| Description | This society aimed to provide education and where necessary, food and shelter for poor children. In September 1851, an inaugural public meeting elected a managing committee which decided to open two schools, St. Olave's and Boughton, for children aged 6 years and over. These schools were opened in January 1852 in temporary premises in Boughton and Lower Bridge Street. In March, permanent accommodation was found in a building near St. Olave's Church while a new building was erected for the Boughton School at the corner of Hoole Lane. The schools were free and opened in the evenings and on Sundays from 2-4pm for the benefit of those who could not attend during the day. .
In 1853, the feeding of the most destitute children was begun. In 1855 industrial training was introduced. Dormitories were opened in 1858. In 1868, a third school, Bishop Graham Ragged School, was opened on a donated site in Princess Street. It was closed in 1915..
In 1863 the Boughton school was certified as an Industrial School. Thereafter, magistrates could send children there instead of to prison. The government paid for their upkeep. These schools were inspected by the Home Office not the Board of Education.
In March 1876 the St Olave's Street school was handed over to the curate of the parish of St Michael with St Olave because the disused chapel in which it was held was required by the parish. It appears to have continued under the curate until the pupils could be transferred to the new parochial school of St Michael with St Olave, opened in 1879 [see ZDES 20].
In 1908, the Chester Certified Industrial School at Boughton closed owing to a decline in numbers.
The Society then entered into negotiations, culminating in 1911, with the transfer to the City and County Councils jointly, of the Industrial School site and premises, together with the Society's remaining assets, with a view to them being used as a place of detention under the Children's Act of 1908 or for such other uses as the Councils might subsequently decide.
This school was opened by the Chester Ragged School Society in temporary premises in Boughton in January 1852. In March, the school moved to a new building in Hoole Lane. In 1863, it was certified as an Industrial School, inspected by the Home Office and received children sent there by the magistrates. The school closed in 1908 because of declining numbers but was used as a reformatory under the joint responsibility of Chester County Borough Council and Cheshire County Council from 1911 to 1929. The collection comprises committee minutes and reports of Chester Ragged School Society. |