English Martyrs'Schools

- A History Lesson -
 

A school was essential for the children and the first one was built opposite the church on St Georges Road in 1871 (where Canterbury Hall recently stood). Although education for children under 10 only became compulsory in 1880 this school was already too small within 5 years and another was built in 1876 with room for 1300 pupils.

A school board was set up in Preston the same year with authority to levy a local rate which could be used to assist the maintenance of church schools and its grants were essential to reduce the burden on Catholic parents. This extension of the school showed a recognition by ordinary people of the importance of education as well as an indication that the parish was growing steadily.

Building of the new school was undertaken despite the widespread depression. Old age pensions, sickness and accident benefits and unemployment pay were still 20 years away and the small amount occasionally provided by the parochial guilds was often essential to needy families.  The publication of the encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891 disturbed the social conscience of many and the response of Preston Catholics was to raise money to save boys from going to the workhouse by creating a Poor Law School, known locally as St Vincent’s Home.

A bazaar raised £7,197 in 6 days of which £15,00 was contributed by English Martyrs within whose parochial boundaries it was to be built. For over 50 years it provided a good upbringing for many poor or orphaned boys and tributes of their loyalty and gratitude to the Brothers and Sisters of Charity who looked after them are still made. 

In 1901 another successful bazaar produced over £5000 for educational building but in 1906 a further £4000 was needed for the erection of a higher grade school where children could stay after the age of twelve.  By 1929 this had been converted into the Central School for Girls (now Kenmure Lodge Nursing Home), with the boys attending the one at St Ignatius, and in 1930 the house next door in Kenmure Place was converted into a Domestic Science Centre and served as such until 1963. 

A new boys school was built in Berkeley Street in 1926 and though it was overcrowded within ten years of being opened, it remained in use until 1965 when the pupils were transferred to St Thomas Moore Secondary School. 

In 1927 a Men's Club was situated in the basement of the infant and junior school.

The large hall in Berkeley Street School also became a centre for many parochial events. Weekly dances and whist drives were held there and many excellent concerts and plays were produced by a talented dramatic society.  The school yard was used by the tennis club but during the war the construction of air raid shelters ruined the courts and even the hall was requisitioned for training and drill by the Home Guard.  Functions were resumed there in post-war years but with declining success and at one period the sprung floor on the first floor of the school was even used for dances and a roller-skating rink.

A new primary school was built in 1976 in a large grassy area in Sizer Street and caters for 210 children.

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