Grantham College

Grantham College is a further education and Sixth Form college in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England.

History
Elsham House built in the 1860s, by William Hornsby (born 25 December 1838), the third son of Richard Hornsby; previously he had lived on Welby Terrace. The house often had events and promenade concerts in the summer for local organisations, or charitable causes linked to the Wesleyan church. At the time, his brother James owned Stapleford Park (his eldest brother Richard had died in 1877). In 1898 he was the High Sheriff of Lincolnshire. William died at 5am on Tuesday 10 December 1907, aged 69, at his other residence in northern Lincolnshire. William was buried thirty years, to the day, after his brother Richard. William's wife lived at Elsham House until her death on Friday 2 March 1917. The nine-bedroom house was planned to be sold by auction on Monday 25 June 1917, at Elmer House, but on the day of the auction, the property was requisitioned by the military to house camp cooks and waitresses. It became an Officers Mess of the Machine Gun Corps from Harrowby Camp. The house was auctioned on Saturday 14 June 1919. During the early 1920s, when owned by James William Hornsby, the house held charitable events, such as American Tea, for the NSPCC, the Kesteven WI, and Grantham Girl Guides.

On Tuesday 14 August 1923 the site was auctioned, when it was bought by the Longmore family. At this time Arthur Longmore was an Air Commodore. In December 1929 Arthur Longmore became Commandant of Royal Air Force College Cranwell until 1933, and by 1934 he was an Air Vice-Marshal, and an Air Marshal by 1935. His daughter Janet married at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square on Wednesday 12 June 1935; in 1948 Janet's husband became High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, and her son Tony in 1990. On Tuesday 9 July 1935 Arthur was knighted at Buckingham Palace, having received the honour in the 1935 Birthday Honours. Later in 1935 Air Commodore Charles Breese, and his wife, resided at the property, when head of No. 23 Group RAF in Grantham. In November 1939 Arthur was promoted to Air Chief Marshal. Arthur often went foxhunting with the nearby Belvoir Hunt. From July 1940, Lady Longmore was district commissioner of the Girl Guides; many district Girl Guide events took place at the property, notably throughout the war; on Friday 2 June 1944, the Chief Guide Olave Baden-Powell attended one of these Guiding events. His son William was married by John Jagoe, RAF Chaplain-in-Chief from 1944-49, in April 1941 at St Mark's, Mayfair. In March 1942 Arthur stood as the Conservative candidate in the 1942 Grantham by-election. Sqn Ldr George Worth MBE (husband of Janet) stood as the Conservative candidate in the 1945 Grantham election.

Construction
Elsham House was sold by auction on Wednesday 17 October 1945 for £5,334 to Grantham Technical College, and it was hoped to open the college by September 1947, but it would be open by at least 1948. The house, and squash court, were converted to classrooms in 1948 for £8,500. It was opened on 20 September 1948 by Kesteven County Council In 1949 £33,000 was spent on new workshops for engineering and gas fitting and classrooms.

The first part of the new college, the engineering workshops, was opened on Friday 14 September 1951 by Lt-Gen Sir Ronald Weeks (one of his grandsons is the Dorset Conservative MP Richard Drax). Also at the opening was Sir Robert Pattinson, the Chairman of Kesteven County Council, and the Chairman of the Governors, Mr Fitzherbert Wright, from Belton; Mr Wright was the former Works Director (until 1949) of Aveling-Barford, and one of daughters, Susan Mary Wright, would be the mother of Sarah, Duchess of York. The college was mostly intended to train craft apprentices for the local building industry. Fitzherbert Wright was also the chairman of Kesteven Education Committee.

Main building began in November 1952, and it became Grantham College for Further Education. The building was officially opened on Tuesday 8 September 1959 by the conservationist Sir Peter Scott. Building had cost £252,031 and equipment had cost £52,377.

Events
In November 1954, at the annual prize evening at the Grantham Barracks, aeronautical engineer Sir Frederick Handley Page, gave out the prizes. Sir Frederick said 'The danger of these modern times is the slow extermination of the individual, and I fear that the time may approach when men and women my become mere units and numbers'.

Education across Grantham
In the early 1970s there were advanced proposals by Kesteven County Council (based in Sleaford) to abolish the eleven-plus selection system in the Grantham area and use Grantham College as the only sixth form in the town. Mary Large, the Chairman of the Kesteven Education Committee, said that more young people preferred to go to college rather than stay in a school sixth form because of the 'more adult atmosphere'. In 1973 the Education Secretary, Margaret Thatcher, had to approve the plan, which involved converting her former school, Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, into a mixed comprehensive. It was not approved.

In April 1974 control of the college passed from Kesteven to Lincolnshire County Council in Lincoln. Later, in 1979, it became Grantham College of Further Education. In the early 1990s control passed to the Further Education Funding Council for England, then to the East Midlands Learning and Skills Council based at Leicester. Also in the early 1990s the college name was shortened to Grantham College, and became an Associate College of Nottingham Trent University. It is now an Associate College of the University of Bedfordshire, and Bishop Grosseteste University College, and through these it offers HND, HNC, and Foundation degree courses.

The college was never officially a fully developed sixth form college, although used for that purpose; in 2008 a purpose-built sixth form college opened in Grantham at the Walton Girls High School.

From September 2010 the college provided for equestrian courses at The Paddocks Equestrian Centre at Hough-on-the-Hill, a village to the north of Grantham.

Visits

 * Minister of Education Florence Horsbrugh (the first female Conservative cabinet minister) visited Grantham on Friday 31 October 1952, and arrived at the college at 10.30am on the Saturday morning, to lay a foundation stone, and she visited the college for five hours. Also attending was Sir Robert Pattinson, and the Bishop of Grantham, who delivered an episcopal blessing before the ceremony.
 * On the evening of 29 November 1963, the Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, gave a talk at the college.

Structure
Grantham College's Elsham House building was built by Richard Hornsby & Sons in the 1860s. The college has 77 residential places in Sedgwick Hall and Sedgwick Mews halls of residence. A satellite to Grantham College is Sleaford College, in the nearby town of Sleaford.

Grantham College is accessed via the A1 and East Coast Main Line, and the A52 from the east. However, most college usage is by those who live in close proximity. Similar education is available further north from Grantham, at Lincoln College's sites in Lincoln and Newark-on-Trent, and 25 mi to east at Boston College in Boston. The other nearby Lincolnshire towns of Spalding and Bourne do not have FE colleges.

Sleaford
The Sleaford Evening Institute began with evening classes at the Sleaford Secondary Modern School on Church Lane, and classes would be taught also at Grantham Technical College, for some of those attending the evening institute. There were also evening institutes in Claypole, Heckington, Bourne, Billinghay and North Hykeham, at the relevant local schools, run by Kesteven Council. Sleaford College was launched in 1999 on Eastgate by Grantham and Boston colleges.

Notable alumni

 * Beverley Allitt - Serial killer nurse.
 * W. Alec Osborn MBE – president from 2006 to 2007 of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and former Chief Engineer of Perkins Engines
 * Abi Titmuss, acquired a Grade D in Science in society AS-level, in August 1995