Sutton to Macclesfield

Macclesfield Workhouse

Cheshire and Chester Archives

By Marg Thorne

Samuel Burton was considered to be beyond parental control.  The attendance officer said he couldn’t get him to go to school.  He would wait for unsuspecting children going to school, and lead them astray.  He got them to go into the orchards and steal fruit.  He was a hero and ring leader in the eyes of his peers.  He had previously been convicted of felony.  The Sutton in Ashfield School Education Board sent him to the Macclesfield Industrial School to see the error of his ways. 

The Macclesfield Industrial School was an all boys’ school, sometimes known as the “ragged school”.  It had been set up in 1866 to cater for orphans, and boys who had got into trouble. It didn’t just take children from its own area, but from a much wider area.  The superintendant and matron were Mr and Mrs Heap. It closed in 1922