Training College,
which was erected from a design and under the superintendence of Messrs. J. C. and G. Buckler, of London, at an estimated cost of £10,000, raised by public subscription, assisted by a grant from Government, and was completed in September, 1842. The institution is under the presidency of the Lord Bishop of the diocese, and has the sanction of the Deans and Chapters of Chester and Manchester. The object it seeks to promote is, the supply of the parochial schools of the Diocese of Chester with masters well qualified by a sound religious and scientific training, for the discharge of their important duties. Hitherto, it has nobly sustained its purpose, and, by regularly sending forth men whose minds have been brought under thorough discipline, and well furnished with general knowledge and science, is doing very much towards the elevation of parochial education in the diocese. The college is under the able direction of the Rev. Arthur Rigg, M.A., of Christ’s College, Cambridge. A handsome chapel is attached to the college.
In the Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education for 1850, there are the following remarks, by the Rev. Henry Moseley, upon the Chester Training College:—
“I have to bear the same testimony as heretofore to the excellent discipline of the Institution; to the great order that pervades it; and to the judicious arrangements made in respect to the industrial training of the students, the industry, cheerfulness, and activity with which these labours are pursued, in the intervals of study, is most pleasing to contemplate. I know no other training school which, in respect to these things, appears to me superior to this; and I attach to them, in a moral point of view, the first importance. Nor do I know any other in which the buildings appear to me better adapted to the use of a training school, or in which those minor arrangements, on which the domestic comfort of the inmates and the good order of the household depend, are more carefully observed.”
A few paces further on is an ancient tower, formerly called the Goblin’s Tower, but now known by the name of Pemberton’s Parlour. Being in a ruinous condition, part of it was taken down in 1702, and the remainder renovated and repaired. On the front was some excellent carved work in stone, and the names of the then Mayor (the Earl of Derby) and the other corporate officers of the year in which the repairs were made; but in consequence of the stone being of a soft and friable nature, and from other causes, both the inscription and the carved work are now almost obliterated. The inscription, so far as it is legible, is as follows:—
“ * * * year of the glorious reign of Queen Anne divers wide breaches in these walls were rebuilt, and other decays therein were repaired; 2,000 yards of the pavement were new flagged or paved, and the whole repaired, regulated, and adorned, at the expense of £1,000 and upwards. Thomas Hand, Esq., Mayor, 1701. The Right Honourable William, Earl of Derby, Mayor, 1702, who died in his Mayoralty.”
On the left is a large field, anciently called Barrow Field, which was used by the Roman soldiers for their military exercises; a vast number of bodies were buried here at one of the periods when the plague raged so severely in the city.
Continuing our route westward, we next come to