No 72 -  The British School, Hanley

The Pottery Subscription Library at Hanley was founded in 1790 by James Straphan, the first bookseller in the Potteries.

About 1840 the library, consisting of some 3,000 volumes, was housed in the shop of Thomas Allbut, who had succeeded Straphan as librarian and treasurer c. 1800; the membership was elective with an entrance fee of 2 guineas and an annual subscription of 1 guinea. The library was still in existence in 1860.

The Shelton Subscription Library was founded in 1814 and was still in existence in 1830, housed in Bethesda Schoolroom.  Between at least 1851 and 1876 there was a subscription newspaper room at the town hall.

The borough council established a free library in 1887, taking a lease of the whole building in Pall Mall belonging to the Mechanics' Institution  except for the reading-room.

In the 1960's the city library is still housed there and since 1958 has also occupied the adjoining building which formerly housed the British School, Hanley, and the Russell Art Gallery.

A boys' library was formed as part of the free library in 1893, mainly at the instigation of the mayor, Edwin Hammersley.

The British School was founded in 1818 and erected mainly from voluntary subscription, with a great deal of support from the Ridgway family. It was intended from the outset to accommodate 500 children of all denominations, but, because of its secular teaching, it proved unpopular with parents, and a full complement was never achieved. In fact, by 1840 there were only 280 registered scholars and an average daily muster of about 230. For a time it appears to have been boys only, and, although still in use in 1860, it was phased out by 1868 when the Art School took complete possession.

The first move to establish an art school in Hanley was made by the neighbouring Mechanics' Institute in 1845, but it was only when a group of master potters became excited by the idea that it became a reality. And so, in 1847, under the auspices of the London School of Design, the Potteries School of Design was founded. At first it consisted of two schools, one at Stoke Town Hall and the other in rooms at the British School, but the Hanley branch became independent in 1860. Under the direction of Samuel Cartlidge (1882-1900) and his successor, George Cartlidge, the school reached a high standard of achievement, but, with the amalgamation of the Six Towns' art schools after Federation, the Hanley school lost ground to its rival at Burslem, and was eventually closed in its centenary year.

In 1926, part of the building was acquired and converted into a gallery to exhibit an important collection of paintings bequeathed to the City by Dr. John Russell. In 1958 the Horace Barks Reference Library was opened in the former Russell Gallery, and the City library occupied the rest of the building until moving into new premises in 1970."

Neville Malkin 5th November 1975