The James Watt College was a

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

college in

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It is now part of

West College Scotland West College Scotland ( sco, West College Scotland) is a further education institution in Scotland. It is the regional college for West Scotland and serves the populations of Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire and surrounding areas, ...

. There were also campuses in

Largs Largs ( gd, An Leargaidh Ghallda) is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (''An Leargaidh'') in Scottish Gaelic. A popular seaside resort with a pier, the town mark ...

and

Kilwinning Kilwinning (, sco, Kilwinnin; gd, Cill D’Fhinnein) is a town in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is on the River Garnock, north of Irvine, about southwest of Glasgow. It is known as "The Crossroads of Ayrshire". Kilwinning was also a Civil Pa ...

which now form part of

Ayrshire College Ayrshire College (Scottish Gaelic: ''Colaiste Siorrachd Àir'') is a further education institution in Scotland. Formed in August 2013 from a merger between Ayr College, Kilmarnock College and the Largs and Kilwinning campuses of James Watt Co ...

as the result of the merger with Kilmarnock College and

Ayr College Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

History, facilities

The James Watt Memorial College on the corner of William Street and Dalrymple Street was officially opened as the ''Watt Memorial Engineering and Navigation School'' on 1 June 1908. The building was constructed near the site of

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...

's birthplace (which was on the other side of William Street) and was built with funds donated by another famous Scot,

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, who performed the opening ceremony, unveiling a statue of James Watt that stands prominently in the angle formed at the corner tower. H & D Barclay of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

designed the original red sandstone building in a heavily ornamented

Scottish baronial style Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

, The corner is marked by an L-plan tower, the wing to William Street being capped by a crow step gable while the north wing has a conical roofed tower above a balustrade. The Dalrymple Street facade faces north out onto the main

A8 road A8, A08, A 8 or A-8 may refer to: Electronics * ARM Cortex-A8, a processor used in mobile devices * Apple A8, a 64-bit system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. *AMD A8, an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit * Samsung Galaxy A8, various smartpho ...

to Glasgow and is capped by a steep sloping roof up to an iron balustrade which protects a flat roof originally used to allow navigation students to take observations of the sun. The west corner features a

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led corner turret with a conical roof. A later extension in William Street to the south of the tower is in a plainer more modern style. The building is now in use by

Inverclyde Council Inverclyde Council is one of the 32 local authorities of Scotland. Created in 1995, its administrative centre is based in Greenock and its territory covers the area of Inverclyde in the west of Scotland, taking over from the local government distr ...

local authority education department as office accommodation. Over the years, the changing demands of commerce and industry highlighted the need for a new, purpose built College. The college relocated to its present Finnart Street site near

Greenock West railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = File:Greenock West station 210708d platform 1.jpg , caption = View west from under Inverkip Street to footbridge, aqueduct and Newton Street tunnel , ...

in 1973, the eight-story main teaching block (by Boissevain and Osmond) dominating the area. The 1970s also witnessed a move away from traditional heavy industries into other areas of commerce and as a result, the college adapted to offer a different education focus. In the 1990s the college expanded to include campuses on the Greenock waterfront, at

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

, and at the

Inverclyde National Sports Training Centre National Sports Training Centre Inverclyde is a sports training facility in Largs, North Ayrshire. It is the UK's first inclusive residential sports facility and caters for both elite athletes and the local community in a range of sports and activ ...

. The Ayrshire campuses were demerged to form part of the new Ayrshire College in 2013. The last (or next to last) principal was Sue Pinder OBE.

Heraldry

The blazon of arms for James Watt College is: ''Argent, an oak tree on a mount Vert with an open book Or in base; on a chief Azure, a three-masted ship under sail Proper between a fountain and a spiral Argent.'' The shield displays two special roundels, the fountain (''a roundel barry wavy argent and azure'') and the gurges (''a roundel double spiral argent and azure'').

References and images

{{reflist

External links

Ayrshire College websiteWest College Scotland website
Educational institutions disestablished in 2013 Further education colleges in Scotland Buildings and structures in Greenock

College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

People educated at James Watt College 2013 disestablishments in Scotland Education in Inverclyde Education in North Ayrshire 1908 establishments in Scotland Educational institutions established in 1908