No 76 -  The Bethesda School Rooms, Hanley

Former Methodist School. 1819, enlarged 1836.

Flemish bond brickwork with plain tiled roof. 2-storeyed, 12 bays fronting church yard, the central section advanced with pedimented gable with giant pilasters and octagonal lantern over. Pilasters also mark angles.

Windows are sashes with margin lights and flat arched stuccoed heads with expressed keystones. Upper windows of central section have entablatures carried on console brackets.

Pedimented stuccoed gable to street with blind central doorway with entablature and flanking sash windows with margin lights. Central upper window with entablature, also blind.

Inscribed in the pediment is "Bethesda School. Erected MDCCCXIX enlarged MDCCCXXXVI". Alexander House forms the south wing added to the rear beyond the former pedimented central gable, matching that to the north. Round arched doorway with margin lights below and tripartite upper windows.

Cast-iron railings with domed caps to Bethesda Street.

The Sunday School provided for more than 1,000 children, who were taught to read and write, and also instructed in religious and general knowledge. There was an extensive library of about 1,700 volumes, designated "The Bethesda General and Juvenile Libraries." It had a large number of subscribers as well as the teachers and scholars, who were entitled to special privileges.

Free education in Hanley and Shelton about 1840 was a luxury, something that was available mainly on Sundays or during the evenings, in rooms adjoining the numerous places of worship. Beside the Bethesda School, the New Methodists had four other chapels and schools. 

There was the Bedford Chapel (1834) in Shelton, where 200 were taught on Sundays in a basement room; 
the Providence Chapel (1839) at Hanley Upper Green had adjoining Sunday schools for more than 400; 
at Eastwood Vale, a Sunday School was attended by 100; 
and at Etruria, a small chapel had a school for just over 50. 
The Wesleyan Chapel (1819) in Old Hall Street had a range of buildings at the rear for instruction of more than 400 children, with writing taught on weekday evenings. 
The Wesleyans also had a Sunday School for 250 attached to their Etruria Chapel. 
The Independents had three schools. 
There was the Tabernacle (1784) in Hanley, which had adjacent schoolrooms where 400 children received Sunday tuition and writing on week nights; 
Hope Chapel (1812), at the top of Hope Street, had schoolrooms at the rear for 300; 
and the Brunswick Chapel (1824) at Shelton catered for a similar number. The Baptists had a Sunday School (1795) for 200, 
and the Primitive Methodists taught 180 in their Shelton Sunday School (1835).

Free day schools did exist for the minority. There was the National School (1815) in Lichfield Street which had 300 day scholars, and a Sunday School of 500 run in conjunction with Hanley Church; attached to St. Mark's, Shelton, a similar school had 150 day and 500 Sunday scholars.

The British School (1818) in Pall Mall appears to have been the only non-denominational school, and although it could accommodate 500 scholars, it only managed a daily average of 230."

Neville Malkin 14th July 1976