The Victoria Institute, at Hartshead Moor near Scholes, was established in 1868. This was largely on the intiative of Robert Firth Crosland (of the long-established local Quaker family), who acted firstly as Secretary and Treasurer, and then as President. One of the Institute's first activities was to form a brass band. An Adult School for men and women, a Band of Hope, a reading room and circulating library, a cricket club and a savings bank also developed at the Institute, which formed a social centre for the village. Meetings for worship began in the Institute in 1872. Its activities were in decline by the early 1900s, and Robert Wilfred Crosland set up a new committee which ran the Institute until the early 1920s. There are no surviving minutes after 1922 and it became defunct around this time.
From the guide to the Records of Victoria Institute (Hartshead Moor) of the Society of Friends, 1868-1922, (Leeds University Library)
