Seventy years of second chances

NOT long after she took over as principal of Newbattle Abbey College in 2000, Ann Southwood faced a tricky issue. What exactly should be done with the 135 mediaeval skeletons that sewer workers had unearthed in the college grounds?

It was an interesting start to her job as the head of Scotland’s only residential adult education college – but one that prepared her for what was ahead.

“Newbattle is full of the unexpected – the skeletons are only one example,” Southwood says. After the archeologists left, the skeletons were reburied in a ceremony presided over by the Abbot of Nunraw Abbey.

Dealing with historical emergencies is all part of a day’s work at Newbattle Abbey, a unique educational institution with an extraordinary past. Formerly the home of the Lothian family, the crypts and chapel were once part of a 12th-century Cistercian Abbey whose monks were the first in Scotland to mine for coal. In the 125-acre grounds are the remains of a prehistoric settlement, swathes of ancient woodland and a bridge believed to be Roman.

The Van Dycks and the Botticellis that once lined the walls have long gone, but among the treasures that remain are a giant iron chest from the Spanish Armada, a pair of stone carvings of Assyrian Kings 2,500 years old and the earliest known portrait of Mary Queen of Scots.

The chapel contains the font in which Mary Queen of Scots was christened. The Treaty of Arbroath was written, though not signed, here. And the grand entrance houses Scotland’s only water organ, powered by the River Esk and built to entertain George IV, who described Newbattle as the “most comfortable” house he had ever visited.

This unlikely setting became Scotland’s only adult education college in 1937, when the 11th Marquess of Lothian, inspired by the example of Ruskin College in Oxford and Coleg Harlech in Wales, decided to gift the estate to an educational trust, to be used for residential adult education.

Neil Hargraves, who has been commissioned to write the college’s official history to mark its 70th anniversary, says residential education was a big idea in the 1930s.

“Originally the idea was to take people out of whatever circumstances that were holding them back,” he says. “There was a big emphasis on individual tuition and the idea is that is easier in a residential setting. That I think is still the basic idea that Newbattle tries to achieve.”

In 1989, Newbattle Abbey was threatened with closure when the Thatcher government withdrew its funding but, by selling off assets and establishing a business park on the grounds, the college remained open.

Today, with some funding restored, the work of finding other sources of income continues, but the college retains its original function, providing fully-funded residential courses that give adults with no or few formal qualifications the opportunity to study and to gain entry to university.

The surroundings may be glorious, but Newbattle is no country-house retreat. Students are expected to work hard to cram the equivalent of five highers into a year.

Anastasja Katzinova, 28, moved from the Lake District where she was working in a call centre. She says: “I left school at 13 because of problems at home, so I had very few qualifications. I saw an advert for Newbattle in the Big Issue and it seemed to offer everything I needed. I knew if I didn’t do it now I never would. The fact it’s residential means you concentrate on your work, you don’t have so many distractions.

Katzinova’s goal is to take a degree in Sanskrit at Edinburgh University.

Deputy principal Norah Fitzcharles says residential adult education can be a life-changing experience.

“It might be people who have left school and gone straight to work and find themselves in jobs with no chance of promotion,” she says. “It could be a person who is unemployed, someone who has been a carer, or a mother whose children have grown up. Our students are people who know they can do it – who have always wanted to achieve their potential. It is open access – but we choose those who are ready to learn.”

Courses are fully funded, with full grants available for fees and living expenses and completing the one-year course guarantees entry to the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow.

“We encourage people to live in because it is the best way of really immersing themselves in the learning environment,” adds Fitzcharles. “The majority of our students are really motivated – much more so than in a mainstream college. They give up so much to be here: giving up their homes, leaving their jobs or coming off benefit.”

The arts and humanities course takes in sociology, psychology, politics, English literature, creative writing, history, maths and computing. Students also engage in confidence-building exercises and teamwork challenges, which have included holding mock trials and building a traditional Mongolian yurt in the grounds.

To mark the 70th anniversary, there are plans for an exhibition, a book and an open-door week in March, when visitors will be able to tour the house and grounds. The college is also rebranding, using the slogan: “Scotland’s Life-Changing College”.

Southwood explains: “It is important to raise the profile. When our funding was cut a lot of people thought we had closed.”

New short courses in tourism, ancestry and storytelling are planned, while hiring out some of the newly refurbished grand reception rooms for weddings and functions helps to pay some of the bills.

There are plenty of challenges ahead and the building has “all the problems of a 16th-century country house”, but the principal, whose office in the former dressing room of a Marchioness overlooks the Italianate formal gardens, has learned to love Newbattle Abbey, skeletons and all.

• For details on Newbattle Abbey College, visit www.newbattleabbeycollege.co.uk or call 0131-663 1921.