Warrington and Vale Royal College

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Warrington and Vale Royal College is the current name for an educational establishment that began in 1902 in Warrington town centre.

That was the year the first building of the technical college was opened in Palmyra Square. After use as a college, that building became the Borough Treasurers office for Warrington council. The Grade II listed building was later used as a series of cocktail bars, the first of which was The Institution.

A promo image for the new college in 2004

1956: The Long Lane wing of the Winwick Road Campus was opened as Warrington Technical College.

1969: A new building for the college was constructed on Winwick Road and officially opened on 11 December 1970.

1979: North Cheshire College was set up by the amalgamation of three established colleges in the Warrington District: the Padgate College of Higher Education, Warrington College of Art and Design and Warrington Technical College.

1993: Warrington Collegiate Institute, the former North Cheshire College, became independent.

1995: Warrington Collegiate students take rugby league to the Czech Republic. They visited and played in Nachod, one of Warrington’s twin towns.

1995: Warrington Collegiate Student Adrian Himpson (Media and Business degree student) is mad about puppets. He went on to work on Yorkshire TV on the children’s program ‘The Riddles’.

1995: Media lecturer Dr Michael Huggins won the prestigious JC Beckett Prize in Irish History, awarded each year to postgraduate students from across the world. Dr Huggins research was backed by Warrington Collegiate as part of its commitment to the professional development of staff.

Photo © DJKenny

Warrington Collegiate is the largest provider in the Warrington area of learning opportunities for 16-18 year olds staying in education, work based learning, students with learning disabilities, vocational training and community based learning in traditional adult education and widening participation areas.

Providing quality learning opportunities for the town over 48 years, it currently has over 12,000 learners, 20,000 + enrolments and 700 staff.  Students ages range from 14 through to the most mature learner aged 98.

The college has a real-life working training restaurant (run as a commercial entity), beauty and hair salons (which are also run as commercial entities), an air cabin mock up, and a construction workshop.

The college also presented a press release:

Warrington Collegiate is delighted to announce that it is embarking on a £27,000,000 building project which will completely modernise the Winwick Road campus. The development will include a £3,500,000 business school, a theatre, training restaurant, hairdressing and beauty salons and a major construction skills centre.

In addition, £1,000,000 will be invested into the development of sports facilities at William Beamont High School, which is already a specialist sports school. This will enable the college and the school in conjunction with Warrington Wolves to jointly develop a centre of sports excellence as part of the wider developments in Orford Park.

Early on into the project the decision was made to re-develop the campus rather than refurbish. Simultaneous to this, the college had also decided that continuing to run courses at its Padgate Campus (which was primarily offering higher education), was becoming untenable – with universities lowering their entry qualifications, it was proving increasingly difficult to recruit student numbers and the campus itself was in desperate need of repair. In 2002, Padgate Campus was divested to University College Chester.

Monies from the sale at Padgate Campus contributed to the financing of the redevelopment. The College submitted funding bids to the Learning and Skills Council and the Northwest Development Agency, and after much negotiation and presentations at a national level, the college was successful in achieving their financial support.

Photo © DJKenny

The new build is further supported by a bank loan. Part of the land has been sold off to fund some of the new build.  The Holiday Inn Express and a family pub have bought the land, so building will soon commence once plans have been agreed.

In 2002 a Project Manager was appointed and after a tender process CPMG were chosen as the architects.  Eighteen months later, a revolutionary new campus design was agreed – a curved glass structure, no higher than three-storeys, featuring a learning village and student street.

In October 2004, Mowlem Plc was confirmed as the main contractor for the project and building work on the new campus began in November 2004.

The project, which will take two years to complete, is being financed in large part by the college with significant support from the Learning and Skills Council and Regional Development Agency. It is the culmination of over four years of planning by college governors – a significant element of which was the transfer of the Padgate site to University College Chester in 2002.

The rebuilding of Warrington Collegiate is part of an ambitious strategy to ensure that the college is the major provider of vocational education and training in Warrington. It will underpin the college’s plans to deliver personalised vocational learning, support Warrington businesses and help to strengthen the communities in Warrington.

In January 2005 the start of building work was officially acknowledged with a sod-cutting ceremony, attended by Colin Daniels, Chairman of the Corporation and Paul Hafren, Principal and Chief Executive.

And in February, the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire, Mr Bromley-Davenport officiated at the laying of the first foundation stone, which was also attended by many local dignitaries and commercial leaders from the Warrington area, as well as the LSC Cheshire and Warrington and the NWDA.

Photo © DJKenny

Building Schedule

The schedule for building, completion and opening was, as far as I know, completed on time. Here was the plan:

Mowlem main contractor appointed November 2004

Building work to commence December 2004

Completion of Block F (the Technology Building) – June 2005

Completion of the remainder of the build – Spring 2006

Ready for occupation – September 2006.

Photo © DJKenny

1995: Neil Kelly played rugby for the British Lions in Africa in 1995. He received his BA Joint Honours degree in leisure studies and IT from Warrington Collegiate Institute.

1995: Edith Parkinson celebrated her 90^th birthday and position as the Collegiate’s eldest student. In 1995 she was studying sign language. She had attended the college for many years.

1995: Past graduate Stuart Cummings (1983) refereed the Rugby League World Cup Final between England and Australia.

1995: Sherri Hewson (who played Maureen Holdsworth in Coronation Street) officially inaugurated enrolment at Warrington Collegiate.

1998: Robert and Tracey Ferguson-Caissie graduate. This couple were married within weeks of meeting on their course at Warrington Collegiate.

1998: A yellow Warrington Collegiate balloon was found on the A47 towards Peterborough (heading out of Leicester). A lady phoned to let us know. I wonder if any students have been recruited from Peterborough lately?

1999: Warrington Collegiate first features in Japanese A-Z guide of overseas colleges.

1999: Gordon Gandy passed his City and Guilds 7261 Information Technology course.

2000: Full time Warrington Collegiate student Emma Davies is in Australia training with the Great Britain Olympic Cycling Team.

2001: Warrington Collegiate is the first college in Warrington to achieve success in the Guidance Accreditation Board Quality Standard for Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG).

2001: Warrington Collegiate becomes one of the 1^st UK Online Centres in the country.

2001: Gordon Gandy passed his GNVQ Advanced IT with Distinctions.

2004: Vocalist Sue Quin, from Warrington, entered the charts at number 10! She sings on the FHM Magazine single, a funky pop version of the Rod Stewart classic, ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy’. She teaches vocals on the Access to Music courses at Warrington Collegiate, where she is able to pass on her knowledge to other aspiring singers.

2022 Gordon Gandy passed his AAT Level 2 in Accounting with a Merit.

Block A – The Support Services Building features the main entrance, non-academic support function, a central food court, a teaching restaurant and IT suites.

Block B – The Arts Building features a 150-seat multipurpose theatre which can also be used for other functions.

Block C – The Learning Resource Centre.

Block D – The Teaching Building features various-sized classrooms and academic support space.

Block E – The Hair & Beauty Salons will also be accessible to members of the public to sample a range of hair and beauty treatments.

Block F – The Technology Building will house the Construction and Engineering disciplines together with the professional studies side of the subjects.

Block G – The Warrington Business School.

Total area – 16,000m².

Total cost £27m – financed with significant support from the Learning and Skills Council, Cheshire and Warrington (LSC) and the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

Majority of the campus will be naturally-ventilated, which will be supplemented by comfort-cooling where necessary.

Fully-accessible to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Majority of the buildings will be two storeys high; however blocks B and G will be three storeys high.

Existing Brickwork / Motor Vehicle building (Block F) will be fully refurbished to harmonise it with the rest of the campus Designed and located to promote education for the borough on a prominent arterial road and will feature an enhanced landscape.

In my AAT course “The Committee” chose the Star Accountrant each week. (The Committee were the tutor’s two young children.) The photo here was taken on 25 April 2022.