RPPC ROPE WALK SENIOR SCHOOL LATER CHAPEL STREET INFANTS KNOTTINGLEY YORKS C1908. .People’s College Nottingham was founded by the local radical philanthropist, George Gill in 1846 but his vision to provide an establishment where the children of the working classes could obtain an education as good as any provided in a reputable writing school or private Academy must have been with him well before this time. When the Derby Road Lammas Fields Inclosure Act received the Royal assent on 1st. July 1839 he had the chance to turn his dream into reality. Nottingham had become overcrowded and unhealthy. Surrounded by a tight ring of commonable land, on which building was prohibited, any expansion of the town was impossible. A population of 50,220 (1831) was endeavouring to live on the same area, 876 acres, enjoyed by around 10,300 in 1739. The 1839 Inclosure Act was the first successful attempt to break the stranglehold imposed by these common lands. Gill must have closely followed the deliberations of the Commissioners appointed to bring about the inclosure of this area, the triangle formed by Park Row, Derby Road and the Ropewalk. They divided up almost 18 acres into 49 allotments. Lorenzo Christie, Lace Manufacturer acting for Gill, purchased part of allotment no. 24, lots 5 and 6 on the day, at auction on 16th July 1844 at the George Hotel. He agreed to pay £263:8:4d., through a deposit of £26 and the balance to be paid by 11th October 1844. Gill subsequently acquired the two adjoining lots to the east, no. 7 from a Mr. Sneath and no. 8 by private contract, thus completing the purchase of the whole of allotment no. 24, 2411 square yards in all, a good size plot for a college at this time. For other purposes Gill later purchased allotment no. 25 from Samuel Parsons the Elder. Both plots stretched from the newly set out West Circus Street, later College Street, down to the existing Ropewalk Street and were to the immediate rear of the new Catholic Church, the later cathedral of St. Barnabas. With all buildings to be erected on the inclosure legislated to be of a minimum value of £500, £800 if fronting into or upon the Ropewalk, Gill was in a position to create his college in a spacious setting surrounded by buildings of some quality. Gill’s commitment was some £3,000, given in stages, and being well respected in the town he was an ideal leader for a highly successful public appeal to raise further money. A local architect Isaac Charles Gilbert was appointed to design the new college. In March 1846 the Nottingham Review carried an advertisement requesting “The Friends and Subscribers of this projected Institution ”to “attend a meeting at Gill & Wright's Counting House on Monday Evening, the 6th of April, at Half-past Six o’clock, to choose Sixteen Directors for the present year” In a later issue the Review briefly reported the meeting and listed the 15 Directors elected among whom were George Gill, William Gill M.D., and Lorenzo Christie. Later there were to be 24 directors or managers as they were often termed, 16 being elected by subscribers and eight by the parents of pupils. n February 1905 the City Council’s Education Committee decided the future of their Higher Elementary Schools. High Pavement and Mundella would be converted into Third Grade Secondary Schools whilst People’s College would be utilized as an ordinary Elementary School for the district, in place of St. James’ and St. Nicholas’ Trust Schools which had been declared unfit for use. After the present pupils had finished their courses, the Ropewalk School, a girls’ school in the former girls’ department of People’s College since August 1904, would become an Infants and Junior Mixed School. The first floor of the existing Higher Elementary School would become a Senior Girls’ School and the ground floor would become a Senior Boys’ School, with the intention to combine them into a Senior Mixed School as soon as possible. The headmaster of the College, still Edmund Francis, was transferred to the High Pavement School, taking his more advanced pupils with him.