Timeline

On 7 February 1882 seven Liverpool businessmen and philanthropists – Alexander Balfour, Thomas Matheson, Samuel Smith, William Crosfield, W P Sinclair, S McDairmid and S G Rathbone – founded Edge Hill College.
A large house on Durning Road in the Edge Hill district of Liverpool was adapted and formally opened on 24 January 1885, welcoming 41 new students.

Sarah Jane Yelf was appointed as the College’s first Principal, with the intention of producing ‘a superior class of Elementary School Mistresses’.

Sarah Jane Hale, took over as principal just as the College began to grow. The premises were enlarged in 1903 when a new wing, including three new classrooms, two laboratories and a gymnasium, was opened. By 1905, student numbers had risen to 160.

Miss Hale died in 1920, and by the end of her tenure, the College had come a long way. It had trained 2,071 girls of whom 213 were Head Mistresses, 178 First Assistants, and 30 science mistresses