| Summary : South East Derbyshire College, originally known as Heanor Technical College, was designed by George H. Widdows and was completed in 1912. It was one of a large number of new schools built to Widdows' designs by Derbyshire County Council in the early 20th century. The school is built of red brick with guaged brick, blue brick and stone dressings. It has a hipped roof of plain tile with brick ridge stacks, and moulded timber cornices. The plan is quite traditional, with a central full height hall with classrooms to three sides. Inside there are panelled corridors with parquet floors. The hall has an arched ceiling, and is lit by circular dormer windows to the north and south, and by tall windows to the front elevation. the central two windows each contain a stained glass panel representing respectively, Science and LIterature. At the west end is a three panelled mural by Frederick Cayley Robinson, painted in 1925 as a war memorial to those who died in the First World War.Listed Grade II (Listed Building Number 79078). |
More information : Heanor Technical College was designed by the architect George H. Widdows (1871-1946) and was completed in 1912. It was one of a large number of new schools built to Widdows' designs by Derbyshire County Council in the early 20th century. Derbyshire had the greatest percentage increase in population in the country in the 1890s, particularly due to the growth of the coal mining and textile manufacturing communities in the east of the county. Widdows had come to Derbyshire in 1897 as Chief Architectural Assistant to Derby Corporation. Following the 1902 Education Act, responsibility for schools in the county passed to Derbyshire County Council. In 1904 Widdows was appointed architect to the Council's Education Committee. In 1910 he was appointed Chief Architect to the Council, although schools remained his predominant concern. By the time he retired in 1936, he had designed some sixty elementary and seventeen secondary schools.
Widdows was at the forefront of the movement to build schools in which high standards of hygiene were as important as educational provision following 1907, when the Board of Health brought in legislation which required schools to become subject to regular medical inspections. Widdows worked with his Medical Officer, Sidney Barwise, and two deputy architects, C. A. Edeson and T. Walker, to develop a series of innovative designs introducing high levels of natural daylight and effective cross ventilation in schools. Most of his designs were in a neo-vernacular style, and were characterised by open verandah-style corridors linking classrooms with generous full-height windows. His distinctive and influential plan forms were based on a linear module which could be arranged in different configurations to suit the size of school required and the shape of the available site. This was a significant move away from the standard Board School plan introduced by E. R. Robson, with its central assembly hall and classrooms to three sides.
Widdows' designs for elementary schools in the inter-war period were often based on a collegiate system of quadrangle plans, with open verandah corridors, north lights and south dormer windows. His secondary schools were larger and had a greater variety of rooms, with sizeable assembly halls, laboratories and art rooms as well as classrooms. These larger ensembles tend to have a greater architectural presence resulting from their size and the complexity of their plan forms.
The mural in the school hall of South East Derbyshire College was painted as a war memorial in circa 1925, and is by Frederick Cayley Robinson (1862-1927), painter, illustrator, theatre designer and decorator. Robinson was Professor of Figure Composition and Decoration at Glasgow School of Art from 1914-1924, and as well as being a member of other distinguished societies, was an Associate of the Royal Acadamy from 1921. Between 1915-20 he produced a series of four large murals for Middlesex Hospital, which are now owned by the Wellcome Trust.
There is a modern extension to the north, creating a new entrance.
The school is built of red brick with gauged brick, blue brick and stone dressings. It has a hipped roof of plain tile with brick ridge stacks, and moulded timber cornices.
The plan is quite traditional, with a central full height hall with classrooms to three sides. The imposing front elevation consists of the four bay hall flanked by advanced eight bay, two storey wings. Each full height window in the hall is separated by pilasters emphasised by blue brick quoins, and above each window is a semi-circular headed dormer containing a circular leaded light. The two side wings present regular facades of eight tall double mullioned windows to both ground and first floors, with an additional basement row to the east wing. Between the hall and the side wings are advanced canted bays with flat roofs, each with a pedimented Tuscan doorcase facing on to the terrace, and there is a small pediment to the central pane of each hall window. The only alteration or loss here has been to the doorcases, where only one pillar survives undamaged. The east and west elevations are very regular, with rows of windows similar to those in the south of the front wings.
To the rear is a modern extension linked to the north elevation.
There are panelled corridors with parquet floors. The classrooms are plain; the bottom three lights of the classroom windows have hopper style openings. The hall has corridors to three sides which form a gallery at first floor level, with openings onto the hall supported to either side by short Tuscan columns.
The hall has an arched ceiling, and is lit by the circular dormer windows to both north and south, and by the tall windows to the front elevation. The central two windows each contain a stained glass panel representing, respectively, Science and Literature. At the west end is a three panelled mural by Frederick Cayley Robinson, painted in 1925, which includes as part of the design the names of those who died in the First World War. Temporary partitions subdivide the ground floor level of the hall.
The terrace to the front of the school is enclosed by a low brick wall running between the two wings. At the centre is a cast iron gate between square brick piers from which there is a short flight of steps down to the lower level.
Despite the modern extension to the north, the original building and its external and internal detail survives intact, and continue to be of special interest. The modern extension is not of special architectural interest.
SOURCES
G. H. Widdows, 'Derbyshire Elementary Schools: Principles of Planning', paper presented to Royal Sanitary Institute on 25 February 1910, in Royal Sanitary Institute Journal (1910), 92-116.
`The Derbyshire Schools', The Builder, Vol. 105 (31 October 1913), 460-461.
The Builder, Vol. 107 (10 July 1914), 44-45; (17 July 1914), 74-75.
G. H. Widdows, 'School Design', RIBA Journal, Vol. 29, No. 2 (26 November 1921), 33-45. (1)
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