The Old College
 

Well before i ask i might be wrong haha,.... is the building behind the train station the Old College ?

I was walking on the path tonight and noticed half of it had been pulled down, anyone know what theyre building in its place ?

Also noticed security guards on there,.... know i dont think thats strictly necessary given the state of the place, its not like anyone gonna rob it.

Re: The Old College
 

Which station Dec ?

Re: The Old College
 

Accy station Katex, the one tht has a bridge coming from blackburn road,.... the place looks a right mess. Just wondering what the oweners have got planned in the way of development.

Re: The Old College
 

they are building a tesco, i think it used to be offices, not sure though

Re: The Old College
 

Ok Dec .. will investigate .. didn't realise was a college there previously :confused:

Of course, Flashy is correct re. Tesco.

Re: The Old College
 

Bl**dy hell haha,... anotha Tesco haha,... theyre popping up everywhere.

Oh right lol yer was they summat to do with the council then ?

Re: The Old College
 

Haha nice one,... i could be and probably am of course wrong about the college bit though Katex,.... jus going of word of mouth there.

Re: The Old College
 

Hi GypoDec, yep, Accy College used those premises, then they moved up to the Sandy Lane college. My son did a bricklaying course there about 10 years ago - (there was also plastering, painting and decorating, joinery and a mechanics shop).

Re: The Old College
 

Ahh, Nice one Atarah,... so is it quite a substantial site ? doesnt look big enough for a tesco,... where they gonna put the car par etc,..... will cause chaos on the surrounding roads if they intend to build a big store

Re: The Old College
 

Are you sure Atarah? It used to be the 'Skill Centre' where people who had been unemployed longer than six months were sent to learn a trade. They were then known, by tradesmen who had served a 4 or 5 year apprenticeship, as '6 month wonders'.

Re: The Old College
 

probably put car park on the railway lines, aint many trains through to interupt.:D

Re: The Old College
 

Haha wouldnt surprise me lol

Re: The Old College
 

Yep the above is correct, used to run
Training Opportunities Scheme (TOPS)

courses there.

Re: The Old College
 

Apparently there was a sign on eagle street near where the fair goes that said Accrington and Rossendale College, Eagle Street Centre though,.... however covered by the construction hoarding now i presume.

Re: The Old College
 

Anybody got a picture? Can't think which building this was.

Re: The Old College
 

KATEX have a look here ARCHIVE: Eagle Street College, Accrington - Jun 2006 - NorthWest Exploration Forumloadsa pics of it just after it had shut i presume becuz it certainly looks nothing like that now.

Re: The Old College
 

Seem to remember back in the days before Accy Tech was built up Sandy Lane there was a small further education/art college on Eagle st. (looking at google earth) somewhere between Willow st. and Cannon st. across the street from the original entrance to Accrington railway station . Seem to remember it was used as a place for bright kids from the local secondary moderns to go and take O and A levels , the kids who missed out on the chance to transfer to the Grammer and High school at 13 .
this would be mid 50s thru mid 60s, not the place shown in the above message

Re: The Old College
 

Thanks Dec .. don't remember that at all .. still, not my area.

Suppose the security guards are there to protect Tesco's build ... to fight off any attempts at sabotage from the competition so to speak... :D

Re: The Old College
 

wonder if the roadway in the first picture is on the site of the owd Manchester line?:confused:

Re: The Old College
 

Haha aye Katex,... come to mention it i did see a few Asda staff snooping around with bolt cutters and the like lol

Re: The Old College
 

Here is a photo Katex, you may recognise this one

Re: The Old College
 

Where was the Accrington School of Art?

Was in in a separate building of it's own?

It was mentioned in this thread...
http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...rose-4071.html

...and I've seen it mentioned in a few recent obituaries, and on some other sites.

Just re-reading Atarah's post in the linked thread, was the whole of the now demolished building, which I thought of as the Grammar School, once the Accrington School of Art & Craft?

Re: The Old College
 

thinking about it after my earlier post I'm thinking this was the place , probably Retlaw or one of the other 'seniors' can put me right .... not sure how much a 'school of art' (ala Slade) it was compared to more of a commercial concept tied into the local textile industry at the time , training talented youngsters being trained in fabric print design, know for a fact that the Devron mill in Gt. Harwood had 'artists' on the staff (the father of one of my friends was an artist there ,sure other textile outfits had similar, wether it was working on the jaquard weave (sp?) designs, know that the 'punch cards/rolls' used for this process changed every so often by market demand . Also the mills had to have "print screen" set-ups desiged for colour and pattern .
Only reason I know this is that a couple of local Gt. Harwood girls about 4 yrs older than me went there , and one later went on to furthur studies at Manchester University .
Logical thinking is that the art dept. closed down when the cotton industry began to die off and general studies type education became more popular .

Re: The Old College
 

It would be interesting to find out. Accrington School of Art & Crafts is listed on quite a few people's résumés, so it obviously existed in it's own right, before amalgamating with Accrington College of Further Education.

It does seem odd if the old Grammar School building was once given over exclusively to arts and crafts. Though neighbouring Blackburn had a similarly grand art school building, which as you say was primarily a place to train people for the once flourishing textile industry.

Re: The Old College
 

I attended the "old Grammar School" on Blackburn Rd, when it was used as an annex for Accy Tech (Sandy Lane) evening classes 70/72, when it stopped (year) being the Boys Grammar school no idea , thought it was purpose built for that .

Re: The Old College
 

I presumed that the building was built as the Grammar School, but according to Atarah, who's usually spot on when it comes to local historical facts...

'The old Grammar School which used to be along Blackburn Road once was known as the "Accrington School of Art and Crafts"
http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...rose-4071.html

So it would be interesting to find out, if anyone can throw some light on the matter.

Re: The Old College
 

wouldn't be surprised if there were links between Accrington School of Art and the 'old' WEA (Workers Education Authority ) an association which made an effort to supply a continuing education to workers in the industrial towns of the UK , active during the early part of the last century ,(a quasi charity with Govt. funding) prior to the education reforms in the 1944 act. (did a thesis on it 40 years ago for my teaching qualifications, the days when I was a red flag waving communist) :D :D

Re: The Old College
 

The plot thickens, as we now have a new name to add...

Mr. C. F. Dawson, head-master of Accrington Municipal School of Art.
Elementary Design

Re: The Old College
 

It was in the old Grammar school premises on Blackburn Rd.
I recall that my cousin Michael Rothwell attended - but he ended up as a primary school head and local history buff.

Re: The Old College
 

My lad did his "B-Tech" at the owd Grammer School, before goin on to college.

Re: The Old College
 

Here you are these might bring a few memories back:D The old Grammer school

Re: The Old College
 

I can remember back in the sixties that the trades section of Accrington college (sandy lane) was closed and transferred to Blackburn, I know at the time we were not to happy about this and talked to the Observer about it, but to no avail, we had to go to Blackburn

Re: The Old College
 

Looking at the photographs reminds you what a fine, imposing building it was, and it seems such a shame part of the area's heritage was demolished.

Re: The Old College
 

The Grammar School does have an old boys (& girls) website.

Accrington Grammar School Old Boys

Perhaps if anyone on here cares to join, or is already a member, they could mention this thread, and give a link to Accy Web, seeing as there's many mentions of the school, teachers, and ex-pupils.

(I can't join myself, as being a QEGS old boy, I'd risk getting virtually beaten up.) :D

Re: The Old College
 

I seem to remember that during my time at AGS, part of the Art School was on the top floor of the AGS but the main part was on College St.
I think the Tech College on Sandy Lane opened in '55/56 - in '56 they only did the lead in course for Electrical Engineering and then C & G Elect. For ONC/HNC you had to go to Blackburn or Burnley

Re: The Old College
 

Does anybody know what was the place of learning prior to the opening of Sand Lane college?

Re: The Old College
 

That's right, it was, we used to go up there and lust after the female students. ;) The light up there was supposed to be brilliant for painting. The Grammar School moved from the building in 1968, up to that soulless concrete block on Queens Road West (now demolished). After that, I think the building served as an all-purpose annexe for the college. Mrs H learnt English and typing there in the mid-80's.

Re: The Old College
 

My front room.:hehetable

Re: The Old College
 

Didn't realise you were that old Beni:D

Re: The Old College
 

The Grammar School left Blackburn trd in 1968 to go up to Moorhead. I don't know what occupied the building after that - certainly the catering dept side of Accrington College of FE(?) However, before that the top floor of the building was used as an art school. It was linked with the one in Portland St/College Street. I have a list of the pupils in the 1930s made out by one of them. They included the world famous Gerard de Rose, who has been the subject of several postings & threads. I hope Garinda knows about him. The thought that it was inituially linked to the textile industry may be correct, as what became the Grammar school started out as a Technical School and the local industrialists were prominent in getting it started.
One very early pupil at the Technical School was the artist Leo Chaney who designed the Johnnie Walker whisky logo. It became the Grammar School in 1921 just after a new headmaster had taken over.

Re: The Old College
 

I shall look into Garinda's suggestion. The website is

Welcome from the Headmaster

To fully use it, you have to register. The webmaster turned down 23 applications for registration one day recently. He suspects that they were from people wishing to sell pharmacutical products.

Re: The Old College
 

Probably QEGS OBs.:D

Re: The Old College
 

Most of the Grammar School top floor was occupied by art students from the late 50's to the early 60's. The Grammar school art room (featuring Alan Butcher) was the only classroom on the top floor used by Grammar School students. Some students used to cruise the other rooms in search of nude models etc. If they were caught by Alan Butcher they would be copying out articles from The Listener for days on end.

Re: The Old College
 

I work at the "College of Knowledge" and worked at Eagle Street when it housed the Construction Department.
Only recently whilst we were clearing out some archive material I came across a book called The history of Technical Education in Accrington which was not a published book but seemed to be a labour of love by someone interested in the history.
Don't know how many copies were published but I have one here and will check out the information in it to see if it records anything about the questions asked on here

Re: The Old College
 

hey anzac, owt on accy tech, actually on union rd ossy would be appreciated.;)

Re: The Old College
 

Will have a look for you. Have not read it through but will check.

Strangely enough a few weeks ago I was on duty at the College when the receptionist came to see me regarding the history of the College as she had an enquiry and didn't know who to pass it on to.

It turned out that someone from Canada was enquiring about depositing some archive material that belonged to his father regarding Accrington Technical School and wanted to send it back to where it belonged. We know that the College is the desendant of the original school but advised the person that the material would be better left with the records office in preston and a copy going to accrington library rather than giving it to the college where it would have probably got lost in time.

It resulted in a meeting between myself and this person (Where we took in graveyards as well) and as far as I know the material was in the process of being copied and deposited in the places I suggested.

Re: The Old College
 

ta, will have a sneck in accy library in a couple of weeks, see if owts there.:)

Re: The Old College
 

Wasn't it on top of the Grammar School, my cousin used to go there, she said it was the Art College?
I remember the building across from the Accy Rail station as having a small theatre in it, and I used to go for Tap and Ballet when I was about 8 years old, I think they made it into Condo's or something?

Re: The Old College
 

Has there been anything built were the old Grammar School was?

Re: The Old College
 

Had a quick look at the book last night.
It's called "The development of Technical Education in Accrington written by a Mr A Hand.

It charts the growth of the schools etc from the middle of the 1800's up to about 1950. It does mention the school of art etc on Blackburn Road and the Technical School but don't know what information you are after so it may not be of use to you.

I think the best thing for me to do is to donate this book to Accrington Library (Don't know if there are more copies out there) and then people can go along and view it there.

Will take it down on Monday and have a word with them to see if they want it.

Re: The Old College
 

Flats.

blackburn road accrington - Google Maps