College on College Road Chilwell


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Many will no doubt have memories of the former College House School on College Road in Chilwell (now called The Lanes Primary). However, does anyone have memories - or better still, photos - of the Victorian College itself, at the very top of College Road? Apparently in Victorian times and at least the first part of the 20thC, it had a big spire on top of the tower, with another floor beyond the 3 remaining now. It was easily visible from the railway before all the development between there and Chilwell High Road was built up, so must have been a striking building!

 

I'm looking for any and all info on the building from becoming the Baptist College in 1861 to the 1980s, but especially when the spire and top of the tower were removed. I do have a copy of the original prospectus for the school - as it first was - from Angel Row, but haven't been able to find anything else!

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Thanks, Jill! Can you remember if the building still had its spire then? It would have been quite a dominant feature!

 

Incidentally, College Road was originally the private driveway up to the College, and where College House School was built was the cricket ground! The large number of unusual trees were intended as an arboretum to further educate the boys of the original school, and pre-1950s maps also show what appears to be a belt of woodland extending from behind College House to the High Road.

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I don't remember seeing a spire and my visits would be from 1968 to 72 roughly.

 

It seemed a very quiet backwater and although most of the houses were 1930ish, there was a much older one which I liked very much. I've always been attracted to old buildings.

 

I vaguely recall my aunt talking about a lady she knew who was in some way connected with the buildings on the other side of College Road.

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Thanks, Jill. Besides the College building, there is also College House, which is also part of the original boarding school, and is on the opposite side to the side your aunt would have lived. It belonged at one time to the local education authority, but was sold off around 2000, and is now a private house. Perhaps this was the house your aunt meant? Lots of people would have worked there.

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I know nothing about this subject but I'm intrigued. This is the Google view of College Road and there is clearly a large Victorian house at the top end, as well as what seems to be the remains of the 'arboretum'.  Maybe Jill or fishfinger can identify a few more points.

fYu97KO.jpg

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Having done a bit of digging, I discovered that my aunt lived at number 14, not number 12. The house was a 1930s semi. The pair of semis next to it were Victorian and I preferred them.  I see that, since those days, modern housing has sprung up on College Road...as everywhere else.

 

Not at all sure about this but the lady my aunt spoke about may have been one of the Barton family...as in Barton transport. I think she owned property round there.

 

I seem to remember a lot more grassed areas on the opposite side to number 14. Is that the school where the late Richard Beckinsale was educated?

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Yes, Richard Beckinsale went to College House School - there is a Beeston Blue Plaque there now, as well as the stunning huge mural on the side of the Beeston Square precinct buildings.

 

There are 4 'modern' houses on College Road itself - a 1960s-70s Vicarage next to the church, then at the top, a pair of 1950s semis constructed as police housing, then a large 1960s detached. There's also a set of 3 'couldn't swing a cat' terraced houses technically on the jittyway between College Road and Lime Grove Ave - which is actually called Goodacre Street, after the original school founder - but they have College Road addresses. The garages to them are built separately, on what was the garden to one of the houses in the college itself, and there is apparently something dodgy regarding the planning permission! Certainly, you can't get a car bigger than an original Mini in them, and still get out!

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2 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

I know nothing about this subject but I'm intrigued. This is the Google view of College Road and there is clearly a large Victorian house at the top end, as well as what seems to be the remains of the 'arboretum'.  Maybe Jill or fishfinger can identify a few more points.

fYu97KO.jpg

Clif Ton, the large white building behind the modern school (College House/The Lanes) is College House itself. It has a huge copper beech and a yew which are apparently from the arboretum, as are the large dark trees on 'Goodacre St'. College House was part of the original school, despite being architecturally different, as I have a print in the prospectus showing it joined to the school building by a covered walkway, part of which apparently remains. The brick building behind College House is the college itself, now divided into 2 private houses. The tower where the spire should have been is the lighter square part at the right hand end of the college as you view the photo.

 

The college building was owned by a builder briefly c.1970, and all sorts of terrible things done to turn it into flats, as was the norm in those days, which is why I was wondering if the spire was there up to it passing into the builder's hands. From Jill's memories, it would appear it wasn't, which begs 2 questions - one, when was it removed, then; two - was it ever actually built, given that Goodacre's school failed within 3 years, due to 'straightened circumstances'?

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2 hours ago, Fishfinger said:

stunning huge mural on the side of the Beeston Square precinct buildings.

 

Ye gods! As if Beeston Square wasn't bad enough...it now has a mural.

 

Thank heaven my father isn't around to see it. When you think what they destroyed to build that pile of nondescript rubbish, including his childhood home on Chapel Street. 

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It's actually a rather positive addition to Beeston, for a change - it covers the massive, depressing, blank side wall of the Square buildings on the side of Station Rd, and depicts Richard Beckinsale, Edwin Starr and Sir Paul Smith. The same artist has created other pieces of art around Beeston centre, including a portrait of Boon and Rocky on the side of The Star :)

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