University of Sheffield

240,000 from the 1840s. In 1871, the university extension scheme arrived in Sheffield, and a group of lecturers from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge travelled to the city giving lectures and educating people about the benefits of tertiary education. Steel manufacturer and former mayor of Sheffield Mark Firth and clergyman Samuel Earnshaw therefore organised courses in English literature and political economy. The courses became popular so Firth decided to donate £20,000 and purchase a site in the city centre (now Leopold Street and West Street) in 1877 to build a new institution for the classes. Firth College was founded during Firth's late year in 1879 and developed out of the Extension Movement scheme to teach arts and pure science subjects. The college saved the medical school, which had an insecure early history, from collapse and took over the teaching of all background subjects to medical students. In 1888 the medical school was relocated, opposite Firth College, to a new building on Leopold Street.
Firth College also helped to fund the opening of the Sheffield Technical School in 1884 to teach applied science, the only major faculty the existing colleges did not cover. The Sheffield Technical School was created by collecting funds within Firth College because of local concern about the need for technical training, particularly steelmaking in Sheffield. Former mayor of Sheffield Sir Frederick Mappin started to fundraise for the school and £10,240 was raised. A grant was secured in 1883 to fund a professor of Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering. Many of the steel-making firms in Sheffield contributed to funding the Technical School, and research from the school in turn helped develop new processes and products for the companies. The Technical School was originally founded as a new technical department in Firth College, and in 1886, the school moved to St George's Square (later renamed Charlotte Street and now Mappin Street) on the site of the old Grammar School. William Ripper was appointed as Head …