Moseley School

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Spring Hill College (the sixth-form of Moseley School)

Moseley School (incorporating Spring Hill College) is a large comprehensive in the Moseley area of Birmingham, England. Once dubbed by the Daily Mirror as the most dilapidated school in the country, it has now been fully restored and refurbished.

The history of what is now Moseley School is somewhat convoluted, but can be traced back to 1837/1838 when a private house in the Spring Hill area of Ladywood, Birmingham, was opened as a training college for Congregationalist ministers – under the patronage of George Storer Mansfield (1764-1837) and his two sisters Elizabeth (d. 1847) and Sarah (d. 1853). Twenty years later, in 1857, the college moved to new, much larger, purpose-built premises on Wake Green Road in what was then rural Worcestershire, some miles south of the city. This striking Gothic revival building was designed by the architect Joseph James.

In 1886 the college was closed down and a replacement establishment founded in Oxford, known as Mansfield College (which is now part of Oxford University). Meanwhile the Wake Green Road buildings were re-opened as the Pine Dell Hydropathic Establishment and Moseley Botanical Gardens, which entailed the construction of a swimming pool and greenhouses. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 the building was commandeered by the government for use as a military barracks. After a brief period as an orphanage, the building returned to academic use in 1921 as a teacher-training facility (under the name Springfield College). Finally, in 1923, the premises were handed over to Birmingham City Council which opened them as Moseley Secondary School.

Originally boys-only with a selective entrance exam, the school changed its name to Moseley Grammar in 1939. In 1955 the city council opened a separate school, known as Moseley Secondary Modern, on what had previously been a playing field adjacent to the grammar school site. This new school was both co-educational and non-selective. Only a fence separated the two schools, and it cannot be said that relations between the two sets of pupils were always peaceful. Eventually, in 1974, the two schools were merged in a shotgun wedding that was resented by some, but warmly embraced by others. The combined establishment, known simply as Moseley School, became one of the largest in Birmingham. To this day it still uses a variation of the Mansfield family coat of arms for its badge.

During the 1980s the former grammar school building, known since the merger as the West Wing, began falling apart because of decades of neglect and under-funding. The roof of the library collapsed halfway through an exam, and the entire building was closed. In 1998, with help from the Lottery Fund, the building was completely refurbished, and re-opened under its original name of Spring Hill College (as the sixth-form of Moseley School). The college has been a Grade II listed building since 1972.

[edit] Summer in the City

A party and festival in the college grounds, dubbed Summer in the City, is planned for 23 and 24 June 2007 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the college on its present site (Birmingham Mail, 8 February 2007). Organised by the Moseleians Association – founded in 1927 as the Old Moseleians Association for former pupils and staff – many famous ex-pupils have been invited, along with descendants of J.R.R. Tolkien. The party will be a partial recreation of a similarly lavish event held in the college grounds in 1897 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, which is thought to have inspired the young Tolkien, who lived nearby, in his much later description of the birthday party of Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings.

[edit] Famous ex-pupils

Bev Bevan (musician, former member of The Move, ELO, and Black Sabbath)
Jasper Carrott (comedian, media businessman, and former part owner of Celador)
Carl Chinn (historian, radio presenter, newspaper columnist, and media personality)
David Heath (cricketer, and former chief executive of Warwickshire County Cricket Club)
Anton Lesser (actor, radio personality, and member of the Royal Shakespeare Company)
Joanne Malin (TV presenter, co-presenter of Central Tonight)
Gladstone Small (cricketer, former member of the England team)
Chris Spedding (musician, former member of The Wombles, and Sex Pistols producer)
Richard Tandy (musician, former member of The Move and ELO)
John Taylor (politician, first black Tory member of the House of Lords)