Shuttleworth College (Agriculture)

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Shuttleworth College^[1] was founded in 1944 as part of the Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Remembrance Trust. Richard Shuttleworth, the owner of the Old Warden Estate in Bedfordshire, England was killed in 1940 while serving with the Royal Air Force. He had a keen interest in farming and estate management and after his death his mother, Dorothy Clotilda Shuttleworth, established a Trust^[2]in his memory. The two principal objectives of the Trust were the establishment of the college at Old Warden Park in Bedfordshire and the development of the Shuttleworth Collection - the unique museum of veteran aeroplanes, cars and other vehicles situated next to the park.

The college enrolled its first students in 1946 and soon established its place as a national centre for agricultural education. The existing buildings at Old Warden Park provided teaching and residential facilities in the early years of the college. From 1960 to 1990 the college campus was extended by the provision of specialist teaching facilities including lecture theatres, laboratories and a conference hall, plus machinery, livestock and agronomy teaching centres. Residential accommodation was also added for 150 students to supplement that available in existing rooms at the park.

In 1988 the college joined Cranfield University, (known at the time as Cranfield Institute of Technology), joining the university's existing agricultural facility at Silsoe, Bedfordshire. This, known at the time as Silsoe College, began life as the National College of Agricultural Engineering in the early 1960s.

The college was resurrected in 2003 as part of Writtle College.