Page 9 - HB- Further Education

Further Education in Redditch Redditch Heritage

In 1904 the costs of providing a secondary school as well as a technical school in Redditch
were reduced by Worcestershire County Council opening the Redditch Secondary School
for Boys and Girls in the Technical School. As the Technical School was used only for
evening classes the building could be adapted for use as a day school. Extensions to
the premises were completed in 1909.In 1932 the Secondary School became the County
High School and moved to a larger site in Easemore Road. The County High School later
changed its name to the Abbey High School, and in 2001 it became the Trinity High School
and Sixth Form Centre.

After the first Technical School opened, the Institute lost the income from technical
classes. Financial difficulties increased in spite of efforts to make the Institute more
attractive. Such efforts included, in 1910, the ‘open access’ system for the issue of library
books. Films came to Redditch in 1913 and provided an alternative form of entertainment.

A Change Of Ownership

The Institute’s buildings and assets were passed over to the Redditch Urban District Council
in 1929 for the purpose of a public library. The library was extended in 1956. The newly
formed County of Hereford and Worcester administered the Library from 1974, and the
new Library was officially opened in Market Square in January 1976. An Institute Trust
Deed, however, safeguarded the position of the School of Art. It was laid down that the
School of Art would retain all its privileges, even if the building was handed to the Public
Library Authority.

Evening schools had already been established in the late nineteenth century, as it was
assumed that under the 1870 Elementary Education Act there was nothing to prevent
school boards providing evening schools, but there was a narrow curriculum. After 1893
the age limit was extended from eighteen to twenty one, the curriculum could include
nearly all forms of further education, and the schools were renamed evening continuation
schools. In Redditch evening continuation classes began in September 1907, and were
held in St. Stephen’s National School. There was one school for males on Mondays and
Wednesdays and one school for females on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All students studied
reading and English Literature, writing and composition. The male students also took
arithmetic, geography and history, whereas the female students took needlework, hygiene
and home management. Although some people may have been deterred by the fees
which were one shilling and payable in advance, sixty-six males and thirty-nine females
enrolled in the first year. In 1909 there were 200 students in the Technical School, 184
in the evening continuation school, and 70 in the School of Art.

During the Second World War part-time day release courses were introduced, and in the
1944-45 session the Technical School had 664 students. In the 1950s and 1960s Redditch
was still known for its nineteenth century industries: needles, fish hooks and metal springs.
There were also firms that had developed in the twentieth century, such as Royal Enfield
Cycle Company manufacturing motorcycles, the BSA Cycle Company, and High Duty Alloys
specialising in light alloy castings and forgings for the aircraft industry.

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