All eyes on the Lyceum
Reporter: JANICE BARKER
Date published: 23 September 2009
Tour takes in union Street’s historic building
He was called Horatio Nelson... not the naval hero, but the man who helped to found Oldham’s Lyceum school of learning for the working classes.
And the story of Nelson, a famous Oldham hatter who lived in Glodwick, was outlined to visitors who were taken on a tour of the Union Street building.
Local historian Freda Millett recalled how half-timers — children employed to work par-time — in Oldham’s mills were clamouring for formal education around 1838.
They began knocking on doors for support and enlisted Nelson, who had many friends in high places.
First established in rooms in Henshaw Street, and around the corner from the present Union Street building, the school started to grow.
And with the backing of the wealthy Platt family, the foundation stone of the present building, now the School of Music, was laid by James Platt in 1855.
Mrs Millett’s tour, part of Heritage Open Days, took in the grand staircase, the stained glass window, the few remaining grand ceilings and Victorian-tiled entrance hall.
She recalled how the Lyceum had the only observatory in Lancashire for studying the stars and planets until the Second World War, and originally had a billiard room and gym.
Mrs Millett also recalled how, as a pupil at Oldham High School, she would call in to the Lyceum’s reading room.
She said: “I can only say it was sumptuous. There was a lovely carpet and wallpaper, big arm chairs, and a long table. We used to read magazines such as the Tatler, Vogue and Queen, lovely posh books, and no-one questioned us.”
Some 40 years ago, she recorded the memoirs of a 90-year-old Oldham man, whose father was one of the original half-timers who clamoured for somewhere to learn, and who eventually became a qualified engineer.
Horatio Nelson became the Lyceum’s first president, the first name on the roll of honour, still displayed in the Music School’s entrance hall.
