Grade U
Technical School
Upper George Street, Tyldesley
Description
Trustees of Top Chapel
Tyldesley Technical School at 20 Upper George Street was designed by Manchester architect and civil engineer John Holt for Tyldesley-with-Shakerley Urban District Council. Built between 1901 and 1903 on land presented by the Rev. George Thomas Basil Ormerod, it cost more than £6,000—about half raised through the rates and the remainder by public subscription. The imposing red-brick and stone building was formally opened on 17 September 1904 by local industrialist and magistrate Charles Eckersley JP, following a procession through the decorated town involving around 1,000 schoolchildren, councillors, trade organisations and friendly societies.
The school provided technical and evening education for men and women employed in Tyldesley’s collieries, cotton mills and engineering works. Its most remarkable feature is the basement mining-training gallery, apparently installed around 1912–13, where miners studied ventilation, airflow and underground surveying. The building later accommodated secretarial and adult-education courses and remained in educational use until about 2003. It is now being developed by Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley Heritage Trust as the Tyldesley Technical School Community Hub, with community facilities and interpretation of its important mining heritage.
Text by John Gorton
