Warrington Academy

Warrington Academy was a dissenting academy that taught from 1756 until 1782 in Warrington, a town halfway between Manchester and Liverpool. It stood in a large red-brick house after starting in the Cairo Street Chapel. A statue of Oliver Cromwell once faced the building. The academy trained students who later entered the legal and medical professions. Its funds were later used to found Manchester New College, which became part of Harris Manchester College in Oxford. The academy became known as the cradle of Unitarianism under figures like Arthur Aikin Brodribb. John Seddon raised funds to establish it in 1757 after earlier schools in Kendal, Findern and Derby closed. The first tutors included John Taylor in divinity, John Holt in natural philosophy and John Aikin in classics. Later, Joseph Priestley joined as a tutor in divinity after Taylor’s death. Other notable tutors were Anna Barbauld, Johann Reinhold Forster and William Enfield. Visitors today will find a statue of Oliver Cromwell in front of the former site. The building itself was moved in 1981 and later rebuilt without its original features. The academy’s legacy includes alumni such as Thomas Malthus, John Goodricke and Thomas Percival. The town of Warrington remains a place where traces of its academic past can still be felt.