Royalty was in town to open our new college

THE old Swindon College building, now a heap of rubble behind a white fence off Regent Circus, was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Strictly speaking, it was the Swindon College Extension; the college itself was the red brick building in Victoria Road which will live on as part of the redeveloped site. It had become hopelessly overcrowded.

The grand opening day was Friday, April 14, 1961, and other news stories of that week have become documentary makers’ shorthand for the post-austerity, pre-Beatles era. Two days earlier, Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space, and in Israel Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann was on trial for his life.

“Swindon Ignores Rain For Duke” proclaimed our headline above a grainy photograph of a somewhat soggy consort.

We told our readers: “The Duke of Edinburgh received a tremendous welcome when he visited Swindon today to open the £550,000 extensions to the college.”

While £550,000 might seem a fairly modest sum today, things were different in 1961. By way of comparison, another prominent news story that year involved a Yorkshire couple called Viv and Keith Nicholson, whose £152,000 win on the football pools put them among the wealthiest young people in the country.

Our report continued: “After declaring the extensions open, the Duke unveiled a plaque and signed the distinguished visitors’ book in the entrance hall before touring the buildings.

He met the vice-principal, Mr HJ Churchman, heads of departments and representatives of the teaching, maintenance and office staffs.”

Three more broadsheet pages inside that day’s Adver were devoted to the occasion.

Alongside photographs of the shiny new building and its facilities, we wrote: “The scope of the new college ranges from hairdressing to handicrafts; arts to artisanship. The growth of classes and student numbers during the past few years has been enormous.

“Fitments and furniture in the new extensions have cost £100,000 alone. The College can now offer facilities for sculpture, plaster work, graphic design, window display, hairdressing, wood cutting, plumbing, welding, domestic science and all types of engineering.

“Cars can be driven straight into the automobile shop; painters and decorators can practise in small rooms; domestic science students can work in some of Swindon’s best kitchenettes; the bricklayers can build and demolish their own work in a large room; artists have a separate room for each aspect of their work.

“Relaxation, too, is an important point. The new extension includes two common rooms sited on the fifth floor and decorated in the most contemporary style. Here both girl and boy students can get together in an easy and informal atmosphere.”

Naturally, we interviewed principal Bill Gillespie – or “Mr W Gillespie” as we referred to him in those days. “It’s a funny thing,” he told us. “Before the new building went up people just did not realise what the college was all about. Now everybody notices us.

“If you have no suitable college then there will be no new industry. Incoming industry regards technical training facilities as a major requirement.”

By the end of the decade, colleges across the western world would be hotbeds of political agitation, with students taking to the streets to protest against war, nuclear weapons and capitalism, but things were rather more innocent in 1961. Swindon College Students Association leader Rosalyn Craven, 19, told us about her organisation’s schedule of dances and barbecues, and revealed that its Shrove Tuesday charity pancake race through the town centre had been a success.

“We had a jolly turnout and we were pleased about it,” she said.