Thomas Quick learnt the profession of architect in his father’s office in Blackburn, but at the age of twenty five, he spent a holiday at Mount St Bernards in Leicestershire and whilst there discovered his vocation to the religious life. He spent four or five years there as a Sistertian lay brother for foregoing to Oudenard in Belgium to study for the priesthood being ordained on the 21st of June 1863. his first appointment was to Mount St Bernard’s as director of the Reformatory. After some years, he came back to Lancashire and for a while, served at St. Aloysius Church, Ardwick, Manchester, being the first Catholic chaplain to the city gaol in Hyde Road Ardwick. During this time, he became well known as the confessor of the three men. Allen, Larkin and O’Brien in prison and under sentence of death for the murder of a policeman. Father Thomas took the greatest interest in them, going to see them each day. and spending the whole night before the executions with them, attending one of them to the scaffold. Although of English parentage and an Englishman to the backbone, Father Thomas was aware of the injustices meted out to the Irish and showed them great sympathy and understanding. These three men were hung for the shooting of a policeman. This they all strongly denied. Nevertheless, the death penalty was carried out. Afterwards, their friends erected a memorial to their memory in Moston Cemetery, Manchester and referred to the three men as the Manchester martyrs. Pilgrimages and processions have been held for years on the anniversary of their deaths but these have been banned in recent years because of the element of IRA participation.
Father Thomas was then appointed to St Augustine’s Granby Row, Manchester, where he did remarkable work amongst the congregation. He kept the young people interested by organising concerts and entertainments and by planning a ball alley and gymnasium in the school hall. It was during his term of office at St. Augustine’s that he became aware of the great need of an orphanage, a Catholic institution to care for the children who were so often left in need of a home. The working men of the parish contributed, and a small orphanage was started in Granby Row. More and more destitute children were brought to him and this led to the institution at Longsight, which was to be very well known as ‘Father Quick’s Homes’. Father Thomas Quick was appointed as manager and he left St Augustine’s to devote himself to the welfare of the children in 1871.
He made a great success of his homes due to his unending work and love for his project. About the year 1885 a change had to be made. The girls were transferred to the convent run by the Sisters of St Vincent de Paul in Victoria Park, not far from Longsight and the boy’s home became known as St Joseph’s Industrial School. The boys were taught the usual three Rs to an excellent degree and at the same time trained in some industrial subject by which they were later able to go out into the world and earn their living. From reports made by the inspectors of the time, the school received outstanding results and was held in high esteem by the authorities of the day. Boys became bakers, tailors, joiners, carpenters and a host of other useful occupations and did go out not only into English cities, but emigrated as pioneers of the times. One of the achievements of the school was the brass band in which the boys played and even I (JLQ) as a young person can remember seeing the band followed by columns of boys marching down Stockport Road to the Coliseum Picture House at Ardwick Green, where the boys had seats for the Saturday matinee.
It may be interesting at this stage to read one account of how this orphanage was started. This account was taken from public press in 1908.
St Joseph’s Industrial School Longsight.
Why it was founded
A touching story
In the first number of the ‘Josephian’, a quarterly magazine about to be published in connection with St Joseph’s Industrial School, Longsight, Manchester (which, by the way, is the largest Catholic orphanage in England) the Reverend Father Robert Smith, rect. of St Joseph’s, Nelson, contributes an article in which he relates the reasons which induced the late Father Thomas Quick, to establish this now widely known institution. Even to this day, it bears the appellation of ‘Father Quick’s School’. “A poor widow,” said Father Quick “in my district of St Augustine’s Manchester was dying. I had administered all the sacraments of the church to her and had helped and consoled her all I could. She was herself well prepared and resigned to die.” ‘But my three darling little ones.’ she said ‘dear father, are my soul anxiety when I am dead, the soupers will come and take my children and rob them of their Catholic faith. They will feed their bodies, but kill their souls. I cannot bear to think of it. No, no, father. I will not die. God, I am sure, will not let me die and leave them to lose their souls.’ I saw the danger and realised the truth of the poor widow’s fears for her little ones and learned that the philanthropist proselytizers were awaiting her death to take the children to one of their homes. The poor widows strong Catholic faith and the proselytizer’s hatred of it equally rent my heart between them but I felt at first helpless in the matter. There was no Catholic home and I, as a poor curate, had no means save a few paltry shillings. Again and again, day after day, I visited the poor widow but her fight against death grew stronger and stronger as it seemed to more closely grip her body. It was the power of mind over body and the power of a lively Catholic faith over the mind that kept her alive and miraculously held death at bay. Her cries. ‘I will not die. Father, I will not die. I cannot die and let my children’s souls be lost’ were so heart rending that my feelings overcame me and my tears and sobs mingled with hers and those of her little ones. Then her eyes brightened with a gleam of hope. She. clasped her hands in prayer to God and then most entreatingly said to me ‘cannot you – you good father – take my children and save them?’ Something supernatural seemed to animate her words and take hold of me. For the life of me, I could not refuse that poor Catholic widow’s appeal to me to be the protector of her children. Yet how was it possible for me to accede to her prayer again with her outstretched and skeletal arms raised in prayer and the tears fast rolling down her cheeks and the tears and sobs and imploring looks of her three little ones, adding emphasis to her prayers. she cried again ‘For God’s sake, father, good father, don’t refuse me. God will help you only say that you will take them and I will die in peace.’ I was completely overcome and answered well. for God’s sake. I will take them. He will help me to feed them as he feeds the birds of the air and the fishes of the sea. ‘God bless you, father and my children’ she said ‘I will now die in peace’. She fell back on her pillow The angel of death had taken her soul and I stood in that wretched cottage as poor as Bethlehem’s, for God’s sake, the Father Guardian of her three orphans.” This incident was the real foundation of St Joseph’s Industrial School, Manchester.
The following is an excerpt from the Manchester Weekly Post, September 13th 1884.
Our industrial schools
St Joseph’s Longsight.
Popular sentiment has bestowed upon the Great Catholic industrial school at Longsight, a title by which it might be sought in vain in the pages of a blue book or an official report. The personality of one untiring worker in the cause of juvenile reclamation has become so indissolubly associated with the material outcome of his life’s endeavour that it is hard to speak of St Joseph’s otherwise than as Father Quicks. By this affectionately familiar name the institution is known and appreciated in Catholic circles far and near. and we have reason to believe that there is the most ample justification for this faith in its operations. in the 15 years continual and almost single handed struggle against difficulties of all kinds We are compelled to acknowledge the conspicuous earnestness of a man seeking no reward beyond the moral elevation of unfortunate fellow creatures. to have created in the face of staggering obstacles such a school as St Joseph’s now the largest of his class in the kingdom, is an achievement remarkable even amongst the records of missionary enterprise furnished by Father Quicks own order and Like generous acknowledgment of friendly rivals in other portions of the field.
There are few indications of the busy inner life of the school apparent in any external survey of the walled in buildings which form a prominent feature of the district between Stockport Road and Victoria Park. The air of inactivity, however, extends no further than the unpretending gateway, which gives us entrance to the oldest portion of the school A two storey erection now fitted up as quarters for the senior officers, waiting rooms and offices. Within the low-browed hall stands Mister Reynolds, the tall and stalwart superintendent, who offers a cordial greeting and proceeds to pilot us through the establishment. Branching right and left are corridors whose arched roofs and statue ornamented walls are strongly suggestive of cloisters; But we have little time to note the resemblance as we pass towards the more modern part of the school. Entering a broader passage, we reach the parade room, a long and well lighted apartment where the boys are marshalled night and morning before going to and after leaving their dormitories. here a swing door gives access to the lavatory. where 260 basins cut in slat and fitted each with a glittering tap are overhung by a dense grove of spotless towels, hooked upon racks which can be lowered from the present altitude to a convenient level for use. The whole place is in a type of cleanliness, but still we perceive two or three boys at work scrubbing the already glistening tiles and foot, and giving an extra Polish to the brass work fittings. of the grey slate slabs running from end to end of the room. The schoolroom is the next place visited and here we find nearly 200 lads, big and little, ranged upon the forms which rise in stages halfway up the wall opposite to us on entrance. The room is long and lofty, but narrow, and full of that humming murmur which seems inseparable from the exercise of youthful minds in intellectual fields. We are introduced to Mr O’Callaghan, the schoolmaster who has so we learn more than 300 boys under his charge about one half that number being in the upper standards 4, 5 and 6 and the others in the more elementary stages of instruction. Here again, as we have learned elsewhere, it seldom happens that a town boy committed to the school comes in entirely unacquainted with the rudiments of Education, but from the rural districts there are admitted lads of 10 and 11 years of age, who have not the least trace of book knowledge, a must perforce be started on their educational course ab initio. These cases, of course, tend to reduce the general average of excellence, but there is a twinkle of justifiable satisfaction in the master’s eye as he tells that in the past three years he has passed respectively 96, 97 and 98% of his scholars in the tough examinations to which they are subjected by Her Majesty’s inspector and the school board representative. Knowing as we do the generally neglected character of the lads on admission, and the difficulty of imparting simultaneously with a training in some industrial pursuit, we have. no hesitation in remarking that this result is one of which any school might be proud, and particularly, as is the case here, when the moral influence of the teacher has been sufficient to maintain the boy’s diligent attention to study without resort. to punishment of any kind. Above the schoolroom, and extending the whole length of the tall block are the dormitories, where neatly covered beds of graduated sizes are ranged from end to end in parallel order. About midway, the perspective is broken by a partition department wherein an officer is quoted and curtained apertures in the walls of his chamber enable him to see into every corner of the large room, so that at no time is the supervision over the boys relaxed. the authorities are moreover assisted in their tasks by subordinates appointed from among the senior or more trustworthy inmates, who are ‘graded’ in military fashion, from Lance Corporal to sergeant major, and are entrusted each with the virtual command of a section of their fellow pupils. These petty offices are selected as being calculated to furnish an example of industry and probity to the main body. Night and day, they are in constant association with their fellows and it is satisfactory to learn that the confidence placed in them is not abused as that every other boy is impelled to a rigid discharge of duty by the hope of in turn attaining the dignity associated with the ‘stripes’ which mark the higher grades. These explanations by the superintendent serve to carry us over the interval occupied in traversing the passages, connecting the dormitories with the parade room, which seems to have the property, ascribed by some geographers to the Eternal City, of lying at the termination of every road we take in our irregular survey. Our guide, however, has but followed his own mental plan of the tour, which was intended to include the large dining hall into which he leads the way before. Before. it should be occupied by those who are now separated by very few minutes from their mid day meal. The hall is fitted with closely arranged tables upon which dinner is now spread and half a dozen of the lads are scurrying in and out of the kitchen with matters needed to complete the table furniture. crossing the wide playground were a couple of hundred boys are making the most of the anti prandial interval. We peep in at the wash house and find laundry operations in progress under the charge of more youngsters. Next door is the plunge bath with glazed brick sides and cemented floor varying in depth to two to five feet or thereabouts. The lads are required to bathe once a week at least and in hot weather they spend some part of each evening in the water. in an upper story of the same building is the tailor’s shop and here we see about 20 boys ranged on a platform around the room in conventional attitude. Busy in the production of all sorts of articles intended for where. some very young ones are bestowing all their attention upon the repairing of under And outer garments, whilst others, more advanced in years and expertness, are engaged in making new suits of odorous fustain. An adult overseer who comes forward with specimens for our inspection of the school uniform and the Tweed suits given to each inmate on his discharge, says that the menders are new arrivals who will by and by go into the maker’s class. Many of the pupils are now in regular employment as tailors in the city have been chosen on leaving school to pursue the craft they learn so thoroughly within its walks. A similar story is related by the master shoemaker whose domain we shortly enter and who with his 37 assistance supplies boots not only to the 370 inmates of St Joseph’s, but also to the 130 girls who have just removed to their new home near Victoria Park. in this workroom, we come across the captain of the school or Called the sergeant major. A sturdy lad of 15 whose bright face and observant glance afford as clear evidence of his ability to succeed in the competition of intellects as his muscular development does of his power to control the physical energy of his schoolmates. We have a novel experience in the next workroom visited, standing in four rows on either side of a couple of narrow tails of 40 or 50 boys engaging, making wooden matchboxes. It is astonishing to mark the almost incredible swiftness with which even the smallest boy fashions complete black boxes out of strips of wood and paper. So adept to some of these boys become that we are told they can turn out from 15 to 18 complete boxes per minute. A rate of production, which to our unaccustomed mind, appears little short of impossible, but which fully bears out the further statement that more than 100 gross of matchboxes are daily manufactured in this workshop. Near at hand, we find a shop where 10 boys are being initiated into the mystery of a joiner’s occupation and a bake house with a yawning extent of oven from which the floury Master Baker is extracting the loaves made by his half dozen youthful subordinates during the early morning hours.
At this point, we finish our inspection of the school proper and enter the home for working boys, and offshoot from the main building and in every respect, a reduced copy but intended solely for the accommodation of a number of boys who have nearly completed their term and are now working outside on licence. This term is used simply in regard to lads who, having displayed uncommon aptitude or trustworthiness, are placed in situations before they have reached the age of 16, when they pass beyond the control of the authorities, each boy so treated is expected to conform in all respects to the home discipline, returning thither each night and obeying its rules. In case of bad conduct or other offence, he may be recalled from his situation and sent back to the stricter regime of the school, but it is rarely indeed that this is found necessary. With the influence of several years careful training strong upon them, the lads almost universally enter with diligence upon the path in life marked for them. 97% of the boys discharged from the school are doing well in the official phraseology, which means that since their re-entrance into the world, they have so conducted themselves as to not only keep clear of the civil authorities, but have earned a favourable report respecting character and industry from their employers. In another part of the school grounds, there is a similar home conducted on a somewhat different plan. Here there is accommodation provided for a number of youths over 16 years of age and consequently independent of discipline or compulsory direction. All of them are working at their various trades and are invited to use the home in connexion with their old school as a kind of lodging house where in addition to plain but excellent food and comfortable bedrooms, they have the run of a well fitted recreation room and library provided to counteract the temptations attended upon leisure hours spent in the streets, or even more undesirable places. For the inmates of this model lodging house there is but little restraint. All that is demanded being that they shall be indoors at a certain hour nightly and submit to a not overexacting code of rules. There is, however, a plain intimation given to each youth that any misconduct on his part will inevitably lead to expulsion but cases in which such a step have been taken are almost unknown. It may here be stated that the Home Office in its dealings with industrial schools require that for the first three years next preceding a boy’s discharge, he shall be kept as far as possible under friendly supervision and the success of each school is regulated as much by the character of the report’s received concerning the boys thus on probation, as it were, as by the official statement respecting the actual number under detention. Thus it will be seen the responsibility of school managers is extended up to the 19th year of all past inmates, Although from the age of 16 the compulsory powers of control cease under the statute.. This regulation is often condemned as bearing hardly upon school authorities for universal testimony is against the probability of every boy turning out well after his release. And there is a general opinion in favour of an extension of the statutory age of perfect liberty so far as to embrace the three years during which without power to avert or relapse, the school is made to suffer for such backsliding.. Failing the provision of a legislative safeguard, these homes have been established to bridge over the critical. and in no case have they been found to answer their purpose better than St Joseph’s. We have before alluded to the recent departure of the girls to a newly provided home and as a conclusion to our visit, we were taken over the premises they formally occupied and which are now being fitted as a branch school for junior boys. On the way to this furthest quarter of the school buildings, we came across the founder and ruler of the busy little community. With such a burden on his shoulders, it is perhaps inevitable that time should have dealt rather hardly with Father Quick but the somewhat careworn face is smoothed by a kindly smile as he greets the Stranger within his gates. “It is a great responsibility and one having its trials” is the answer to our remark. “But the work of management would not concern me in the least if I only could get people to help me as I require”. The Reverend gentleman is no supporter of the traditional belief that a public institution always flourishes most when burdened with a debt. Financial deficits appear to lie at the root of his present troubles but there is no suspicion of complaint that Father Quick’s co-religionists have not, according to their means, fully responded to his appeal on behalf of their own institution. In the course of a further conversation, we learned that over 35,000 pounds have been expended upon the school and of this sum £10,000 at least is still owing. Then the talk gets upon the question of religious inequality, as exemplified in the granting of large sums by school boards and other public bodies to the Protestant industrial schools. Whilst Catholic institutions are left entirely dependent upon government grants and voluntary contributions. On this subject there is shown a little of what we may venture to call natural warmth, but whilst expressing an individual opinion which appears entirely satisfactory to him who listens, we discreetly avoid the general subject of religious distinction. Before finally quitting the school, we have submitted to our notice a ponderous album containing the photographs of a multitude of boys who were once inmates of St Joseph’s. from all parts of the world and executed in all styles of art. These counterfeit presentments have come as reminders that however widely scattered over the Earth’s surface they may be the old boys retain affectionate memories of their one time guide and counsellor and of the institution where the turning point of their lives was passed. amongst them we see soldiers, sailors, well dressed workmen of all kinds and schoolmasters. side by side, with some of the portraits are photographs of the same persons as they appeared on entering the school and we could have no more convincing testimony of good work performed than the contrast between ragged and miserable boyhood on the one hand, and respectable confident manhood on the other. These tokens of remembrance and the letters which are constantly being received from old pupils in distant lands are numbered amongst Father Quicks consolations in time of depression and furnish him with a powerful stimulus in the constant warfare with difficulties of which, as we bid him adieu, we sincerely anticipate the speedy removal.
The following excerpt from the 14th annual report of St. Joseph Boys Industrial Schools, 8 Richmond Grove, Longside, Manchester, dated January 1885 is interesting. The general discipline piece and good order throughout the different departments continue to be all that can be desired. The committee feel they cannot too highly compliment the Reverend Manager Father Quick and his assistant. and his assistance on the admirable manner in which the internal arrangements have been conducted. in. July last through the liberality of a few friends and the officers of the institution. The boys were treated to an excursion to New Brighton before. the following paragraph on this trip appeared in the Liverpool Post.
New Brighton Palace, the children of St Joseph’s Boys home, Manchester to the number of about 400 visited the Palace, New Brighton last Wednesday under the supervision of Mr Reynolds Superintendent. The boys presented a remarkably clean healthy appearance and seemed to enjoy their trip immensely. Their orderly conduct was much noticed by the general public and the management of the Palace report that notwithstanding the freedom given to the boys to roam all over the premises, not the slightest damage was done by any of them.
Examiners and inspectors reports.
Salford School Board report.
I visited this school on the 19th of February 1884. The premises were clean, except on the ground floor, and this was owing, as explained by the superintendent, to the bad state of the playground which the managers are about to remedy. The dormitories and bedding were in a satisfactory condition. There is an excellent lavatory and a good swimming bath. The general appearance of the boys is satisfactory. The doctor visits the school three times a week. The punishments average about 6 a month. The working boy’s homes adjoining the school are clean and suitably furnished
signed JGC Parsons.
Her Majesty’s inspector’s report May 19th 1884.
I am again enabled to report favourably of the conditions of this large and important boy’s school and of the general management of the institution.
I find all in good working order and going on steadily. The playground has been re-asphalted since my last visit and I am quite sure that it will have a beneficial influence as to the health and comfort of the inmates. Indeed, the boys (361) have been remarkably well since my last inspection and it is very gratifying that they have been no deaths or serious illness to any extent. I have examined the classes in the schoolroom and am glad to say that there is no falling off. The teachers have taken great pains with their boys. There has been very intelligent and painstaking instruction. The classes have all passed a very creditable examination from the 5th standard downwards. I have visited all the workshops and found the boys diligently employed under a good staff of competent officers apparently animated with the desire to inspire the confidence of the poor, neglected children committed to their charge. I may say the same of all the staff of officers from the Superintendent to the most humble worker in the establishment. It is evident that the Superintendent and the manager have the cordial support of the whole body of assistance. The dormitories were clean and airy. All the arrangements are excellent and suitable. The children are cheerful and orderly. The system of the homes for the senior boys seems to be producing an excellent effect. The general report as to the conduct gives me much satisfaction.
Signed Henry Rogers HM Deputy Inspector.
In time, Father Quick became overworked and ill with chest trouble and it was decided that he should emigrate to America. First he went to Omaha in Nebraska then on to Parker, where his parish consisted of four chapels and was 100 miles in radius. There are three pamphlets which give a yearly account of the parish finances. They refer to St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Beatrice, NE and St James Catholic Church, Courtland, NE. Father Thomas gives all details of the year’s work in a letter which is in part a sermon extorting his people to live good Christian lives. They make very interesting reading, but one must remember that these booklets were published 100 years ago and ecumenism had not then been heard of. He would have liked to have returned to his native Lancashire, but was afraid of the dampness of its atmosphere. Although the weather was very severe in Dakota, often being 30 degrees below zero, he was quite free of the attacks of illness he had suffered in England. Father Thomas continued to take a great interest in the Catholic news of this country, often distributing the pamphlets of the Catholic Truth Society amongst the people of his parishes. In 1896 he was appointed pastor of St Simon and St Jude’s at Flandreau. But after a further two years work was taken ill with chest and heart trouble and after several weeks illness died on the 23rd of October 1898. He was a charitable, devoted and zealous priest and the influence of his example would not be lost on all who came in contact with him. He had worked hard for the spiritual welfare of his people and his death was a particularly happy and edifying one. The boys of St Joseph’s never forgot the kindness of Father Thomas Quick and many expressed their disgust that no permanent memorial was erected in his memory. Although he loved his American parishes and did enormous good work there I think his heart remained with his beloved orphans in Longsight, Manchester. The schools in Longsight were founded by Father Quick in 1871 and were taken over by the Christian brothers in 1886. The school was enlarged in 1911 and later became an approved school transferring to a country district in 1941 in keeping with the policy of the Home Office.
Her Majesty’s inspector’s report May 19th 1884.
I am again enabled to report favourably of the conditions of this large and important boy’s school and of the general management of the institution.
I find all in good working order and going on steadily. The playground has been re-asphalted since my last visit and I am quite sure that it will have a beneficial influence as to the health and comfort of the inmates. Indeed, the boys (361) have been remarkably well since my last inspection and it is very gratifying that they have been no deaths or serious illness to any extent. I have examined the classes in the schoolroom and am glad to say that there is no falling off. The teachers have taken great pains with their boys. There has been very intelligent and painstaking instruction. The classes have all passed a very creditable examination from the 5th standard downwards. I have visited all the workshops and found the boys diligently employed under a good staff of competent officers apparently animated with the desire to inspire the confidence of the poor, neglected children committed to their charge. I may say the same of all the staff of officers from the Superintendent to the most humble worker in the establishment. It is evident that the Superintendent and the manager have the cordial support of the whole body of assistance. The dormitories were clean and airy. All the arrangements are excellent and suitable. The children are cheerful and orderly. The system of the homes for the senior boys seems to be producing an excellent effect. The general report as to the conduct gives me much satisfaction.
Signed Henry Rogers HM Deputy Inspector.
In time, Father Quick became overworked and ill with chest trouble and it was decided that he should emigrate to America. First he went to Omaha in Nebraska then on to Parker, where his parish consisted of four chapels and was 100 miles in radius. There are three pamphlets which give a yearly account of the parish finances. They refer to St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Beatrice, NE and St James Catholic Church, Courtland, NE. Father Thomas gives all details of the year’s work in a letter which is in part a sermon extorting his people to live good Christian lives. They make very interesting reading, but one must remember that these booklets were published 100 years ago and ecumenism had not then been heard of. He would have liked to have returned to his native Lancashire, but was afraid of the dampness of its atmosphere. Although the weather was very severe in Dakota, often being 30 degrees below zero, he was quite free of the attacks of illness he had suffered in England. Father Thomas continued to take a great interest in the Catholic news of this country, often distributing the pamphlets of the Catholic Truth Society amongst the people of his parishes. In 1896 he was appointed pastor of St Simon and St Jude’s at Flandreau. But after a further two years work was taken ill with chest and heart trouble and after several weeks illness died on the 23rd of October 1898. He was a charitable, devoted and zealous priest and the influence of his example would not be lost on all who came in contact with him. He had worked hard for the spiritual welfare of his people and his death was a particularly happy and edifying one. The boys of St Joseph’s never forgot the kindness of Father Thomas Quick and many expressed their disgust that no permanent memorial was erected in his memory. Although he loved his American parishes and did enormous good work there I think his heart remained with his beloved orphans in Longsight, Manchester. The schools in Longsight were founded by Father Quick in 1871 and were taken over by the Christian brothers in 1886. The school was enlarged in 1911 and later became an approved school transferring to a country district in 1941 in keeping with the policy of the Home Office.
Eventually the site and buildings were bought by the Greater Manchester Police Force for their cadet training school.