Hoots from the Archive - Boarding at MGS

A question that is often asked is “Has MGS ever been a boarding school?” As with many questions, the answer is, yes…and no!

The classic English boarding school evokes images of an institution straight from the pages of Tom Brown’s Schooldays complete with a house system, dormitories and large grounds. MGS has never, in this sense, been a boarding school. However, for part of its history, the School did have pupils who stayed in boarding houses. The School’s original foundation states that it be set up to educate the poor boys of Manchester. By the eighteenth century, MGS had developed a reputation for preparing boys for Oxbridge entry. In the late seventeenth century, Sarah, Duchess of Somerset, had endowed a number of scholarships for MGS boys to Brasenose College, Oxford and St. John’s College, Cambridge. Naturally, ambitious parents from outside the city began to show interest in an MGS education for their sons. These parents tended to be wealthier than the families of boys within the city.

Hand in hand with this, the School had begun to run into financial difficulties, and the Feoffees could not give the High Master and Usher adequate pay rises. In 1727, when Henry Brook was appointed High Master, the Feoffees gave him a large house in addition to a salary which would allow him to generate extra income by taking boys in as boarders. The Usher (or Second Master) was similarly given a property to house boarders. This enabled boys from outside Manchester to attend the School, as well as fielding off local competition from new boarding schools in the local area. The popularity of boarding continued into the 19th century.

Famously, Thomas de Quincey joined MGS as a boarder in 1800, with his mother attracted by the possibility of a Somerset scholarship for her son. De Quincey did not enjoy his time at the School, but he did have praise for his fellow pupils and the atmosphere of learning that the High Master’s boarding house fostered. “What with our confederation through house membership, what with our reciprocal sympathies in the problems suggested by books, we had become a club of boys…altogether as thoughtful and as self respecting as can often exist amongst adults."

                                                                                                     Residence of the High Master

The existence of the boarding houses accommodating wealthy boys from outside Manchester alongside the poorer day pupils created a somewhat two-tier school. The division between the so-called "town" and "country" boys was obvious. De Quincey rather snobbishly reflected on this, "In the Manchester school the parents of many boys were artisans...some even had sisters that were menial servants"

However, by 1807, the feoffees noted that despite the lure of Oxbridge exhibitions, the boarding houses had become less attractive to ambitious parents due to their location on Long Millgate. The street was narrow and crowded, particularly on days when the Apple Market took residence. The feoffees noted “The resorting to taverns and intercourse with women of the town becomes a fashion amongst the Boys in the higher classes of the school, which no vigilance of the masters can suppress. All this makes a serious impression upon the minds of those parents who live at a distance.” In 1833, the School rebuilt and re-located the High Master’s house to improve its situation, and so boarding continued. The burgeoning middle-class of Manchester, many who were successful businessmen and from non-conformist backgrounds, believed the School to be too focused on the sons of wealthy landed families from outside Manchester. Some boys even came from as far as Ireland and Scotland. The view of J.R. Beard, the minister of Salford Unitarian Church writing in 1837 seems to sum up the problem – “the aristocracy have appropriated to themselves property which was designed to educate the children of the poor.” In response, in 1839, the Court of Chancery instructed the feoffees that boarders should not be granted scholarships. Then, in 1849, masters were forbidden to take in boarders. In tandem, the composition of the Feoffees was changed so that appointments were limited to those who “being occupiers of and personally engaged in carrying on business, profession, or other pursuits in manufactories, warehouses, or other establishments in the town or parish of Manchester, and having dwelling houses or places of abode within six miles of the school house“. These changes would finally tip the balance and pull the School’s focus back from wealthy boarders towards its original commitment to the poor boys of Manchester. They also paved the way for the pioneering reforms of the 1860s under High Master Walker, who expanded the curriculum to include modern languages and sciences. The opening of Victoria Station in the 1840s would have enabled some boys from further afield to still attend as day boys.

There may have been the occasional boy who boarded privately within Manchester to attend the School, even though the Masters were forbidden from taking them in. For example, in the 1877 admissions arrangements, reference is made to boys who might be residing in boarding houses. However, numbers would surely have been low, particularly taking into account the removal of Oxbridge scholarships for boarders. In 2022, the status of MGS as a day school is a central part of its ethos. In the words of one Old Mancunian, remembering his time at MGS in the 1950s, “MGS was not in any way a kind of North-country version of the English public boarding school. We were very much a day school, with boys rooted both in their school and in their local communities.”