Records of Leeds Friends First Day Schools

A separate entry has been compiled for the school at Great Wilson Street (formerly Fleece Lane). Information about the schools at Carlton Hill, Pontefract Lane (formerly Mill Street) and Woodhouse Carr is contained in the combined annual reports issued by Friends First Day Schools in Leeds; there are no other surviving records for these schools. Minutes of teachers' meetings, [1868]-1898 (2 vols.) [O 11/3-4]; include interleaved annual reports; Printed annual reports, 1885-1892 (8 items) [O 11/5-12]; Papers, 1869-1896, including annual reports for 1868-1871, 1878&1883, (1 bundle) [O 11/18]

Until 1868, the only Friends First Day School in Leeds was based at Camp Lane Court Meeting House. When the main Leeds Meeting moved to Carlton Hill in 1868, a new First Day School was set up there, whilst the original school stayed in the locality, in new premises in Fleece Lane. The teachers of both schools held joint meetings from 1868; from 1870, they were joined by teachers from the recently established First Day School in Mill Street. From 1895, there were also First Day classes for children based at Woodhouse Carr Adult School. Jubilee celebrations were held in 1897, marking the beginning of the first Friends First Day School in Camp Lane Court in 1847. However, this became a turning point, not of new growth, but of declining enthusiasm and inertia. The Friends Adult Schools began to organise as a separate body around this time and in 1903 formed their own Leeds and District Adult Schools Sub Union. This finally broke the official ties of the Adult School movement to the Society of Friends in Leeds.

The records are numbered and arranged according to the system used when they were in Carlton Hill Meeting House

The conditions of deposit include a clause requiring written prior permission from a Friend Custodian for access to consult current legal documents and any material less than fifty years old

The collection of archives of the Society of Friends formerly held at the Friends Meeting House at Carlton Hill, Leeds

In English

Contents listed in Handlist 99, "Inventory of the records of Brighouse, Knaresborough, Leeds, and Settle Monthly Meetings of the Society of Friends formerly preserved at the Friends Meeting house, Carlton Hill, Leeds", 2nd edition, 1997

As with access, the photocopying of current legal documents and any material less than fifty years old requires the permission of a Friend Custodian

Related material in Leeds University Library: Records of Leeds: Great Wilson Street Friends First Day School

Samuel Southall, The story of the Leeds Adult Schools (Leeds and District Adult School Sub Union, 1909)

The records are deposited and remain the property of the Society of Friends