The Stockport Sunday School, Stockport, Greater Manchester
A photographic copy of an engraving showing the exterior of the Stockport Sunday School seen from the junction of Wellington Street and Duke Street. An inscription beneath the illustration describes the Sunday School as being "ERECTED IN YEAR 1805 AT A COST OF £22,000 INCLUDING ITS FOUR BRANCH SCHOOLS. IT ACCOMMODATES 5,000 CHILDREN WHO ARE UNDER THE INSTRUCTION OF 440 TEACHERS - SINCE ITS COMMENCEMENT 4,800 TEACHERS AND 87,000 SCHOLARS BELONGING TO VARIOUS SECTIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH HAVE BEEN ENTERED UPON ITS REGISTERS. At this time many poor children worked long hours in factories from an early age. The only education they got was in Sunday Schools. Sunday Schools were established from the 1780s. The education was generally quite basic consiting of the 3 R's (reading, writing, arithmetic) with an emphasis on religious knowledge. It was not until 1878 that the Factory and Workshop Act banned the employment of children under 10.
