Education in the West Riding to the mid-century

Federation or 'Union' of Institutes enabled national systems of lectures to be created and the free circulation of books and pamphlets to be started. By about 1846 the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes began to expand and by mid-century it embraced over 100 Institutes with a total membership of nearly 20 000. But in 1852 Bradford manufacturers had to bear the lash of John Ruskin's tongue for their lack of thought for the future in a period when trade was doing well. Ruskin asked about the provisions for art, culture, design and general education - and found them wanting:

"Merchants and manufacturers of Bradford, ye worship the Goddess of Getting­ on, but what are you doing for the elevation of your workpeople; for the dissemination of a love of art among them; nay, even for elevating the standard of design in the goods you manufacture?"

 

 

Ruskin's words went unheeded until foreign competition began to bite; only then did education, especially technical education, receive serious attention.