Analysis of three clusters of mechanics' institutes and their impact on their local communities

As previously mentioned in Chapter 1, Mathias, among others, highlighted the increasingly close links between history and other disciplines, such as education, as did Sanderson (2007), who referred to them as neighbours. Marsden (1977) researched the relationship between historical geography and the history of education and this approach supports the theme of this chapter. As a result of research carried out with regard to the Yorkshire Union, three clusters have been selected for further research in order to analyse the impact institutes had on their localities.