The Department of Culture Media and Sport’s budget has been cut by 25 per cent. “In the current economic climate, this is a good settlement ,” said Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture Olympics, Media and Sport. He went on to say: “We will deliver a safe and successful Olympics in 2012 when the eyes of the whole world will be upon us. And by cutting bureaucracy and waste and prioritising the services valued by the public we will be able to protect our sporting and cultural core for the long term.”
Despite the cuts the Department’s priorities are to:
(1) ensure the long sustainability of our key sporting and cultural assets by limiting cuts to museums, frontline arts organisation and whole sport plans to 15 per cent
(2) focus resources on the frontline services that the public value cutting back on administration and waste.
(3) contribute to economic growth by securing investment of £530 million to boost the UK’s broadband infrastructure
(4) retain free entry for everyone to our national museums and galleries
Significant savings to other areas of spending have also been announced, including overall budget reductions to Sport England (33 per cent), UK Sport (28 per cent), English Heritage (32 per cent), Visit Britain (34 per cent) and Arts Council England (29 per cent).
Hanley’s first library was founded by bookseller James Straphan in 1790. Called the Pottery Subscription Library, it was a profit making commercial enterprise. James ran the library from his bookshop. Customers were charged two guineas (£2.10p) to join the library and one guinea (£1.05p) a year to borrow books. During 1796, he sold the shop and the library to John Allbut whose son Thomas acquired them at the beginning of the 19th century. Thomas ran the library until he retired on December 31st, 1852 when the books were transferred to the Mechanics Institution’s library in Gitana Street.
Shortly afterwards, the Mechanics Institution launched a successful appeal to erect new premises in Pall Mall. Hanley became a borough in 1857. A year later, pottery manufacturer William Brownfield was elected mayor. He persuaded the institution’s management committee to allow working men to use its library and gave £500 to establish a working men’s reading room. The Public Libraries and Museums Act gave local authorities power to build public libraries if the ratepayers agreed. Hanley’s borough council wanted to erect a public library and called a town meeting to obtain approval for the project. Despite eloquent supporting speeches from leading industrialists and trade union officials, the proposal was defeated by a large majority.
During the 1870s, antagonism between trade unionists and the Mechanics Institution’s management committee led to a campaign to create a public library. A committee was formed to publicise the campaign. Over 3,000 people signed a petition calling on the ratepayers to change their mind and £2,000 was raised towards the cost of establishing a library. At a meeting held in the town hall on June 24th, 1884, the ratepayers said that Hanley could have a library and the council made plans to open one.
It rented rooms on the ground floor of the Mechanics Institution. The working men’s reading room was regenerated and opened for public use on June 1st, 1866. Soon more than 500 people a day were coming to read newspapers and magazines. A small room was set aside for lady readers and William Taylor was appointed librarian. There were 3,820 books in the lending library and 1,560 in the reference section. The library was very popular and the reading room quickly became overcrowded. Adults complained about the large number of schoolboys and young men using it. More space was needed and the mayor, Edwin Hammersley, appealed for help to turn the basement into a boys’ reading room. His appeal was successful. Over 800 books were donated by members of the public and a large, damp, dingy cellar was transformed into a boys’ library.
Lord Mayor Denver Tolley will sail on the Beatrice Charity narrowboat along the Caldon Canal to launch the waterways partnership, with Stoke-on-Trent City Council heritage and design champion councillor Peter Kent-Baguley and representatives of voluntary and local groups who use the city’s waterways.
A landmark partnership to improve Stoke-on-Trent waterways will be sealed on a city canal on Tuesday, October 19th, 2010.
Lord Mayor Denver Tolley will sail on the Beatrice Charity narrowboat along with local and voluntary groups who use the city’s canal network.
It is the first time Stoke-on-Trent City Council and waterway groups have come together in such a way, and marks the start of a joint plan to ensure canals are an important part of regeneration work in the city, and to strengthen their appeal to residents and tourists.
The partnership will work to:
• Install welcome signs at the three gateways into the city by water, incorporating an information box with information, literature and maps outlining the heritage and tourism opportunities available for boat visitors to the city. The works will be completed by March 2011 to take advantage of the full duration of the leisure boating season.
• Establish interpretation plaques at heritage and tourism destinations to ensure boaters can easily find their way to selected points of interest.
• Implement local planning policies that identify development sites that can bring forward high quality waterside environments. The planning guidance, which will be put before the council’s planning committee by Christmas, will help ensure private sector development promotes a distinctive and positive identity for visitors to the city.
• Review the boundary of the Trent and Mersey Canal conservation area in consultation with local groups and residents in early 2011. The work will support regeneration work in the area such as the volunteer-led Burslem Port Project which aims to reopen the Burslem Branch Canal which closed almost 50 years ago.
The partnership will see the authority work with: British Waterways, Caldon and Uttoxeter Canals Trust, English Heritage, Inland Waterways Association, RENEW North Staffordshire, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Stoke-on-Trent Boat Club, and Trent and Mersey Canal Society.
Councillor Tolley said: “This is a landmark partnership and one that I am excited about. It is the first time organisations committed to the use of the canal network have come together to celebrate our waterways.
“We have such a wonderful network of canals that take in historic sites of the city’s industrial past, as well as our miles of open spaces and countryside. We want to ensure as many people as possible are able to enjoy the waterways, whether they are on a boat, cycling on the city’s network of cycle paths that include routes along our canals, walking or fishing.”
The Beatrice Charity narrowboat gives children with special needs the chance to experience days out on the area’s canals, and is a cause close to the Lord Mayor’s heart. Councillor Tolley has chosen to raise money for the group as one of his civic charities during his year in office.
Councillor Peter Kent-Baguley, the council’s heritage and design champion, added: “The canal network is a key heritage asset for our city and has an important impact on the quality of life for residents.
“The canal ways are a relaxing escape from the urban city landscape, and we should cherish them. The partnership will bring together the expertise of a wide range of organisations and the initiatives already being looked at will help ensure our waterways are key attractions of the city for the future.”
Towards the end of the 18th century, churches and chapels in the Potteries established Sunday schools to give children who worked during the week religious instruction and an elementary education.
Burslem industrialists built an interdenominational Independent Sunday School where boys and girls were taught to read and write. Soon it had over 700 pupils and branch schools were opened at Longport and Norton. The Wesleyan Methodists started a Sunday school in America Street, Tunstall and in Hanley the Methodist New Connexion erected a small school next to its chapel in Albion Street.
During 1816, the Church of England established a school in Lichfield Street and in 1819 the New Connexion built a new school in Bethesda Street, which could accommodate 800 pupils – 400 boys and 400 girls.
School discipline was strict. Teachers demanded unquestioning obedience from pupils who were taught to obey the Laws of God and accept their station in life. Corporal punishment was used extensively and at the New Connexion School one teacher, Joseph Bullock, had a reputation for brutality. His lessons started with a prayer meeting at six o’ clock in the morning. Boys who misbehaved were beaten or made to hold a heavy brick above their heads for hours on end. Pupils who fainted or put the brick down were caned. The class was delighted when a boy dropped the brick on Bullock’s foot seriously injuring his toes, which kept him away from school for several weeks.
Churches began to open day schools where parents paid for their children’s education. Often using the same premises as the Sunday schools, the day schools taught reading writing and arithmetic. Many pupils left and started work when they were seven or eight years old. Although a few continued their education at night school, most remained semi-illiterate for the rest of their lives.
During 1828, a major row broke out inside the Wesleyan Methodist Church when church leaders ordered Sunday school teachers to stop teaching academic subjects. Wesleyans in Burslem claimed the Independent Sunday School belonged to them and told it to take writing off the curriculum. The teachers ignored these instructions and the Wesleyans seized the school, renaming it the Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School. Denied use of the premises, the teachers, supported by the parents, launched a public appeal and raised enough money to build their own church and Sunday school at Hill Top.
The reform of National Lottery good causes means that arts, sport and heritage will again get the share of total proceeds originally intended, amounting to an extra £50 million each every year, Minister for Tourism and Heritage John Penrose announced today.
A Statutory Instrument, laid before Parliament, means that – from 2012 – the original good causes will once again receive the 20 per cent share of the total, as set out when the Lottery was created in 1994.
John Penrose said:
“The National Lottery was created in 1994 and, since that time, around £25 billion has been raised for good causes. But the founding vision – that it should primarily benefit the arts, sport, heritage and the voluntary sector with funding for projects that would not otherwise get off the ground – got lost along the way. Today I am putting that right.”
Mr Penrose also pledged that funding for the voluntary and community sector – key players in the Government’s plans to create a Big Society – will be protected. It should, indeed, rise from current levels of around £564 million a year to more than £630 million a year by 2013, when the Olympic transfer comes to an end. The greater shares going to the arts, sport and heritage will also, in many cases, directly benefit the VCS sector.
Mr Penrose continued:
“The voluntary and community sector is at the very heart of our mission to build a Big Society in which people have a greater role in the things that directly affect them, and gives everyone an opportunity to give something back for the benefit of all. The National Lottery has a fine record of supporting VCS projects, and we are absolutely clear that this work should continue. We will be directing the Big Lottery Fund to make sure that its future funding is focused very clearly on the VCS.”
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