The work of the Salford school board.

TL;DRAbstract

Salford was unique in 1870 in being a large town, of some 120,000 inhabitants, with an excess of public elementary school accommodation. In November 1870 Salford elected the sixth board in the country. The Board retained for the whole of its existence the voluntaryist majority with which it was first returned. Almost immediately the Board took over the payment of school-pence of poor but non-pauper children and with Manchester, up to 1st January 1877, paid more in fees than all the other boards together. Indeed, it was ever the policy of the Board to aid the Salford voluntary schools in any way possible, such as by fees assistance, and from this attitude and the initial excess of voluntary school places, it developed a reluctance to provide new board schools. From 1880 onwards this policy resulted in acute shortages of accommodation in various parts of Salford. The inspectorate constantly exhorted the Board to supply new school places. The Board did not even manage a school until 1877.

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