3-053-840 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Laying the foundation-stone of St. Paul's College, Knutsford - procession of choristers, 1873. 'On Wednesday week the Bishop of Chester and Lord de Tabley laid the foundation-stone of a new chapel and college at Knutsford, in Cheshire. The new building is to be a college for the northern counties, and is intended to provide scholastic education on a scale rivalling that given at Eton and Harrow. It is designed to accommodate 500 boys, twenty-four junior resident masters, senior and junior warden, and the required number of servants...The ground attached to the college - forty acres - is excellent. The cost is estimated at £60,000. Full Masonic ceremonies were observed in laying the stone of the collegiate chapel, and Lord de Tabley delivered an address, in which he said that, although the institution would be connected with the Church of England, yet its portals would not be closed to the members of other Churches who chose to observe regulations formed for its government. A banquet was subsequently held, at which the nobility, gentry, and clergy of the surrounding district were present. The Principal of the institution is the Rev. W. H. Hatch, M. A. The building is expected to be completed by January, 1875'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873..