 the next year, 250 in 1938 and reaching a peak ofabout 550 in the 1960s. It served Maryport as well as the Cockermouth area until reorganization in Maryport, in 1967, after which there were no further Maryport admissions and the existing Maryport scholars gradually worked out at the top of the school.

Fees in state schools were ended in 1944, the 11+ system of selection for grammar, technical or modem schools came in, and the first comprehensive schools appeared in the late 1940s.

From 1958 secondary education in the town was concentrated in two schools – Derwent School and the Grammar School, although some children travelled to St. Joseph’ s Roman Catholic School in Workington.

Consequently Fairfield, All Saints and St. Joseph’s became primary schools, losing their older age groups and each, except Fairfield Infants, acquiring new buildings in 1970, 1973 and 1967 respectively. The Derwent School was opened as a secondary modem school in 1958 with 510 places, soon greatly increased by extensions and portable buildings. [30] From 1968 all children transferred from the primary schools to Derwent School at eleven. Those who wished to went to the Grammar School at 13+, parental choice being helped by staff guidance. In 1984 the two schools joined to form one comprehensive school, ‘Cockermouth School’, It functioned on the two sites while an extensive building programme increased accommodation on Castlegate Drive, opened by Richard Wordsworth on 23rd April 1991. The Strawberry How site finally closed in July 1991. After several further building developments, Cockermouth School in 2006 has some 1400 pupils on roll, with more than 260 in the Sixth Form; it has a very high standing in the country’s league tables.

In 2003 the school was awarded Specialist Status in Maths and Computing. This resulted in an additional £700k from the Department for Education and Skills being available for the school over the next four years.

In 2006 the Eco Centre was completed. The 550 sq m building is an exemplar of sustainable design, using a wide variety of recycled materials in its construction and created a teaching facility that is incredibly advanced with 10 teaching pods supported by ICT facilities. In addition, there are four Biomes where it will be possible to replicate various types of ecosystems including arid, alpine and wet climates. This facility will be used not only by the school, but the wider community thanks to a multifunctional teaching space/auditorium with a capacity for 250 people, where it will be possible to stage events such as plays and meetings for larger community groups.

Continuing Education

The industrial revolution brought a desire for literacy and knowledge of science. The Cockermouth Literary and Scientific Society was founded in 1871 to promote the study of literature and science by means of communication, papers and discussions. [38] It held meetings in the Court House. In 1877 art classes were being held on Saturday afternoons in a room of the YMCA, attended by artisans, pupil teachers, etc. [39]

The 1880s saw the formation of the Cockermouth Lecture Society [40] and about the same time (in 1882) the Wordsworth Literary and Scientific Society (known as the Wordsworth Institute) began. In premises later used as a betting office behind 60 Main Street it arranged lectures and provided classes in elocution, languages and shorthand. later moving about 1921 to Christ Church Rooms. The Institute was run in connection with the South Kensington Museum of Science and Art. [41]

The Cockermouth branch of the Workers’ Educational Association [42] was formed in 1923 and in 1939 found a permanent home in the upstairs back room of Regent House in Main Street, formally opened by the Cumberland Director of Education. G.E. Brown, on 2nd December. Classes were held here until the move to the Derwent Centre. The WEA has always sought to provide courses of a serious nature philosophy, politics, economics, comparative religion etc. -as well as more popular study of topics such as local history and nature.

Higham Hall

is a residential adult college (since 1975) and is situated in a beautifully restored 19th century Gothic mansion with well tended gardens and spectacular views of Skiddaw and the Northern Fells. Owned and run by Cumbria County Council as a non-profit making organisation, it receives no subsidy and thus is self-financing. Approximately 3000 people enrol each year on 250 courses from one-day Study Sundays and intensive weekends, to week long summer schools. Higham was originally built by railway pioneer, Thomas Hoskins in 1828 as a grand county house but has also seen service as a youth hostel and a girls boarding school.

University of the Third Age (U3A)

A nation-wide development, the Third Age Trust was formed in the UK in 1982; this came from beginnings in France in 1972. The purpose of U3A is to encourage lifelong learning for those no longer in full-time gainful employment. Contrary to popular belief, it does not receive any support from the universities themselves. Members have skills to organise and teach on their own autonomous learning groups -no qualifications are required and none given.

Local groups have formed throughout the country -by February 2006,574 groups with a total of 153,443 members. In addition to groups pursuing learning topics under their own steam, U3A groups generally have monthly meetings with speaker input, coffee morning meetings and visits to places of interest. The Cockermouth group formed in 1998, and in 2006 had over 450 members with at least 26 activity groups operating.

All Saints’ Learning Centre

started life as a community development centre (CDC) under the Cumbria CREDITS initiative. This is a network of centres across the county aiding community development by providing, initially, training in IT. The original CDC was set up in the front of All Saints’ Primary School. From 1997 to 2003, hundreds of learners passed through the Centre developing new skills. In 2003, the Centre moved into a new purpose-built building just across the other side of the car park from the school. The new facility boasts state of the art equipment in an environment that promotes learning. The architect designed exterior of the building may have raised a few eyebrows but the peace and calm of the interior has earned the admiration of everyone who has been in the place. The new facility has a multi-purpose teaching room with a Dolby Digital sound system and room for up to 24 people in a conference setting, a video conferencing facility and, of course, a comprehensive LT.Training Room with provision for 12 learners. There is also a mini cyber cafe in the reception area and these PCs can be hired on an hour by hour basis. The whole Centre uses ‘broadband’ technology to access the internet. The new building and equipment was financed by the government via its UK On line initiative.

Adult Education

Cockermouth School houses The Derwent Centre for further education, one of the first (1959) of a considerable number of such centres developed in the county when Gordon S. Bessey was Director of Education. A very wide range of classes and activities is provided by the Centre and many of the societies in the town – choirs, Workers Educational Association, Young Farmers’ clubs, etc., etc. – meet there and make use of its facilities. There is also a Youth Club in a separate building. The whole of this community school is normally under the direction of the head teacher, but in practice the running of the Centre is delegated to the Adult Education Tutor and of the Youth Club to the Leader.

Examples of other organisations currently providing lecture series during the winter months are – the Cockermouth Civic Trust, [43] – these usually being on subjects of particular local interest, – the Cumberland Nature Club which at one time used the Bridge Street Rooms, – the West Cumbria Group of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

More restricted in membership were ventures such as the reading room opened in 1874 in a Crown Street house for the employees of Derwent Mills. [44] Also back in the 19th century we may note a series of 12 cookery lessons provided in the Public Hall in the spring of 1878. [45]

No survey of continuing education would be complete without considering the outstanding contribution of the Cockermouth Mechanics’ Institute. The first such institute, aiming to teach science to working men by means of lectures, was opened in London in 1823 and had 900 at its first lecture a good illustration of the thirst for knowledge! By mid-century there were 700 such institutes.

The Cockermouth MI was formed in November 1845 and the following: year published a booklet [46] containing 50 rules for the running of the Institute and a list of books and periodicals in the library. The library we shall consider in the next chapter, but some of the rules are of interest.

“Rule 1. That the Society be called the Cockermouth Mechanics’ Institution, the objects of which shall he the diffusion of useful knowledge, in Literature, Science and the Arts, by means of a Library, a Reading Room, meetings for Discussions on subjects interesting to the members, at which Essays and Original Papers will be read, Lectures, the formation of Classes for studying any useful Science, and whatsoever other means the Society for the time being may deem desirable.”

The annual subscription was 5s.(25p) with 3s.(15p) for ladies and young members, life membership £5 or a gift of property equivalent. Of the 17 officers and committee, ten had to be from the working class. There were rules for the conduct of discussions (no purely theological or political subjects) and lectures, and for the running of the reading room. If six members wanted a class on a particular subject they had to seek the approval of the committee and then select and pay the teacher.

The Institute met in two spacious rooms in the rear of the Savings Bank building (next to the Court House). Robert Benson of St. Helen’s, an Attorney, was the first president, until his death in 1858, and is commemorated by a framed memorial of 1860 which is in Cockermouth Library. This also commemorates General Richard Benson, of India and Hassness, who had bequeathed to the Institute his library of over 1000 volumes and a legacy of£100. Joseph William Harris of Broughton, who became president, donated his collection of stuffed birds. Other possessions of the Institute included portraits, maps, a barometer and a timepiece. [47] General Wyndham offered to do anything in his power to further the interests of the Institute and in acknowledgement it was agreed

“That General Wyndham be solicited to become a ‘Life Member’ of the Cockermouth Mechanics’ Institute and to preside at the approaching anniversary.” [48]

The first anniversary, in 1847, was celebrated by a tea in the British School Room, attended by 500 people (surely in relays!). The band played, flowers were given and prints loaned to decorate the room, and the M.P. (E. Horsman) and other local gentry (Dykes, Steel, etc.) were present. The report of activities in the first Year listed lectures on the magnetic telegraph, philosophy, history, political economy, the British constitution and the influence of literature on the mind. [49]

By 1858 the membership of the Institute was over 240. Regular classes were being held in French, arithmetic, writing, etc., as well as all the activities mentioned above. The liveliness of the society is shown by the financial returns for that year – receipts ofjust over £80 and an expenditure of about £83. [50] By the end of the century membership had reached 300.

Playgroups: In 1980 there were three, held in All Saints Rooms, the Methodist Church premises and the Friends’ Meeting House, this last now hosting intensive training courses for playgroup staff. There were six groups in the town in 1995.

Formal Further Education

Further education for formal qualifications is centred at the Lakes College West Cumbria at Lillyhall – the original “technical” colleges in Whitehaven and Workington closed in 1999 and 2001 respectively as the West Cumbria College moved to new buildings in 2001 and restyled itself.

Universities

The Universities of Northumbria, Lancaster (via St. Martin’s College) and Central Lancashire (UCLAN) have all made inroads into providing university education in Cumbria. UCLAN opened a Lakeland Learning Centre as a training provision for rural businesses at the Lakeland Agricultural Centre [Mitchell’s Auction Mart site] in 2003 being an off-shoot of its Newton Rigg Campus at Penrith. Cumbria is now to have its own university based on the Cumbria Institute of the Arts and S1. Martin’s College which has campuses in Carlisle, Ambleside and Lancaster. The campuses of UCLAN (the University of Central Lancashire) at Newton Rigg for land-based industries and at Carlisle (originally Northumbria University) for the Carlisle Business School will also transfer to the new university which will operate a network in conjunction with the four FE colleges of the county, the Open University and Lancaster University. The University of Cumbria is planned to be in operation in 2007.

Chapter 23 was not published in the book