Biography

The People's College, Sheffield, was founded by the Rev. Robert Slater Bayley, Minister of Howard Street Chapel, in 1842. At that time a large proportion of the poorer children of the nation grew up without the benefit of schooling. Bayley was determined to provide young working men and women the opportunities for education, with a wide range of subject classes running before and after the working day. The scheme proved popular and the College moved to larger premises after a year, to Orchard Street in 1843. By 1844 there were fifty classes per week, attended by over 300 students. Subjects taught were Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, as well as Geography, Moral Knowledge, English and General History, English Composition, Science, Logic and Algebra, Philosophy and Natural History, English Literature, Latin and Greek. Bayley did most of the teaching himself, as well as publishing textbooks for the use of the classes. At first this revolutionary institution stood alone in the country, but its example soon gave rise to similar institutions elsewhere, notably the Working-Men's College in London which itself gave rise to many imitators.

Robert Slater Bayley was born in Lichfield, probably in 1801, and baptised Anglican. After being trained for the Congregational ministry and spending time in Staffordshire and Louth, Lincolnshire, he moved to Sheffield in 1836 to assume charge of the Howard Street Chapel. He began teaching private pupils at his home in Pitsmoor, as well as lecturing at the Mechanics’ Institute in Sheffield, which provided evening classes for adults in elementary subjects. One of his private pupils was John Derby, who would go on to become the People’s College Secretary and also the teacher of the Logic class. Bayley’s poor financial management and strong political views led to him being involved in controversies during his time in Sheffield, including his Howard Street Chapel congregation asking him to resign in 1846. The result of these public disputes was a decline in numbers at the People's College, and Bayley ultimately left Sheffield to take up a new position in a Congregational Chapel in Ratcliff, London in 1848.

The college was revived by former pupils after Bayley left Sheffield. The Committee of young enthusiasts under the Chairmanship of Mr Wilson Overend, a prominent physician, ran the College for some years with success. By 1870, when Forster's Education Act established a national system of education its fortunes were declining, as other educational institutes were now operating in Sheffield. In 1874 the Orchard Street premises were demolished for new road construction and the College classes were closed, although the Day school survived until 1878. On 7th May 1879 a farewell gathering of students was held in the Cutler's Hall, the year of the founding of Firth College, an institution which ultimately evolved into the University of Sheffield

Source: The Story of the People's College Sheffield, by G. C. Moore Smith, 1912.

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