The History of William Hulme's Grammar School Manchester 1887-1980 K. P. Thompson, B.A
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THE HISTORY OF WILLIAM HULME'S GRAMMAR SCHOOL MANCHESTER 1887-1980 BY K. P. THOMPSON, B.A. Acknowledgements The author would like first of all to express his sincere appreciation of the great honour done to him by Mr. D.Lloyd Griffiths, F.RC.S., until recently the Chairman of the Governors of William Hulme's Grammar School, Manchester, in inviting him to write this book. He would also like to thank him for the generous help he has received from him in its compilation and revision. His deep thanks are also due to Dr. C. G. Eastwood for the unselfish way in which he made available to him the materials he had gathered about the school over many years. He is also very grateful for the help of his former colleagues especially the late Mr. D.M. Williams and Mr. C.J. Lowe with the text and Mr. R.A. Haynes over the photographs. The valuable suggestions of Mr. W.N. Brewood, a Governor of the School, and Miss H. Lofthouse, a former Librarian ofChetham's Library, have been of great help in the elucidation of William Hulme's somewhat obscure history. Photostats of evidence in their possession kindly sent by Dr. H.L.A. Hart, the Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, and by the Deputy Librarian of Gray's Inn have provided useful confirmation of some details of William Huhne's biography, on which letters from Lord Clitheroe and Mr. P. Hesketh have also shed interesting light. The author would also like to thank Mr. H.R. Mainprice and Mr. H.P. Griffiths of Messrs. Taylor, Kirkman and Mainprice for their assistance in the compilation and revision of the section on the history of the Huhne Trust and the readiness with which they made available documentary records of the school and an invaluable collection of press cuttings dealing with the Trust during its most controversial period. Information supplied by Mr. B.D. Norris and Mr C.H. Jones (O.H.'s) about the Hulme Lads' Club have been of great help. He is deeply grateful also to those Old Huhneians who have so kindly responded to the appeals for their reminiscences, or have answered his enquiries so helpfully. Apart from these reminiscences and his own recollections, he has had to rely very largely on "The Hulmeian" and other publications issued by the School. A scrap book compiled and annotated by Dr. Hall, the first Head Master of the Schoo~ has been a most useful supplementary source of information about the period ofhis Headship. Despite the care and vigilance with which Mr. Lloyd Griffiths, Mr. Williams and Mr. Lowe have read the manuscript, errors and omissions there may well be, for which lack of adequate information available is to some extent responsible. The author hopes these shortcomings will be fully reported and carefully recorded, so that if this book is ever revised and reissued they may be duly rectified. It would perhaps be unduly optimistic to hope that this book will give its readers a tithe of the pleasure to read it gave the author to write it. However, he trusts that as a record ofthe activities of the School, with which in one way and another he was connected for nearly fifty years, it will not be found altogether inadequate. CONTENTS Chapter Page Acknowledgements William Hulme's Pedigree 1 William Hulme's Coat of Arms 2 The School Prayer 2 1 William Hulme 3 2 The Hulme Trust 9 3 Dr. Hall 16 4 The Rev. W.A Parker Mason 38 5 Mr. Trevor Dennis 47 6 Mr. J.G. Bird 77 7 Conclusion 120 Bibliography 124 William Hulme's Coat of Arms Bany of eight, or and azure, on a canton argent, a chaplet gules proper. Crest: A lion's head coupled gules on a cap of maintenance (gules turned up ermine) upon the helmet of a gentleman. Motto: ''Fide sed cui vide". The motto, with its wittily rhyming verbs, can be translated "Trust but mind whom", punning on the founder's surname, which like the place of his fiunily's origin, can still be occasionally heard pronounced as 'whom' to-day. The canton and chaplet in the heraldic coat were an honourable augmentation granted to Sir William de Hulme, of Huhne, Knight, for his services under the Black Prince in France. The School Prayer 0 Lord, the resurrection and the life of them that believe, to be praised, as well as those that live as in those that are departed: we give thee thanks for William Huhne, of whose bounty this school was founded and endowed, for William Roberts, Edward Donner and others our benefuctors, past and present, by whose beneficence we are here maintained for the further attaining of Godliness and learning: beseeching thee to grant that we, well using to thy glory these Thy gifts, may rise again to eternal life with those that are departed in the faith of Christ: through Christ our Lord. Amen. William Hulme's Pedigree Lawrence, 3rd son of Robert Hulme of = Margaret, dau and heir of Hulme Co. Lancaster near Stockport William Buldree ofManchester d. 1423 Geoffrey Hulme of Manchester = Cecilie, dau of William d. c.1489 Hulton of Farnworth Ralph Hulme = (1479) Elizabeth, dau of Richard d.c.1522 Bexwicke ofManchester Stephen Hulme = (1524) Alice, dau and co-heir of d. c.1553 Robert Labrey Robert Hulme = (? ) Anne, dau and co-heir of d. 1585 Robert Holt of Ashworth Ralph Hulme = (1593) Thomasin, dau and co-heir of d. 1623 John Marler William Hulme = (1630) Christian, dau of Richard d. 1637 Banaster of Oakenbottom William Hulme = (1653) Elizabeth, dau of Ralph d. 1691 Robinson ofKersley Banaster Hulme d. 1673 Chapter 1 William Hulme A History ofWilliam Hulme's Grammar School must necessarily begin with some account of the life of the person from whom it derives its name and without whose beneficence it would not have come into existence. William Hulme was born in 1631, probably some time in September or October. There is some uncertainty over the actual day, for it was not until the nineteenth century that births and deaths were registered. He was given the same Christian name as his father whose family had had its roots in the Manchester area for many generations. The first reference to his family goes back to the time of Henry II, when the name of John de Hulme is recorded. Men were then generally named after the place from which they came. The word Hulme is of Scandinavian origin and implies a piece of land slightly above the level of wet or marshy ground and is frequently found as a place name in the Manchester area. Early records of the Hulme family are somewhat fragmentary. However, from the reign of Henry V onwards his descent is clearly established by the pedigree printed on page 1. This he supplied to Sir William Dugdale, Norroy King of Arms, when the latter held his visitation of Manchester in 1664. William Hulme traced his family back to Lawrence Hulme, the third son of Robert Hulme, who died in 1423. Lawrence's grandson, the first Ralph in the pedigree, established the Hulme Chapel in the Collegiate Church of Manchester - the Cathedral of to-day. This chapel, in which William Hulme, his wife and only son Banaster were buried, disappeared when rebuilding took place in 1810. Its site is now known as the Jesus Chapel. This first Ralph Hulme was remotely connected, through his brother-in-law Ralph Bexwicke, with Bishop Oldham the founder of Manchester Grammar School. William Hulme the elder, the father of the founder of Hulme's charity, was the son of the second Ralph in the pedigree. This Ralph married Thomassin, the daughter and heiress of a Jolm Marler; but disputes arose between them and they separated. The Hulme family seems to have been rather given to marrying wealthy heiresses to landed property and then to quarreling over the division of it, when a death occurred in the family. Ralph's wife outlived him and on December 25th, 1627 made her will, just before her death, in which she complained of the unkind treatment she had received from her husband, her elder son and her daughter. She therefore left all the property in her control to her younger son, John. William, however, being the elder son, succeeded to Broadstone Hall, Reddish, where the family had been established since the fourteenth or fifteenth century. As Broadstone Hall was the Hulme family home, it was often referred to as Hulme Hall. It has, in consequence, frequently been confused with other Hulme Halls, especially the one near the banks of the Irwell, which was at one time possessed by another branch of the family. This one seems to have been sold to the Prestwich family and ultimately to have passed into the ownership of the Duke of Bridgewater, the bnilder of the canal of that name, only for it to be demolished about 1840. The Hulme Hall in Reddish should not be confused either with the Manchester University Hall of Residence in Rusholme ofthat name. When the university was established in Oxford Road, a Hall of Residence fur Church of England students was opened in Plymouth Grove. This ran into financial difficulties and the help of the Hulme Trust was solicited. In recognition of the assistance received from the Trust, the bnilding in which it was re-established was given the name of Hulme Hall. Broadstone Hall was still in existence as a farm house earlier this century, but it has now been destroyed.