Wedgwood Memorial College

Wedgwood Memorial College is a small residential college in Barlaston, near Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. The college, a member of the Adult Residential Colleges Association, offers short courses in literature and languages (French, German and Esperanto); political science and history; and art, art history and architectural history. [http://extwww.sgfl.org.uk/ghumphrey/wmc/tutors.asp College Tutors] ] Wedgwood Memorial College has a non-circulating library with 15,000 volumes available for research and private study. [ [http://extwww.sgfl.org.uk/ghumphrey/wmc/library.asp College Library] ]

The college's buildings are also rented out for weddings, parties and small conferences, with eight rooms available that accommodate from ten to 40 people per room. [ [http://extwww.sgfl.org.uk/ghumphrey/wmc/conferences.asp Seminars and Small Conferences] ] One of these rooms is the Montagu C. Butler Library, located in Esperanto House on the grounds of the college.

The college was originally housed in Barlaston Hall, a nearby building which had been endangered by coal mining operations and a geological fault, which had caused major diagonal cracks in the walls.

There is also a similarly named building in Burslem, the Wedgwood Institute, which is sometimes called the "Wedgwood Memorial Institute". This is a completely separate institution, which houses Burslem public library.

Esperanto instruction

The headquarters for the Esperanto Association of Britain has its main office at Wedgwood Memorial College

Since 1960 Wedgwood Memorial College has offered a week-long Esperanto summer school every August. Esperanto tutor Paul Gubbins, who has taught at the college for many years, declares that students typically learn Esperanto to a more advanced level than students of other foreign languages: "Students of Esperanto do not have to wrestle with the irregularities of a foreign language: these impede fluent, uninhibited expression. This means that often, particularly with an advanced group at the college, I find myself not so much ‘teaching’ Esperanto but exploring the language with students – pushing it, testing it and challenging it to an extent that is impossible in a traditional language classroom."

The college offers a weekend course in Esperanto theatre every January and a weekend residential course in Esperanto language every October. The latter course is particularly suited to people who have completed an introductory free course, whether a traditional postal course [ [http://en.lernu.net/kursoj/ap/index.php Ana Pana] Esperanto correspondence course] or an Internet-mediated one. [ [http://en.lernu.net/kursoj/index.php lernu.net] - Several free on-line courses in Esperanto] The Esperanto Association of Britain offers a partial subsidy to Esperanto learners attending the Wedgwood Memorial College program and who have first completed such an introductory course. [ [http://extwww.sgfl.org.uk/ghumphrey/wmc/courses.asp?category=Languages#results Languages taught] ]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.esperanto-gb.org/ Esperanto Association of Britain]
* [http://www.biblbut.org/ Montagu C. Butler Library]
* [http://butler.esperanto-gb.org/butler.zip Catalogue of Buter Library (downloadable)]