‘The Yorkshire Union has grown to the most extensive educational confederation in the kingdom’: the growth and distribution of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes, 1838–1890

With the establishment and success of the Glasgow and London Mechanics' Institutes in 1823, the mechanics'-institute movement began to spread across the whole of Britain and by 1850 there were at least 600 such institutions. Historians have argued that many of them were short-lived and the movement as a whole made little contribution to working-class adult education. This paper provides evidence to the contrary, looking specifically at the distribution of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes in both the emerging industrial towns and rural communities between 1838 and 1890.