Residential continuing education at the University of Manchester began just before the 2nd World War. It sprang from the vision of Ross Waller who became Director of Extra-Mural Studies at the University in 1937. Taking for his model University reading parties and the summer schools of the Workers’ Educational Association, he sought to make available to adults in a residential setting the experience of higher education in short and highly focussed courses.

He formed an association of 400 people interested in this new venture. It was called the Lamb Guild, to honour the Misses Lamb who had offered their house at Bowdon for use by the University - for it was there that The Guild met for short residential courses on topics of general interest. When the war began these events continued and an extensive programme of similar courses for members of HM Forces was organised as well.

After the war these activities transferred to Holly Royde, a Victorian Mansion set in 5 acres of grounds near Withington which had recently been given to the University by Mr Leonard Behrens. The Lamb Guild met there monthly for its weekend courses and provision for HM Forces personnel continued for several years. A large programme for commercial, industrial, and public service organisations was also developed and there were several courses each year for students from overseas.

With this range of work Holly Royde became widely known during the 1950s as an important centre for short residential courses. It accommodated up to 2,000 students annually and was staffed by a warden and eventually two full-time tutors who pioneered and developed new methods of residential continuing education. But its facilities were still relatively poor: even when a small annex was added there still were no purpose -built teaching rooms, only a few single bedrooms, and the domestic staff lived in garrets over the old stable block.

In the late 1960s an important step took place under the leadership of George Wedell who succeeded Ross Waller as Director of Extra-Mural Studies. He launched a major appeal, and sufficient funds were soon raised to build a large octagonal conference hall, a suite of seminar rooms and a wing containing 34 individual study bedrooms.

The work at Holly Royde almost doubled in volume with the new premises; at the same time it became the responsibility of staff tutors in the Extra-Mural Department. The programme of non vocational courses continued, as did courses for students from overseas, but professional updating and in-service training became increasingly important and the range of client organisations broadened. Non residential day courses began to take place alongside the residential programme. During the 1970s and 1980s the present mix of work evolved, with many University departments and external organisations using the facilities.

By 1990, after nearly 50 years’ service as a residential centre, Holly Royde again needed redevelopment. The facilities were still limited in many respects and major rebuilding was required to improve the standard of residential accommodation. Coincidentally, however, the University was seeking to develop The Firs, a listed building on its Fallowfield site which had been used as the Vice Chancellor’s residence. Thus was the idea of Chancellors conceived: Holly Royde would close and its work would be transferred to a new conference centre incorporating The Firs and its garden.

A plan was drawn up which received enthusiastic backing from the University and was soon implemented. Chancellors received its first residents in August 1997, continuing a tradition of work begun sixty years before. The range of of students and subjects is now much more diverse, but there is still the same emphasis on intensive high quality education in a residential setting and the same basis of partnership between the University and external clients. The purpose built facilities at Chancellors enable this work to flourish and provide an ideal environment in which it can continue to develop in the future.