How Shrewsbury invested in its youngsters 90 years ago

Ninety years ago this month, with the help of a couple of silver trowels, the foundations were laid for new opportunities for young Salopians.

On November 7, 1936, foundation stones were laid for Shrewsbury's new technical college, which offered classes for young men and women ranging from engineering to plumbing, from art to dressmaking, and from chemistry to cookery.

Two of the county's best-known personalities in public life of the day, county council chairman Mr T Ward Green and recently retired county education secretary Mr W H Pendlebury, laid the stones, which bore their names.

Pendlebury (his first names were not given in reports, not even in his obituary in 1943) had been Shropshire's education secretary from 1903 to 1936, and was described as the "father of secondary education" in the county.

With the site near the English Bridge being so prominent, considerable thought went into the design of the new building, which was intended to be in keeping with the Georgian style of many of Shrewsbury's fine buildings.

It was more or less on the same site as the previous Borough Technical School, where the celebrated Great War poet Wilfred Owen had been one of the students. During the building work the students, who numbered nearly 1,000, received their education in various parts of the town.

It was almost exactly two years later that the new technical college, which cost a big sum for the time - £54,000 - was formally opened by Kenneth Lindsay, parliamentary secretary to the Board of Education. Using a golden key which was presented to him as a memento of the occasion, he opened a door on the Abbey Gardens side of the building.

In his remarks to assembled dignitaries on that day, Tuesday, November 15, 1938, he described it as "the Opportunity College," while Sir Offley Wakeman, chairman of the Salop Education Committee and of the college management committee, said: "I don't think it can have been an easy task to build a technical college on a site like this with three frontages, nor do I think that a building of this sort, with the requirements of a technical college, would be easy to make a thing of beauty, but I believe it has been done.

"This college stands on a conspicuous and important site, and I think we will all agree that it is a building worthy of the site and worthy of the town that is proud of its many ancient and beautiful buildings."

The principal was Arthur E White, who had been appointed head of the Borough Technical School in 1914.

It would serve the county for decades. On September 19, 1960, a new Shrewsbury Technical College started classes in London Road, with an official opening on May 5, 1961, by Princess Alexandra of Kent.

The building in the town centre remained as Shrewsbury Technical High School but was renamed Wakeman School in June 1965 in honour of the 21st anniversary of Sir Offley Wakeman being chairman of Shropshire's education committee.

Wakeman School closed in July 2013 and was taken over by Shrewsbury Sixth Form College.

Today the education traditions continue unabated after 90 years.

The building is now the English Bridge Campus of Shrewsbury College.