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Spelthorne College

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Established
  
1911

Type
  
FE college

Closed
  
2007

Local authority
  
Surrey

Founder
  
Middlesex County Council

Location
  
Church Road Ashford Surrey (Middlesex) TW15 2XD England

Spelthorne College was a single-site sixth form college on High Street, Ashford, Surrey, England as post-1975 successor to Ashford Sixth Form College in turn post-1965 partial successor to Ashford County Grammar School which occupied its original building and further buildings which are today replaced over its history and following its merger with Brooklands College.

Contents

Former school

The school was founded in 1911 as Ashford County Grammar School, for 11- to 18-year-olds by Middlesex County Council with support of the combined county and district local rates collected by Staines Rural District Council. In 1965 when the administrative area of Middlesex was divided between London, Surrey and Hertfordshire, its 11- to 15-year-old pupils were re-assigned to expanded other schools and it was re-designated by Surrey County Council as an Ashford Sixth Form College. When Ashford County Grammar School closed in 1975, education authorities having been encouraged by Rt Hon Reg Prentice (Secretary of State for Education) to disband Grammar Schools, the opportunity was taken to rename the College as Spelthorne College, named after its borough created in the previous year on the basis of the medieval hundred of the same name and in taking over the smaller number of pupils and staff from Sunbury Sixth Form College. The institution's archive is lodged with Spelthorne Museum.

Merger

Being a post 16-years-of-age education provider in England and Wales, the college's funding in 1992 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's (QAA) review of its higher education provision in business studies.

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.

Alumni

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

  • Don Bennett, who played cricket for Middlesex from 1950 until 1968
  • Susannah Clapp, Theatre Critic since 1997 of The Observer
  • Gary Numan, musician
  • Arthur Palmer, MP from 1945–50 for Wimbledon, from 1952-9 for Cleveland, from 1964–74 for Bristol Central, and from 1974-83 for Bristol North East (L)
  • Irene Thomas, radio personality
  • Norman Willis, General Secretary from 1984–93 of the TUC
  • Robert Evans (politician) MEP for London Region 1994–2009 (L)
  • Richard Johnson, who played cricket for Middlesex and England from 1992 and retired 2007
  • Brian Capron, actor in Coronation Street from the Sunbury Sixth Form College
  • Wendy Smith-Sly, athlete who competed mainly in the 3,000 metres. Silver medallist at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles; 1983 World Champion in the World 10 km road race championship
  • Nicholas Bond-Owen, child actor of the 1970s and 80s, best known for playing Tristram Fourmile in five series of the popular comedy George and Mildred
  • Sidney E J Russell (4 October 1937 – 18 June 1994), a cricketer and footballer for Middlesex (1960-1964) and Gloucestershire (1965-1968) playing 54 matches for Brentford F.C. between 1956 and 1961

    • References

    Spelthorne College Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA