Lancashire and Cheshire Society for the Permanent Care of the Feeble-Minded

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 133 MMC/8/10
  • Former Reference
      GB 133 H 3 i
  • Dates of Creation
      1899-1910
  • Physical Description
      7 items

Scope and Content

Constitution, Annual Reports and an offprint.

Administrative / Biographical History

The Society was established on 26 October 1898 at a meeting in Manchester of members of the Manchester School Board. It was originally known as the North of England Society for Promoting the Welfare of the Feeble-Minded, although this was soon changed to the Lancashire and Cheshire Society for the Permanent Care of the Feeble-Minded. In March 1899, a constitution was drawn up which identified the Society's objective's as:

(a) The collection of a fund to be used in the establishment of an Institution or Institutions for the care, education, and welfare of Feeble-Minded Persons; (b) The foundation of such an Institution or Institutions upon such terms and conditions, under such management, and, generally, in such a manner as may be thought fit; (c) And, in general, the promotion of the welfare of Feeble-minded Persons.

The Society was therefore committed to the physical segregation of the feeble-minded person into permanent residential care. The Society was governed by a central committee with a president (E.C.Maclure, dean of Manchester, was first holder of this post), a treasurer and two honorary secretaries, Joshua Cox and Mary Dendy. Dendy was the driving force behind the creation of the Society.

Dendy (1855-1933) came from a family of dissenting and radical background. She played a major role in bringing the issue of the feeble minded to the attention of public figures in the Manchester area. Dendy developed an interest in the working of the poor law in the 1890s and she was elected to the Manchester Board of Guardians in 1892 (although her election was overturned on a technicality). She also taught poor children in Collyhurst and inspected industrial schools and workhouses. In 1896 she was elected to the Manchester School Board. She then began to investigate conditions in local Board schools, and discovered the existence of educationally incapable children. In 1898 the Board resolved to establish special school for such 'feeble-minded' children. Dendy however did not believe these were a sufficient measure to prevent such children causing greater social problems in later life. She therefore proposed the more radical measure of incarcerating the feeble-minded in special institutions, believing them incapable of securing employment in the jobs market and to be habitually attracted to crime and disorder. Dendy became increasingly doctrinaire in her belief that the feeble-minded constituted the major social problem of the age.

Dendy's tireless advocacy of segregation attracted a great deal of attention. The Society rapidly increased in size and attracted members from outside the Manchester area. Professional men, doctors, clergy, lawyers and businessmen were all well-represented, as were the local philanthropic families. Branches were opened in Eccles, Altrincham and Southport.

In 1902 the Society opened the Sandlebridge Boarding Schools and Colony, near Alderley Edge, Cheshire, the first permanent residential care home for mentally deficient children. Boys and girls were housed in separate buildings. In 1904 a school house was added, with further buildings being added for adult residents. The School was funded by grants from central government and local authorities as well as by charitable donations. Medical practitioners such as Henry Ashby, Joshua Cox, Alexander Ritchie and John Clegg provided medical services. The numbers attending the schools increased rapidly, from thirty when the school opened to 265 in 1914. On the death of Dendy in 1933 the school was renamed after her, and in 1941 it was transferred to Cheshire County Council. The Society went into voluntary liquidation in 1942.

Separated Material

Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies Service holds the records of the Mary Dendy Hospital (NHM/11) and annual reports of the Society for the Permanent Care of the Feeble-Minded covering 1910-1929 (NCH/1/6).