St Anselm Hall was founded by Rev. T.B. Allworthy as Saint Anselm’s Hostel in 1907. After the establishment of a theology department at Manchester University in 1903, Allworthy, with the encouragement of Edward Hudson of Rossall School, was prompted to consider the foundation of a place of residence for working-class men who were studying for holy orders. The idea for the foundation was said to have occurred to Allworthy under a willow tree in Brookdale Park where he had been reading The Life of Saint Anselm with Hudson in the Summer of 1907.