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St John's schools, Bury (a former boys and girls school on Hornby Street/Birch Street)

In Bury (Greater Manchester), on the corner of Hornby Street and Birch Street (just off Walmersley Road), there is a set of buildings which look like a church. 

This is what they look like today. 


This is the former St John's schools, which appear on old maps, such as the one below dated to 1890. 



Here is the school on a map of Bury dated to 1908: 


I have found a reference to these schools (one for boys and one for girls) in Barrett's 1883 Directory of Bury. Based on the name, the school had links with St John's Church of England which used to be on St John's square in Bury (near where Costa is now on "The Rock"). Old St John's church dated back to 1770. From 1956, most of its services were held at Seedfield Mission Church on Parkinson Avenue, later the site of the church hall. From 1964, the congregation of St John's church permanently relocated to a new building at its present location on Sunny Avenue.

Here is some information about the school/s taken from the website of St John's with St Mark's Church of England: "St John’s Church School was opened in 1869. Some of the children there were part-timers, the rest of the time working at the local mills."

Referring to the traditional "Whit Walks" held for Sunday schools every year, the same website also states: "After the large gathering of all Church of England churches in Union Square, those from St John’s would then process to the old St John’s on the Rock for a brief service – and then make their way to the old St John’s Infant School on Hornby Street."  

Here is information from the Bury Times (January 2014): "In around 1870, St John’s Church then decided to open a school which was built on Hornby Street, after receiving money from the Manchester Diocese. It was not until 1972, when the old building was deemed to be unsafe, that a new school was built." Later, St John's school on Hornby Street was known for the pantomimes performed there right up until 1971; from 1973, these performances were relocated to the new church hall for St John's church.   

The site of the new school, opened in 1972, was Athlone Avenue. The school later amalgamated with St Mark's primary school and is now known as "St John with Mark Primary School".

Part of the former complex of school buildings is now owned and used by a local Shia mosque, Al Mahdi Foundation. Other buildings facing Birch Street (previously Tile Street) are signposted as being used by "Europa car parts". 

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