Spelthorne College

Spelthorne College
The building after an attempt to demolish it without planning permission.
Address
Church Road Ashford , Surrey (Middlesex) , TW15 2XD England
Coordinates	51.435°N 0.463°W / 51.435; -0.463
Information
Type	further education college
Established	1911
Founder	Middlesex County Council
Closed	2007
Local authority	Surrey
Gender	Mixed
Age	16+
Former name	Ashford Sixth Form College 1975 Ashford County Grammar School (1911–75)

Spelthorne College was a single-campus sixth form college on Church Road, Ashford, Surrey, England. It was formed in 1975 as a successor to Ashford Sixth Form College and Sunbury Sixth Form College. Its campus was founded in 1911 as Ashford County Grammar School, which became a sixth form college in 1975. In 2007 Spelthorne College merged with Brooklands College in Weybridge.

Former school

Middlesex County Council founded the school in 1911 as Ashford County Grammar School, funded by the combined county and district local rates collected by Staines Rural District Council (RDC). It taught children of secondary school age from 11 to 18.

In 1965 Middlesex County Council was dissolved and Ashford was made part of Surrey. The school continued as a grammar school until 1975 when Surrey County Council made it into Ashford Sixth Form College. In 1974 Staines RDC was dissolved and its area became part of the new Spelthorne Borough Council (SBC). In 1975 the college absorbed pupils and staff from Sunbury Sixth Form College and was renamed Spelthorne College.

Spelthorne College's archive is lodged with Spelthorne Museum.

The "V for Victory" tiled into the roof of the original building (top), and replicated on the new development (bottom).

Merger

As the college provided education in England and Wales to children more than 16 years old, in 1992 its funding passed to the Further Education Funding Council for England, later replaced by the Learning and Skills Council. The college performed well in external reviews, for instance gaining 23–24 points in the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education's (QAA) review of its higher education provision in business studies.

Brooklands College

Main article: Brooklands College

A Strategic Area Review in 2004 by the Learning Skills Council recommended that to expand and modernise the college's premises it merge with a larger institution. On 1 August 2007 the merger with Brooklands College was completed, to operate as the Ashford Campus, the other campus being the Brooklands College's Weybridge campus.

Redevelopment

After Spelthorne College was dissolved in 2007, Inland Homes plc acquired its campus of 10 acres (4 ha) and sought planning permission to redevelop it. On 8 February 2017 Spelthorne Borough Council refused planning permission to redevelop the site as shops, a public square and 366 homes in buildings ranging from one to six storeys high. Inland Homes disregarded the decision and on 20 February started demolishing the buildings. The council issued an order to stop, and demolition ceased on 21 February. The demolition later went ahead after receiving planning permission to build 357 new homes on the site.

The north-west corner of the original buildings included a "V for Victory" symbol which was tiled into the south-facing roof by workers repairing bomb damage during the Second World War. This has been replicated on the east-facing roof at the front of the new development.

Alumni

Ashford County Grammar School, Sunbury and Ashford Sixth Form Colleges and Spelthorne College:

• Don Bennett, who played cricket for Middlesex 1950–68
• Nicholas Bond-Owen, child actor of the 1970s and '80s who played Tristram Fourmile in the sitcom George and Mildred
• Brian Capron, actor in Coronation Street from the Sunbury Sixth Form College
• Susannah Clapp, theatre critic of The Observer since 1997
• Robert Evans, MEP for London North West 1994–99 and one of the MEPs for London 1999–2009
• Richard Johnson, who played cricket for Middlesex and England 1992–2007
• Gary Numan, musician
• Arthur Palmer, MP for Wimbledon 1945–50, Cleveland 1952–59, Bristol Central 1964–74, and Bristol North East 1974–83
• Sid Russell (1937–94), who played cricket for Middlesex (1960–64) and Gloucestershire (1965–68) and football for Brentford F.C. 1956–61
• Wendy Smith-Sly, Olympic athlete who competed mainly in 3000 metres running events
• Irene Thomas, radio quiz show personality
• Norman Willis, TUC General Secretary 1984–93

External links

• Spelthorne Museum
• Capital Bid Minutes
• "Explanatory Memorandum to the Spelthorne College, Ashford, Middlesex (Dissolution) Order 2007" (PDF). The National Archives.
• Lee, Joseph (18 September 2009). "FE: 3,000 sixth form places at risk as college goes 'bust'". TES.
• Lee, Joseph (13 November 2009). "Capital funding fiasco brings campus closure". TES.
• Lee, Joseph (29 January 2010). "'Closure' campus to stay open despite debt". TES.
• Thomson, Alan (4 December 2009). "Second chance for condemned campus". TES.