First client at the School of Chiropody: the Minister of Education — Miss Ellen Wilkinson.
The Education Act of 1944 was a major moment in the postwar reconstruction of Britain’s education system, placing particular emphasis on expanding secondary education and widening student access. Guided through Parliament by the Conservative Education Minister Richard Austen Butler (1902–1982), the Act reduced inequalities and modernised educational provision. Free secondary education was extended to all children up to the age of fifteen, supported by a reorganisation of grammar schools, secondary modern schools, technical schools, and colleges. Within this framework, technical education played a key role in preparing skilled workers for industry.
As part of the implementation, technical schools and colleges were required to assess their facilities, producing equipment inventories and deficiency lists to support future expansion. At the Royal Technical College, Salford, this review revealed shortages in woodwork, electrical engineering, and electrical installation. Additional equipment was needed to meet Ministry standards. In contrast, mechanical engineering and physics were better resourced. Industry increasingly recognised the value of technical education, and the College demonstrated flexibility in responding to both local and national demands.
One growing area was the School of Chiropody. By the mid-1940s, twelve part-time students were already undertaking training in partnership with professional practitioners. However, the College faced an ongoing shortage of space; a former park and gardener’s house on the opposite side of Peel Park was repurposed as a clinic and teaching facility, and during the interim period, teaching was temporarily delivered in Ancoats, Manchester.
The momentum generated by the Education Act was reinforced by the Percy Report (1945). A year later in 1946, the College celebrated its Golden Jubilee, fifty years after its founding, using the occasion to showcase achievements and articulate ambitions for expansion. The Principal, Dr Eric Richardson (1905-2006) highlighted dramatic growth in student numbers, which had risen to 4,370 compared with 2,818 in 1938–39. The College was almost at the point of turning away prospective applicants.
Among the Jubilee’s distinguished visitors was the Labour Minister of Education, Miss Ellen Wilkinson MP. During a tour of the campus, she visited the newly established chiropody clinic, formally opening the facility before unexpectedly becoming its first patient. According to Richardson’s account, she dismissed her entourage with a brisk “Shoo,” before emerging some twenty minutes later to enthusiastically recommend the treatment to assembled dignitaries! A moment that captured both the practical purpose and human character of the College’s work.
The School of Chiropody itself had earlier origins in the National School of Chiropody, founded in Manchester in 1932. Following wartime closure in 1939, negotiations led by Chief Clinician Edith Sagar resulted in its integration into the Royal Technical College’s Science Department in 1945. After several relocations, including premises on The Crescent, the School eventually moved in 1966 to purpose-built facilities at the newly formed Salford College of Technology on Frederick Road (now the Allerton Building). Opened in 1967 by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, it became the first purpose-built chiropody school in the United Kingdom and is today known as the School of Podiatry.
School of chiropody, 1949. Using temporary spaces on The Crescent. Royal Technical College, Salford. 
