The History of the Long Eaton Grammar School

Addendum

*1. (original text corrected) 1919 - Increasing pupil numbers necessitate construction of "temporary" prefabricated hut accommodation - "temporarily" in use until finally demolished in .1999!

Says Phil Payne: If those were the original huts there's a picture of them being demolished in 1968. The 1999 demolitions were the maths huts - don't know when they were built. I was told the far hut became the "music hut" because the dryness of the rest of the school would have wrecked the piano.

*2. Says David Driver: I notice that Mr Eley thinks that the murals were painted over in the early 40's - this is incorrect. The School was completely redecorated when the Canteen was built - at the same time the paneling was desecrated with a coating of grey paint. and the place was rewired and the beautiful light fittings in the Hall (all Art Nouveau and hammered bronze) were ripped out. Later, the ceiling was leveled off because water had got into the original barrelled lath and plaster and lumps of plaster began to fall off!

*3. (original text corrected) Not withstanding any of the entries on the LEGS reunited web page Denny Davies definitely retired on 31.12.83 and Bob Orriss took over on 01.01.84 : source, Minutes of the 44th Meeting of the Trustees of the Samuel Clegg Scholarship Fund held on 9.12.83. Info from Roger Graham

*4. Old wooden huts (A and B) demolished - in 1967? Photo from David Wardell's Collection.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LONG EATON SCHOOL BUILDINGS

1909 - Building of the new Long Eaton School begins (final cost: £14,900!)

1919 - Increasing pupil numbers necessitate construction of temporary prefabricated hut accommodation - temporarily in use until finally demolished in the 1960s!

1930 - Additions are begun to the School building (the roof is removed from both wings of the building, new first floor rooms built and the roof replaced - the joins are still visible). These new rooms (rooms 11,12,13,18,19,20) include what will become the School Library and the second Art room.

1939? - 5 or 6 Air Raid Shelters constructed alongside the canal bank on the school playing field.

1946 - Two more huts are added to the temporary accommodation.

1949 - A new canteen is built (adjacent to Tamworth Road - this later became the front car park).

1952 - Hut C added (temporary accommodation) It was suppose to be ready for August but was completed a term late.

1953 - Hut D (Geography) added

1954 - Hut E added

1954 - Conversion of the greenhouse into lavatories for the girls.

1958 - An new Science Block is built on what have been the school playing fields (ground & first floor only - a second floor is added ten years later).

1964 - A new Secondary Modern School is built on land south of the Grammar School and west of the Erewash Canal - this is named the Roper School after local Councillor Roper.

1968 - A new Craft Block is built (later Technology and Art); also a new school hall and sports hall and a new administration block. Another floor added to the Science block

1978 - A new purpose-built vocational education block is built near the canal on what is left of the old school playing fields - this later becomes the Sixth Form block.

2002 - IT Building - a single-storey, two-room affair at the rear of the Technology block. It was equipped for, and exclusively used for, IT courses.

2006 - Everything is knocked down when Long Eaton School moves to its new building near Thoresby Road - except the original 1909/10 listed building!

George H. Widdows - Derbyshire County Surveyor and Architect of Long Eaton School

Widdows (1871-1946) was Derbyshire County Surveyor, later County Architect, from 1905 until his retirement in 1936. He was something of a revolutionary, an apostle for plenty of natural daylight and fresh air, in contrast to Victorian school buildings which, influenced by religious architecture, tended to have small narrow windows. He became one of the best-known school architects in the country and an article in The Builder in 1913 stated: The great work which Mr Widdows has carried out constitutes a revolution in the planning and arrangement of school buildings.

In a lecture in 1910 (the year our building opened) to a Royal Sanitary Institute meeting Widdows did not mince his words, either about the government educational authority or about his own profession.

To look at schools erected and added to with sanction of the Board of Education one wonders whether the Board did really regard fresh air as an invention of the devil... and ... There are very few architects who understand ventilation, or who try to understand it.

A characteristic feature of a Widdows building, seen in your centre, are the ventilation hoppers at the bottom of each window which can be opened to admit air without causing draughts. Another is that the doors at the end of each corridor which lead to the outside are protected by a porch to prevent rain getting in. But most of all is the overall design, with those projecting angles, to maximise light and air to every part of the building. Pre-Widdows the tendency was for buildings to be simple rectangles, in his words, barrack or barn-like, which resulted in many rooms being stuffy and ill-lit.

Widdows' buildings quickly gained a reputation for being healthy places to work in, and this was confirmed by the Long Eaton school's first headmaster, Samuel Clegg, who was present at his 1910 lecture, and is reported as having contributed to the discussion.

Mr S. Clegg (Long Eaton) said that in his school the two great factors of all healthy environments -light and air - were abundantly present. No teacher had been absent for a single day through illness, nor had there been any case of sore throat in the schools since they were opened. Not the least important characteristic of the schools was cheerfulness, and this mental tonic conduced to physical well-being. What he thought was a most important advance made by Mr Widdows was his provision, by panelling, of wall-surfaces pleasing and restful, which lent themselves to tasteful and simple decoration, in the place of the wretched litter of scrappy wall-coverings, pictures, advertisements, and worse things too often found in schools.

Above information received from Peter Clegg (Grandson of Samuel) via Geoffrey Kingscott.

Many regard the Buildings to be Victorian. This is what Geoffrey Kingscott says: It was planned in the Edwardian era, and by the time it was formally opened in October 1910 George V was actually on the throne. It is essentially a 20th century building, and designed as a deliberate reaction against Victorian styles.