Listed Building record MDR11217 - Former Long Eaton Community School, Tamworth Road, Long Eaton

Long Eaton: Long Eaton Community School (Secondary), Tamworth Road. 1909. Large impressive two-storey secondary school. To be made redundant and sold, 2003/4? (1) Professor Sadler, formerly an official of the Department of Education, was asked by Derbyshire County Council to prepare a report after they took charge of the schools in 1902. Secondary education was one of the council's main concerns. Sadler was impressed by the flourishing pupil teacher centre at Long Eaton and Samuel Clegg's devotion to culture and education. Sadler's report recommended a higher grade school, where the technical and artistic needs of the predominantly lace making district would be met, as well as those of prospective teachers. The special emphasis he placed on drawing and artistic education was surely reflected by the views of Samuel Clegg, whose book 'Drawing and Design' was concerned with teaching art in secondary schools. Derbyshire County Council accepted Sadler's report, which recommended Samuel Clegg as head of the new Long Eaton school. Plans by the county surveyor, G H Widdows, for a school to hold 200 pupils, incorporating Clegg's suggestions, were approved and in 1909 Widdows laid the foundation stone. On 19 December 1910 the school, then named Long Eaton County School and Pupil Teacher Centre, was opened. Free places were awarded to 25% of the entry, to qualify the school for government grants. The numbers rose quite rapidly and reached the design capacity in 1912, and an extension was later constructed in 1931. The school was raised to secondary school status in 1913, meaning they could charger higher fees and lawfully teach Latin. (2) Samuel Clegg described the school as being one that always specialised in art. Mlle Rosa Vaerwyck, later known as Mme Pauwaert, was a Belgian refugee of the First World War, when she arrived at Long Eaton County School to teach art. She was a fine artist and with Miss Nowell she painted the murals which remained showpieces of the school until 1948. Room 5 was so decorated as to be known as the Milton Room; Room 4 was the Tudor Room; Room 3 was decorated with French landscape and was the French Room; while local trade was honoured in Room 7, which became the Lace Room. This mural decoration of classrooms was an expression of Mr Clegg's ideas about presenting art to children incidentally, as part of their environment. In 1922 when a French artist, M Bissiere, had been on the staff for a short time as Art Master, Mr Clegg had seized the opportunity to persuade him to paint a mural of the Canterbury Pilgrims in Room 6. It was from this painting that the room became known as the Chaucer Room. Murals of Mlle Vaerwyck were an extension of this mural decoration. Some faint idea of these mural paintings can be gained from the photographs published in this book. (3) A grade II listed school built in 1911 by G H Widdows (Derbyshire County Council architect). Widdows was an exponent of advanced ideas on school planning and ventilation. This school is built of red brick on an ashlar plinth, with stone and gauged brick dressings. It has a slate roof with bell canted overhanging eaves, moulded stone copings to gables on plain kneelers and vented brick ridge stacks. There is also an octagonal timber cupola on a leaded base with colonnaded sides and a domed copper roof to the ridge of the central wing. It is of two storeys, with a complex plan that has a four bay central range, with short wings at 45 degrees to the south and longer ranges at 45 degrees to the north. The central hall has four, almost full height, three-light, double transomed windows with double chamfered segment heads plus double keystones and stained glass to the top panes. See list description for more details. (4) The school appears on modern OS mapping [2015] as 'Mohan Business Centre'. (5)