Dr Jill Vincent will be a familiar figure to many of you. Although I have known of her for many years, it is only quite recently, since I have become rather more vocal about Loughborough's history, that our paths have crossed more frequently. Jill is a supporter of many local initiatives, but it is in her capacity as one of the Directors of The Generator that she writes the following piece, full of history, heritage, and hope, for which I thank her very much.
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| Old Art College (left) Generator Building (right) |
The Old Art College and The Generator Loughborough
This article
has been written by Dr Jill Vincent, one of the Directors of The Generator, the
other directors being David Pagett-Wright (Chair), Andy Harper, and Roger
Perrett, with Jonathan Hale (Company Secretary).
Introduction
This story
must begin with the transformation of a Leicestershire market town by the
industrial revolution, and continue with the development of Loughborough
College under Herbert Schofield.
In the mid to
late C19 major engineering industries were established in Loughborough:
factory-based knitwear and textiles (e.g. Wm Cotton, Towles Ltd), John Taylor
& Co Bell Foundry, and heavy industry such as Brush Electrical Engineering Co and Herbert Morris Ltd, cranes and lifting tackle. At the same time, people came to work in the newly established industries. In 1871
Loughborough’s population was 11,588; thirty years later in 1901 it had nearly
doubled to 21,508.
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| The Brush, Loughborough, adjacent to a railway line |
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| Part of the Herbert Morris factory on Empress Road |
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| Part of the John Taylor & Co bellfoundry works |
The
application and development of the many scientific discoveries of the C19 that
gave rise to the industries meant that industrial workers needed knowledge that
could only be supplied through technical education. The County Education Committee and its
Director (W.A. Brockington) [1] acknowledged and supported this.
The Technical
Institute (on the corner of Green Close Lane and Ashby Road, now the site of a
Sainsbury supermarket) was set up as an administration and educational centre
in 1909. It co-ordinated the evening
classes held in the town and district.
Dr Herbert Schofield, an inspirational educationalist, was appointed Principal in
1915. Under his guidance, education and
training were revolutionised. He
believed that education and training should be as near to real life industrial
conditions as possible, with modern equipment.
He set about creating a college to ‘reflect his own idiosyncratic views
on higher education and his genius for improvising and capitalising on
opportunities … a high-level academic institution devoted to the study of
science and technology, it must reject the traditional university approach to
these subjects and be firmly based on ‘Training on Production’.’ (Len Cantor)
These
principles guided developments throughout.
During the
1914/18 war, the Technical Institute responded to the needs of the war effort
with practical training for men and women.
Indeed, its development was accelerated, with substantial enlargement of
engineering workshops and new machinery, expanding into training for tool
setters, fitters, and gauge-makers.
In 1918,
Schofield renamed the institution Loughborough College.
Following the
war, the range of high-level courses widened to include Mechanical Engineering,
Electric and Automotive Engineering, Chemical Technology, Civil Engineering
& Commerce, Law & Economics.
They were influential in establishing an active cultural and social life
among the students. The Instructional
Factory also trained workers in carpentry, welding, and gauge-making.
College
departments were set up in various locations in the town centre, including
Ashby Road, Green Close Lane, William Street, Frederick Street, and Orchard
Street. They were later described as
‘scattered and frequently makeshift premises’.
We come now
to the developments that gave rise to the buildings currently known as the Old
Art College and The Generator Loughborough.
First, is the
construction of the generators.
The
‘U-Boats Episode’
(This account
follows that given by the students in their almanac. It exemplifies Schofield’s genius for
improvising and capitalising on opportunities and for ‘Training on Production’)
‘In which J.F.B.
Driver, a member of staff, and 25 students went to HM Dockyard at Portsmouth
and Devonport, where they were invited to take such gear as they could from
four German U-Boats that had been captured in the war. They removed apparatus that included engines,
dynamos, motors, compressors, fans, switchgear, and batteries.
The engines
were rebuilt at the College without the aid of drawings or instructions of any
kind. They adapted, rebuilt, and
converted parts. The first engine was
started up in 1924 in an old wooden hut on Packe Street.
The
switchboard was also designed and built with switches, circuit breakers,
instruments, and regulating resistances that had been liberated from the
submarines.’ [S1]
The
generators built by the students provided electricity to all the scattered
College buildings, without interruption, until they were replaced in 1949. The story goes that on one occasion,
Loughborough’s electricity supply failed, and the town was in darkness, but the
College buildings were still lit.
The
generators were housed in a wooden building that was originally intended for
car washing at the back of the automobile repair shop, itself in temporary
buildings on Frederick Street. The
batteries were in a divided off portion of the College Instructional Garage.
The Old
Art College and The Generator Loughborough
In 1934 the
new Garage Block on Frederick Street was begun.
It is a substantial, art deco, four-storey brick building. We now know it as the Old Art College.
In true Schofield
fashion, training was provided by practical instruction.
The
Automobile repair and reconditioning shop was on the ground floor.
The first
floor was devoted to practical instruction in hosiery, in a Finishing and
Making Up Laboratory, and in a Machine Laboratory.
Machinery was supplied by local manufacturers and machine builders such
as Blackburn and Sons, PA Bentley, Wm Cotton, and Towles Ltd.
The second
floor housed a Textile Testing House and Dyeing Laboratory. It provided practical instruction for
students and also a commercial service for local hosiery manufacturers and
dyers. Much of the plant and machinery
was financed by Cllr W. Bastard (who also donated the Bastard Gate on the site
of the current University campus). [2]
The top floor
held the Handicraft Workshop, Department for the Training of Teachers. Students supplied their own tools and toolboxes and made the furniture for their college accommodation. Training in woodwork and metalwork was done
in the general workshops of the College, with design, drawing, and construction
carried out in the workshop. The course
was led by two of the foremost proponents of the Cotswold School, Peter Waals
and Edward Barnsley.
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| The ground floor automobile repair shop, now a cafe, reproduced with kind permission of LU Archives and Directors of The Generator |
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| Students at work in the Handicraft Workshop, reproduced with kind permission of LU Archives and Directors of The Generator |
Building the
Generating Station presented serious difficulties as the new building was
erected around the existing wooden structure, which was dismantled bit by bit.
The electricity supply was maintained, uninterrupted, day and night.
The new
Generating Station and Garage Block were officially opened in 1937 by Charles Day MSc, MIMechEng, Past President of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers. The electricity that was
generated provided power (Direct Current) for Loughborough College; the surplus
was sold to the National Grid (converted to Alternating Current).
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| The Generator building, showing black and white tiled floor, reproduced with kind permission of LU Archives and Directors of The Generator |
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| The same black and white floor tiles photographed in March 2023 |
The 1944 Education Act put a brake on entrepreneurial/maverick developments, bringing
Further Education provision under the control of the County Council and the
Ministry of Education. Proper planning
and rationalisation had to be undertaken.
The move from central town sites to the ‘playing field’ (current) site
began in earnest.
The College
was reorganised into separate institutions, namely Lboro College of Technology,
Lboro Training College, Lboro College of Further Education and Lboro College of
Art & Design. Further Education and
Art & Design remained in the town centre.
Over time, the College institutions moved onto the campus, becoming a
College of Advanced Technology, a University of Technology, and finally
Loughborough University, the world-class University we know today.
Art &
Design was different: it mostly moved to purpose-built accommodation on the
campus in the late 1960s, but remained independent until 1998 when it was
reconstituted as Loughborough University School of Art and Design (LUSAD). The Foundation programme, later replaced by
Graphic Communication & Illustration, moved into the Garage Block, referred
to as the Foundation building and the Generator Gallery. The name ‘Loughborough College Generator
Gallery’ is etched into the stonework on the Packe Street elevation. Degree shows, exhibitions by ArtSpace group
of local artists and events run by Charnwood Arts opened The Generator to a
wider audience.
No courses
were run in the building after 2011. It
was used as storage by the Library for a while, and was then declared surplus
to need by the University.
In 2014 a
group led by Kevin Ryan, CEO of Charnwood Arts, was formed with a vision to
take over the whole building to provide an arts and culture hub serving all
Loughborough’s communities. It would
provide a home for Charnwood Arts, incubator space and support for creative
enterprises, rehearsal and performance space, meeting rooms and workshops … and
so on. The group comprised committed
representatives from Charnwood Arts, Love Loughborough BID, Creative Leicestershire, the Studio at Loughborough University, and Charnwood Borough Council. It was constituted as a
Community Interest Company (CIC) in 2015.
We tried for some years to gain adequate public sector funding to attain
our vision; our project was greeted enthusiastically but the funding did not
follow.
The
University waited patiently while we struggled but eventually gave us a
deadline of a year, after which they would put it on the market. So, in 2019 we went out to tender, seeking a
partner who would share our vision and would take over the Old Art College
building while we kept The Generator.
We found Our Neighbourhood and bought the building from the University,
who contributed to the vision by agreeing a discount on the sale price in view
of the proposed use. Our Neighbourhood
is a private sector concern so they could act fast to create the Old Art
College, with Public, the thriving coffee shop with plants and bread making on
the ground floor, and creative sector tenants on the upper floors.
We have The Generator. Our vision stands. We will be the arts and culture hub that
Loughborough needs and we are very nearly there, with funding from the Town Deal and a range of sources. Tenders for
the building works knocked us back a bit, as of course inflation has hit the
building trades hard, but we are at RIBA stage 4, and are applying for (public
sector) funds to bridge the final gap.
Once the builders are in, it will take a year for the works to be
completed, so fingers crossed we will open early 2025.
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| Inside The Generator building March 2023 |
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| The Generator building photographed in March 2023 |
____________________________________
Notes
[1] William Alport Brockington was honoured with an OBE in 1917, and a CBE in 1928. He was knighted in 1946.
[2] William Bastard was chair of the College Governors and donated the Bastard Gates on Ashby Road to the college. You can read more about those gates in 'Loughborough in 50 Buildings'. Bastard is not to be confused with Frank Bastert, a German-born, naturalised British citizen who with Herbert Morris formed the company Herbert Morris & Bastert in 1884 in Sheffield, the company later moving to Empress Road Loughborough, after the pair had split.
____________________________________
About Jill
During her career, Jill has
combined her interest in the arts with work teaching and researching social
policy, and active engagement in politics and the voluntary and community
sector.
She studied
fine art at St Martins, then had a break for children and family, before returning to
study at Loughborough Uni (Sociology and Political Science), and then gaining a PhD
from Nottingham Uni.
Jill worked for
the Open University and as a researcher at the Centre for Research in Social
Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough Uni. Her employment and commitment to social issues
complemented each other nicely. She was a Borough Councillor for 16 years,
spending the final year as Mayor; Jill has been a Trustee at John Storer Charnwood
and Equality Action (where she is still actively involved) and a Governor at
Loughborough College (where she is now a co-opted member).
Jill's interest
in the arts is a thread running through her life. She worked in Arts in Prisons
research and provision, and with Kevin Ryan at Charnwood Arts. She was a member
of ACE East Midlands Arts Board. She was awarded an Honorary Degree by
Loughborough University in 2012.
____________________________________
Sources
S1:
Cantor L. M.
and Matthews G. F. (1997) Loughborough: from College to University, A
History of Higher Education at Loughborough 1909 – 1966. Loughborough
University of Technology
S2:
Loughborough
College Past Students’ Association (1957) The History of Loughborough
College 1915 – 1952, Past Students’ Association of Loughborough College
Thanks are extended to
Jenny Clark, University Archivist, now retired, for information from the university archive, and for permission to reproduce the photographs.
____________________________________
Posted by
lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for
typos which are all mine!
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