Worcester's college with a worldwide reputation

It was 100 years ago, in 1902, that the college set up in new buildings at Whittington Road, though the institution had by then already been in existence as part of the city's education scene for 36 years.

The college for visually handicapped boys was founded in 1866, by two local clergymen, the Rev William Taylor and the Rev Robert Hugh Blair, who became the first headmaster.

Without premises of its own, the college initially rented the historic centuries-old Commandery, in Sidbury, where it remained for more than 20 years.

It moved in 1887, to Powick and into a country manor called Slaughters Court - a large and elegant Georgian property in four acres of grounds, owned by Earl Beauchamp of Madresfield, near Malvern.

After four years at this rural location, Viscount Cobham was welcomed as chairman of the governing body and, shortly afterwards, plans were put in hand for the college to have premises of its own.

The present site in Whittington Road was bought in 1894, thanks to the generosity of a Miss Eliza Warrington, who covered the entire purchase price, though it was to be a further eight years before the new college buildings were completed at a cost of £10,000, including all furnishings and equipment and the laying out of the grounds.

Since starting to write this feature - and totally by chance - I have found a lengthy account in the Berrow's Journal bound archives of the July 1902 Speech Day of the College for the Blind. Here are a few extracts from the 100 years-old report:

"Thanks to the generosity of the late Miss Warrington who bequeathed £8,000 towards the erection of a school for those bereft of sight, the Worcester Blind College, which has been located for a decade and a half at Powick, will shortly migrate to Whittington where a commodious school is being constructed for 30 scholars.

"Speaking of the blind, Viscount Cobham emphasised that they were not less happy than those who enjoyed sight. There was a cheerfulness about them which he did not notice about many other people who were afflicted to a much lesser degree or who were not afflicted at all. By a mysterious dispensation of Providence the blind were blessed with a good temperament.

"Lord Cobham considered the list of honours gained at universities by past pupils of the Worcester Blind College to be very remarkable and very exceptional bearing in mind the smallness of the school. At the college, the students were taught in a wide range of subjects including Greek, Latin, divinity, the classics, English, history, French and mathematics. Among old boys were a barrister, a number of solicitors, nearly 30 clergymen and several musicians and private tutors."

After the move to Whittington, the college's headmaster of the time, the Rev Jaffray Brisbane Nicholson wrote in an article for the journal The Blind:

"The situation of the college is a very fine one, lying south east of Worcester and a little over 200 feet above sea level. To the West and South the land falls away rapidly, giving a magnificent view of the

Severn Valley and the Malvern Hills.

"The grounds which comprise four acres, contain an excellent playground, including a levelled cricket pitch. The building can comfortably accommodate some 20 students. It is in the form of a long two-storied rectangle, with short projections at each side. The school accommodation comprises an excellent dining hall, two good sized classrooms, a library, a music room, a masters' common room, a sick room and lavatories for pupils and masters. On the first floor are two splendid dormitories, a sickroom, bathrooms, and a linen room.

"The buildings are not yet complete, and we hope that in time other wealthy philanthropists will imitate Miss Warrington's generosity and provide us with a chapel, gymnasium, swimming bath and large hall which could be used for Speech Day gatherings."

In 1906, the Gardner's Trust presented a students library to the college, and in 1919, the overall accommodation was enlarged by the purchase of an adjacent property known as The Gables. The generosity of the National Institute for the Blind made the purchase possible, and the organisation also helped to furnish the property as a school house and as accommodation for some of the smaller boys.

By the start of the 1920s, Worcester College for the Blind was clearly being acknowledged as a centre of international importance.

The headmaster's annual reports from the period list among the pupils, boys from as far afield as

Denmark, Egypt, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as from distant parts of the British Isles.

The present bursar, Bob Cownie, who has provided me with a short history of the college, stresses that the facilities it offered even in the 1920s were "something no other school in any part of the world could offer, and this was appreciated far beyond the confines of this country".

In 1921, a crest was designed for the college, partly incorporating the seal of the Commandery, and a school moto was also adopted, recognising the indomitable spirit of the scholars: "Possunt quia posse videntur" - "They can, because they think they can."

In 1925, the National Institute for the Blind presented the college with a newly-built boat-house on the west bank of the Severn, near Worcester Bridge, where it still survives.

A notable addition to the college's governing body in 1924, was Stanley Baldwin, who was to be three times Prime Minister and later Earl Baldwin of Bewdley.

For many years, however, the college failed to balance its books - expenditure steadily out-running income. Even generous legacies and gifts from individual benefactors, as well as charitable grants, did not provide the college with the assured income that was essential for the higher education of blind boys.

As a result, the National Institute for the Blind was approached, and a Deed of Trust was signed between the governing board and the Institute for much closer co-operation in the future administration of the college.

The new Trust left the objects and purposes of the college unchanged, but the Institute took over the financial responsibilities.

In 1936, a large new wing was built to provide additional classrooms, study rooms, dormitories, and a large gymnasium. Appropriately, it was christened the Baldwin Wing in honour of the illustrious college governor of the time.

The next large-scale extensions came in 1959, funded largely by Sir Isaac Wolfson, chairman of GUS Stores and Kay & Co., and his Wolfson Foundation.

The Wolfson Wing, which included a dining room and large new chapel, was officially opened in 1962, by Princess Margaret.

An indoor swimming pool was constructed by the RNIB, in 1968, on the site of an earlier open air bath, and in 1975, a new playing field and running track was created. Further extensions over the years have included a new classroom block funded by the RNIB in 1977.

By that time the college had about 80 boy students, but a major crossroads was reached in 1987, when it was merged with the Chorleywood College for visually handicapped girls in Hertfordshire. To avoid the costs of maintaining two large old buildings on separate sites, the Chorleywood premises were sold by the RNIB, and the merged colleges were centred on the site in Whittington Road, Worcester.

Equipping the institution to meet its significant new role, it was re-christened the RNIB New College, Worcester, and large-scale extensions were added to provide a science wing, new dining-room, new residential accommodation for boarders, and a hostel.

Expansion of facilities has continued since, and last year, a £650,000 learning resources centre and library was built to help students meet the demands and opportunities offered by the hi-tech era. Equipment includes an array of computers with special software for the visually handicapped, offering voice activation, image magnification and keyboards producing soft Braille read-outs.

The new resources centre, where pop "gigs" and other musical and dramatic events can also be staged, was financed by the National Lottery Fund and by Lord Wolfson. Last year, too, a £15,000 recording studio was also added to the college's music department.

Among the college archives are five large honours boards from the 1870s, 80s and 90s, listing the academic and university achievements of past pupils.

Appropriately, a sixth such honours board also survives at the first home of the college - the Commandery.

Recommended reading for those wishing to discover more about the college during much of the 20th Century is the inspiring book The College on the Ridge by Richard Fletcher, who was headmaster from 1959 until 1980. I remember him well as a popular, respected and unassuming figure on the Worcester scene and, interestingly, he mentions in his book a former pupil of the college, lawyer John Correll, who was a city councillor and High Sheriff of Worcester in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

I recall John Correll as a incisive orator and prominent figure from my days of reporting the city council, and I understand he still makes annual pilgrimages to Worcester, from his home in Ireland.

Richard Fletcher opened his book of 1984 with this acclaimation: "Worcester College for the Blind has been admired for a hundred years for the quality of the education it has provided for its pupils and their remarkable professional achievements in later years."

The centenary of the college on its present Whittington Road site is being celebrated this weekend with exhibitions and other events and especially at today's annual Speech Day.

* IT'S now been part of the Worcester educational scene for 136 years, but the College for the Blind has for decades been of far wider importance, commanding a key place on the national and international map as a specialist learning centre.

Until 1987, the Worcester college was for visually handicapped boys only, but in that year it was merged with Hertfordshire's Chorleywood College which had for long served the same role for girls.

Re-christened the RNIB New College, Worcester, and obviously under the wing of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, it was concentrated totally on the site in Whittington Road, where accommodation and facilities were much extended and still continue to be expanded to meet the demands of the hi-tech era.

The college currently has about 100 students, and the principal, Nicholas Ratcliffe gave me a general insight into its status today:

"It is nationally and internationally renowned, and we have students here from across the EU and from Africa and Asia, as well as from most parts of the UK. We educate blind students between the ages of 11 and 19, nearly all of whom go on to university. The college is thriving, and it's a smashing place to be head.

"Overall, the aim is still much the same as when the college was originally based, back in Victorian times, at the Commandery in Sidbury - to educate blind or partially-sighted students to high levels and enable them to go on to make a massive contribution to society."

Down the years, past pupils of the college have gone into the law, the Church, music and a wide variety of professions, but Mr Ratcliffe points out that in more recent times, he has been able to list among ex boys and girls a research chemist and students at art colleges - "not pursuits one associates with people having no sight".

All but one of the present 100 or so students of this residential special school are boarders, as have been the majority of their predecessors over the years.

The college offers a teacher-pupil ratio of one-to- three which enables its fully qualified staff to teach in uniquely small groups - hence its wide-renown.