Chesterfield Ragged School
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Chesterfield Ragged School by Stephen McKay as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Chesterfield Ragged School
Image: © Stephen McKay Taken: 14 Aug 2018
This building was originally a lace factory but in 1878 it became a 'ragged school', part of a Victorian movement to provide free Sunday schools for the poorest children. It is recorded that 109 children turned up on the first day and the institution continued to thrive right through until the Second World War. After the war, however, in an age of the welfare state, the concept of a ragged school began to be seen as an anachronism. Furthermore, here at Chesterfield, the slum dwellings that had surrounded the building were disappearing. Nevertheless, the establishment did survive and continues to do so as a place of worship, now known as the 'Ragged School Evangelical Church', although Sunday schools are no longer held. A full history is available here: https://raggedschoolchesterfield.wordpress.com/essay/
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
53.233681
Longitude
-1.429915