King's Manor: once York's School for the Blind, today an Accessibility Blackspot
Lithograph of King’s Manor as it was during its time as the School for the Blind.
Accessibility costs are impacting one of York's iconic buildings, but this isn't the first time it has struggled to accommodate disability.
This post was written on 28 July 2024 by Kathi Bähner
In June 2024 the University of York announced that it will be moving out of one of its most iconic and best-loved landmarks: King’s Manor. The building will no longer be used as a location for teaching, and all departments housed in the city centre will be relocated back to the main campus. This decision has been made due to high maintenance costs of the centuries-old building and difficulties in ensuring accessibility for disabled students. The costs of bringing the building up to adequate standards of accessibility for all students and members of the institution are reportedly too high for the university to undertake.[1] Nonetheless a look back at King’s Manor’s past reveals that people living with disabilities have been a part of its story since 1833, when the Yorkshire School for the Blind was established within its walls.[2] In light of this, the building’s abandonment over the issue of accessibility seems sadly ironic.
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King’s Manor: What’s in a Name?
King’s Manor is a building complex in the city centre of York that started life as the abbot’s house for St Mary’s Abbey. In 1539, the Council of the North – a government body that ruled northern England on the monarch’s behalf – took over the buildings as their headquarters. King Henry VIII’s first visit to York then caused significant changes to the building to make it fit for use as a royal residence, giving it the name by which we still call it today.[3] James I and Charles I also stayed at King’s Manor during their visits to York, enhancing its royal credentials.
The council of the North was abolished in 1641 and the manor served as the headquarters for the Royalists in York during the subsequent civil war. The building then went through several further changes of function throughout its long and rich history until it was acquired by the University of York in 1962 and established as a home for its Centre for Medieval Studies, as well as the Archaeology department and the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies.[4] One of the most interesting of those functions was as a benevolent place of education for people with impaired sight.
A modern view of King’s Manor. The University of York has used it to house various institutions over the decades since it took up the lease, including the Institute for Advanced Architectural Studies.
The former King’s residence in the North hosted a school for blind children between the ages of five and twenty from 1833 to 1956. Until 1922, the school shared the grounds and buildings of King’s Manor with the Manor School, where the famous diarist Anne Lister met her first love Eliza Raine around 1805. The school for the blind ensured that its pupils acquired skills in manual and technical labour in order to be able to work and make their living, as well as providing people who were blinded after the age of sixteen with work. A small number of people were also accommodated at King’s Manor and provided with a home.[5]
The institution was built in the name of the late William Wilberforce. Born in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, Wilberforce was a member of parliament and major advocate for the abolitionist movement in Britain. Due to his work and activism, the Slave Trade Act was passed in 1807, prohibiting the trading of slaves across the British Empire. His allies later managed to persuade parliament to abolish slavery completely in 1833. He died shortly afterwards.[6]
In his memory, his friends argued that a fitting monument would be an institution that would help blind people to make a living of their own and offer them new perspectives. Ever since Wilberforce was a child, he had suffered from impaired eyesight that sometimes prevented him from reading for long periods of time.[7] In his later life, Wilberforce was also a philanthropist and did plenty of charity work. He was mostly religiously motivated and directed his donations and support toward the education of the poor.[8] However, his determination to live by biblical principles also made him paternalistic and conservative in many respects. Although he was a great force behind the abolition of slavery and a supporter of the poor, he openly campaigned against improvement of rights for the working class and was strictly against the development of labour unions.[9]
It is important to bear in mind that philanthropists, especially from Wilberforce’s time, did have a great impact on social changes and deserve to be commemorated. However, although we have to be thankful for their work, they do not always live up to the image of an immaculate hero. It is important to question their actions and keep in mind what motivated their charity work. History is not black and white and all ‘heroes’ have their grey spots.
The school bears Wilberforce’s name to commemorate him, but the actual founders of the school were his friends, who built it as a charitable project in his memory. One of the men who helped fund the school was William Venables Vernon Harcourt, a cleric and a man of science. He argued for the funding of the school at a meeting at the York Minster and made the case that it would be rational and humanitarian to establish such a school at once, since it would benefit society to enable people with limited sight to develop skills and find a place to work instead of being dependent on aid.[10]
“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know” – 1791 speech against slavery by William Wilberforce, depicted here in an unfinished portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence
Difficulties for the school
When they entered the school, some children were unable to count or recite the alphabet, while others were unable to dress or wash themselves. It was evident that some attendees of the school were severely neglected beforehand due to their disabilities. The school’s curriculum was adjusted to children that had been severely neglected, and as such centred on basic maths and English, as well as religious and moral teachings and training in industrial manufacturing skills. This was partially funded by a weekly payment that was due for every child. The amount of three shillings and six pence was paid by the children’s families, friends, or parishes.[11]
Nonetheless, the school faced difficulties in the areas of finance and funding. The king did not allow the school to use King’s Manor rent-free, which left it with a high cost of leasing the buildings. The cost for one child at the school was £60 per year. That put it among the schools with the highest expenses in England.[12]
Additionally, it was not included in the education grant other schools received, because it was not a conventional national school. That made funding the school even harder. The school had to rely mostly on charity and had to acquire new funding constantly by appealing to private investors. Those issues were common for institutions for blind and disabled children and citizens. Most of the children attending the school came from poor families that could not pay the fee for their children’s education, or even their basic living costs. In order to generate donations by appealing to philanthropists and evoking pity in possible donors, public inspections of the school and the children took place. The children were also able to learn musical instruments, which appealed to the visitors. The school was in constant search for new supporters to keep the school running.[13]
The legacy of King’s Manor
Already in the Victorian era, disabled children and young adults had to rely on private donations to be able to access education.[14] It seems that even after the many years of King’s Manor’s history and the many changes it has undergone, inclusivity is still an ongoing issue in today’s society. What does it mean for a building that once housed an institute specifically for disabled children to now be abandoned for accessibility reasons?
In terms of the living history of disability, it is disappointing to see that the university has to give up the buildings of King’s Manor for exactly that reason. The costs of adjusting the building to modern accessibility standards are too high and unmanageable for the university. King’s Manor once represented a home and shelter for children with disabilities, where they were able to learn and get the rightful education every child should be entitled to. Now, nearly two hundred years after the school’s establishment, King’s Manor is unable to share this spirit and cannot provide students and members of the institution with proper support. In every sense, this hinders students with disabilities’ access to higher education. We can only hope that the future plans for the building will follow in its best traditions and continue to make it a place of community and education in the spirit of inclusivity for all.
Written by Kathi Bähner
This article was originally published on the research blog of Uncomfortable Oxford.
To learn more about the Manor School that shared the building with the School for the Blind, and about its most famous alumna Anne Lister (AKA ‘Gentleman Jack), why not join one of our regular Uncomfortable York tours? You can also read our article about the dark side of this lesbian icon online. Alternatively, you can check out the story of a different manor which the school’s founder William Venables Vernon Harcourt inherited – Nuneham House – and how his descendants made it a symbol of the British aristocracy’s self-destruction.
References
[1] University of York, King’s Manor – Investing in the our Campus. https://www.york.ac.uk/campus-investment/current/kings-manor/
[2] University of York, King’s Manor, https://www.york.ac.uk/about/campus/kings-manor/
[3] Ibid.
[4] University of York, King’s Manor – Investing in the our Campus. https://www.york.ac.uk/campus-investment/current/kings-manor/
[5] Bergen, Amanda. “A Philosophical Experiment: The Wilberforce Memorial School for the Blind c.1833–1870.” Published online in: European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire Volume 14, no. 2. 2007. 147-164.
[6] Adam Hochschild, William Wilberforce: The Real Abolitionist? 2011. https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/william_wilberforce_article_01.shtml
[7] Pollock, John, Wilberforce. London: Constable, 1977. 18.
[8] Pollock, John, Wilberforce. London: Constable, 1977. 92/93.
[9] Pollock, John, Wilberforce. London: Constable, 1977. 168.
[10] Bergen, Amanda. “A Philosophical Experiment", 150.
[11] Bergen, Amanda. “A Philosophical Experiment", 152.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Bergen, Amanda. THE PUBLIC EXAMINATION OF DEAF AND BLIND CHILDREN IN YORKSHIRE, 1829-1890. In: Northern History. 2004. 151.
[14] David Turner, How blind Victorians campaigned for inclusive education. BBC, published online, October 2014. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-29327232