Rochdale's Pioneers of Worker Education: The WEA Class of 1908

At the beginning of the 20th century, many working men and women in Rochdale, as in so many industrial towns across the United Kingdom, were eager to build on the knowledge they had of the world. They wanted to learn, not just about science or literature but about their immediate industrial experience and their social and political place in it. Their cries for knowledge were heard, and men of learning from the Co-operative Movement and from the universities came forward to help them with educational courses that met their intellectual, spiritual and political needs. At the forefront of this support rose the Workers Educational Association (the WEA) but it needed a town and a group of students to carry out its great ‘experiment.’ Rochdale was chosen, for its radical history, its network of educational organisations, its nonconformist zeal and its commitment to learning. In 1908 the town hosted the first WEA tutorial class in the country and recruited one of the great socialist thinkers of the day in R H Tawney to lead, and in the end to be led by its worker students. This book tells the story of how the WEA tutorial class came into being, the social situation faced by those who came forward for study, who the students were and what they went on to become. Drawn from the mills and often the poorest neighbourhoods in Rochdale, this first group of students were indeed pioneers of worker education. From a photograph of the first tutorial class of 1908, Gary Heywood-Everett has identified and celebrated individual students, discussed their aspirations, looked at what they did for a living and interviewed some of their relatives. Not only does he discuss the reason why Rochdale was chosen as the site for this great experiment in worker education but also asks what motivated the first students to join and, following their experiences, how they used their knowledge.