The Montgomery has been a pillar of Sheffield community for championing the rights of children to explore creativity since 1886. But our history goes back even further than that...
In 1812, our namesake James Montgomery played an instrumental role (along with his lifelong friend George Bennet) in the establishment of The Sheffield Sunday School’s Union (now known as the Christian Education Counsel), a school dedicated to educating working children in Sheffield, particularly in literature and culture. James was a radical and avid spokesperson for social reform, including banning the employment of children as chimney sweeps and the abolition of the slave trade.
Montgomery was born in Ayrshire in Scotland but, after briefly living in Ireland between the ages of 4 and 6, was moved to Fulneck, near Leeds when his parents, devout Moravians, left England to become missionaries in the West Indies. He moved to Sheffield at the age of 21 to become a bookkeeper at The Sheffield Iris, which would be renamed The Sheffield Register under Joseph Gales. For this reason, he is best known as a Yorkshire poet.
Montgomery was imprisoned in York Castle in 1795 for publishing a poem about the storming of the Bastille which was considered to be ‘treasonous, seditious and libelous’. Here he wrote what is possibly his best poem, The Wanderer of Switzerland. Romantic era giant, William Wordsworth’s response to this poem was received by Montgomery in a letter from the poet in 1806: “From the time I first read your Wanderer of Switzerland I have felt a lively interest in your destiny as a poet.”
However, Montgomery was most prolific as a hymn writer, his best-known hymn being Angels from the Realm of Glory which is still sung today. He believed that poetry and art could have a real impact on society.
Upon his death in 1854, he was honored with a public funeral at Sheffield General Cemetery. 80,000 of Sheffield’s population of 83,000 were in attendance. Montgomery Hall was erected in James’s memory in the year 1884 and began its life as a house for the Sunday School’s Union. It has since seen a wealth of history including its’ use by the government during the Great war and a catastrophic fire in 1971 necessitating it’s refurbishment as the modern theatre which exists today. Today, here at the Montgomery Theatre, we endeavor to uphold James’s legacy and promote the rights of children to a cultural education through defiant creativity and self-expression. Equality is still at the heart of our ethos.
