The development of state education in Macclesfield, 1902-1944

Abstract

Macclesfield is a town in East Cheshire. During the nineteenth century it became a centre of silk manufacture, enjoying an initial period of growth, but from mid-century onwards suffering a slow decline which continued up to the beginning of the second world war. In 1902 Balfour's Education Act put responsibility for the local administration of education into the hands of county councils and county borough councils. For Macclesfield the L.E.A. was Cheshire County Council but, taking advantage of special provision in the Act, the borough elected to become a Part III authority, with autonomy over its own elementary is schools system, and this status was maintained until its abolition by the Education Act of 1944. Thus, for the forty-two years under consideration Macclesfield's educational progress was subject to two masters at the local level. The aim of the thesis is to trace the development of state education in the borough against the prevailing economic background, and in the light of contemporary theories and movements generally, between 1902 and 1944, the era of Macclesfield as a Part III authority. It is a continuation of an investigation covering the period 1833-I918 which was the subject of an earlier thesis (Sheffield M.A. 1975).In the gathering of evidence much use has been made of the Cheshire Record Office which holds records of the Macclesfield Education Committee and its sub-committees, the Higher Education Committee records, reports of the Medical Officer of Health, and documents relating to secondary education. School log books have provided another useful source, as has the Macclesfield Courier and Herald, held in Macclesfield Public Library. Files of Macclesfield schools in the National Society archives have also been used; and, locally, school records and private sources have supplied information, supplemented at times by the personal recollections of long-established Macclesfield residents.