RURAL LIFE

Evening Post, Volume c, Issue 54, 5 March 1934, Page 11

RURAL LIFE

' [THE SAWSTON SYSTEM

APPROACH TO OLD HAMLET

INTERESTING PLAN

_, In October, 1930, tho Prince of Wales's opening at Sawston, near Cambridge, of tho first of a proposed series of Village Colleges which would cover .. tho county attracted considerable atten- . tion. ~i\OjW, slightly moro than three years later, Mr. Henry Morris, the sec . retary of the Cambridgeshire Education p Committee, has sailed to the United :, States to advise tho American Govern- ■ ment on the spending of £5,000,000 on ■ "community planning for rural areas," .-;_ says the "Manchester Guardian." This " is the first large-scale recognition of the Sawston idea, although during the past three years inquiries about the college have been received from educationists all over the world. In England in two localities, Northampton and Kent, less adventurous schemes on the same lines have been introduced. The object of the collego is the revival _of rural life. In national economic policy, in provision for housing, health, and all the social services the rural areas come off badly. The local schools may have to deal with fifty children varying in age from three to fourteen in two rooms. The numer- •;. ous local Government, services havo to : find accommodation in holes and cor- --..■ ners, and any local voluntary associations that may exist are always cramped for room. The inferiority of the countryside is apparent in everything. \! WORK OF THE COLLEGE. In the Sawstou College, Mr. Morris - : ,. has tried to denionstrate how these •( modern shortcomings can be overcome ... and some approach to the ancient unity -,- of the hamlet made. He noted three -i things—that the village is economically too small a unit for any satisfactory inclusive institutions; that modern transport has made a group of neighbouring villages, not a single village, the natural unit; and that in the countrysido the county council is the statutory authority for practically all tho_ educational, economic, and social activities for which the State provides. On these three points the Sawston scheme is based. Sawston-is a-large village of some 1500 inhabitants, with eight other villages in the surrounding few miles, the1 whole area containing between nino and ten thousand inhabitants. In Sawston, ~,.the centre, stands the college, erected .j by the- County Council and managed -..by a resident .warden with the assistance of a management committee on .. which local councils, interest, and individuals are represented. It is, or is to be, the focus not only of 'the educational and local Government activities of the area, but of the various social and communal activities of the villages. The local schools are used for primary education (up to eleven years); for the next three years • tho children travel the two or threo miles to this central school. Two to three hundred now attend daily at tho college. Moreover, the possibilities are ■•'■ vastly increased of adolescent and adult of connecting social services, Vand, in general, of achieving the close relation of eduction to life that every educationist desires. MANY AMENITIES. Tho Sawston College, in possessing a workshop, .. an^ engineering room., an agrieulturar'room, a library, a'labora-f tory, a domestic-scienco room, and a . hall for lectures, cinema, and theatricals, all adequately equipped, provides the district with facilities such as no agricultural area has ever before n > enjoyed. - In one wing are the children's classrooms; across the grass are the branch of the County Library, ..where they learn to use books, and the medical room where they learn to keep well. In the technical //rooms they may learn to cook (on oil, 'electric, or coal stoves), to launder, to keep their houses clean, to mend chairs, and make shelves, to understand and repair motor-cars and agricultural machinery. They learn elementary chemistry for- gardening or. agriculture, they Sia taught the points of a horse, the tricks of manuring and vegetable : growing. Next door are the juvenile ;;' employment bureau and unemployment ■insurance office. At night, in special 'rooms, come the evening classes and . extension lectures. But the. college, though,primarily an . educational and local Government centre, is to be more than that. Its aim, ■which it is certainly, if slowly, achieving, is to become the centre" of the social life of.the nine villages. Its rooms ■ :.are used by the. Women's Institute, the ' British Legion, the League of Nations XTnion, the Scouts and Guides, the football and cricket clubs, and by music, .chess, arid drama societies. ' VARIETY OF FUNCTIONS. Dances take place in.tho hall each Saturday, and country dancing in sumJiier on' the grass; the annual drama festival of tho county is- to be held at Rawston Collego this year. Altogether, .-,'. tlie college1 has'a wide variety of useful functions, and, as the three years' figures show, it is being increasingly J'ppreciated. This winter, out of tho 1500 persons in Sawston, over 260 are itaking evening courses, and 750 per- ' tons take books out of the library. In . face of the scepticism and occasional 'opposition "encountered at the start, Jlhis is a most satisfactory result. The Sawston College had certain lulvantages. It was built with the Assistance of a large grant from the .Carnegie Fund and numerous smaller flotations; not every area can expect this. Again, the nearness of the university has been a help, and lecturers imd parties of undergraduate entertain- . crs have been often welcomed. And, ' 'lastly, there is the all-important ques- , .tion of human enthusiasm and energy. ;. It should not be forgotten that- it was ,1116 Cambridgeshire County Council that ;3iad to bear the risk and the cost, and : , jthafc to its enterprise this arresting, and experiment is primarily due.