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The Stockport Sunday school was founded in 1784, and became the largest Sunday school in the world.〔(Stockport Archives Cache )〕 It was situated on London Square, Wellington Street, Stockport, behind the town hall. Before the days of universal education, children would be employed in the cotton and hatting industry from a very early age, Sunday Schools provided the one source of Education available before the passing of the 1870 Education Act. ==Foundation== The Sunday school was founded in 1784, the articles of association being adopted on 11 November 1784. The aim was that the town be divided into six, and an establishment provided for each division. Two subscribers should visit each school and report back to the committee. Scholars should attend from 9 to 12 in the morning, and from 1 to 6 in the afternoon, of which part would be attending a church service of their persuasion. Teachers were to be paid 1s 6d a day. They started with eleven schools, and twenty three teachers taught 700-800 children.〔〔(Samuel Oldknow and the Arkwrights: the Industrial Revolution at Stockport p40 ) To put it in historical context John Wesley had visited Stockport on 12 June 1784:〕 One of the schools abandoned the practice of paying teachers and encouraged a large number of unpaid volunteers to do the job. This was successful and it grew faster than the rest. The consequent need for extra books, added to an increase of rent and other expenses, occasioned a demand beyond its proportion of the public subscription. These circumstances led to this school becoming a separate institution independent of the rest, though agreeing with them in the general object, the mode of instruction, the books in use, and the subjects admitted. In the year 1794, a separate committee published a report, entitling the institution, by way of distinction, the Methodists Sunday School, most of its promoters and active supporters being of that denomination. That report stated the number of scholars to be 695.〔(Copyright free Text from The first fifty years of the Sunday School, W.H.Watson ) 〕 In 1805, ₤6000 pounds was raised from subscription, and a school large enough to accommodate 5000 scholars was built on London Square. The school belonged to the town rather than a particular church. The building, austere in design, was 132 feet in length and 57 feet in width. The ground floor and first story were each divided into 12 rooms; the second story was fitted up for assembling the whole of the children for public worship, or on other occasions ; having two tiers of windows, and a gallery on each side extending about half the length of the building. In order to aid both the hearing and sight in this long room, the floor rose in an inclined plane about half way. There was also an orchestra with an organ behind the pulpit.〔 Stockport Sunday School predates the founding of the Sunday School Society of 1786. 〔(The Modern Sunday School- 1888 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stockport Sunday School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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