Urchfont Manor College

Urchfont Manor College is a residential college for adult education, owned and operated by the Wiltshire Local Education Authority since 1947. It is also a conference centre.

Urchfont Manor

The house is near the Wiltshire village of Urchfont, about seven miles from the market town of Devizes. First built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it was rebuilt between 1678 and 1700 by Sir William Pynsent, Member of Parliament for Devizes, in the Restoration style. The last of the Pynsent family, another Sir William Pynsent, died without an heir in 1765 and left his estates in Somerset and Wiltshire to William Pitt the Elder, in gratitude for Pitt's opposition to a new tax of ten shillings on each hogshead of cider. Pitt kept the Somerset estates at Burton Pynsent but sold his new property at Urchfont to the third Duke of Queensberry, and the house was then occupied by tenants until it was bought by Simon Watson Taylor in 1843. In 1928, his heirs sold it to Hamilton Rivers Pollock (1884-1941), a barrister who lived there until his death. For the rest of the Second World War, Urchfont Manor was a home for children evacuated from London, and then in 1945 it was bought by Wiltshire County Council to establish an adult education centre, which opened in 1947.

Courses

Courses at the college are in the areas of visual and performing arts and media and family learning. Most programmes are accredited. At any time, more than one thousand students are enrolled. Some courses are provided directly by the Local Education Authority and some by partners such as the Workers Educational Association.

Management

The college is managed by a Management Board of governors, most appointed by the Local Education Authority, plus the Director of the college, one elected representative of the teaching staff, and a student member.

References

* [http://www.urchfontmanor.co.uk/ Urchfont Manor College] - official site
* [http://docs.ali.gov.uk/Inspreps/20/5183DET.PDF Inspection Report, 2003]
* [http://www.lowrey.co.uk/Urchfont%20manor.htm Urchfont Manor]