St Peter's College, Saltley
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St Peter's College, Saltley was a
teacher training Teacher education or teacher training refers to programs, policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip (prospective) teachers with the knowledge, attitude (psychology), attitudes, behaviors, approaches, methodologies and skills they requir ...
establishment located in
Saltley Saltley is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, east of the city centre. The area is part of the Washwood Heath ward, and was previously part of the Nechells ward. It is part of the Ladywood constituency in the city. History Saltley was ...
,
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, England. Today the former college building has now been refurbished and sub-divided into a multi-use facility, combining homes, offices and meeting rooms.


History

Founded in 1850, in part with help from MP Charles Adderley (later Baron Norton) as modern Saltley developed, it first opened as the Worcester Diocesan Training School, later known as the Worcester, Lichfield & Hereford Diocesan Training College and then Saltley Training College. Designed by
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
architect
Benjamin Ferrey Benjamin Ferrey List of Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA Royal Institute of British Architects, FRIBA (1 April 1810 – 22 August 1880) was an English architect who worked mostly in the Gothic revival architecture, Gothic Re ...
, it was built in a
Tudor Revival architecture Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in rea ...
style format of a
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
college, created around a quadrangle at the top of College Road. It housed only 30 trainee teachers initially, which quickly rose to 300 students. The college had its own school, known initially as the Worcester Diocesan Practising School. Located on the junction of College Road and Bridge Road, on opening in 1853 it had two classrooms, one master and 185 boys. A new school room allowed pupil numbers to rise to nearly 500 by 1871. Hit by a
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
bomb during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the school closed in 1941 and never reopened. When the college reopened after World War II, it was known simply as Saltley College, and latterly as St Peter's. It expanded quickly in the mid-1960s to cope with falling teacher numbers and rising school rolls, with the first female students admitted in 1966. The college closed in 1978. The Old Salts' Association (OSA) has an annual reunion on the first Saturday in July at College. The OSA also has a 'closed group' Facebook page. Another Facebook page, 'Saltley College 1964' also shares memories from men who attended the college from 1961 ~ 1964.


Redevelopment

The
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
owned building was sold to the local authority in 1980, and then used as a hall of residence by
Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston'' for post-nominals) is a public university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first College of a ...
. The funds from the sale of the buildings were used to create the St Peter's Saltley Trust in 1980. The trust has three objectives in its work across the West Midlands of England: lay Christian education; further education; and
religious education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to t ...
in schools. The trust generally makes funds available to enable projects which meet its objectives to take place. After the university vacated the building, it was redeveloped as an Urban Village, with accommodation, initially for the elderly and then the local community, in addition to student accommodation, together with small business units.


Saltley College Football Club

Saltley College's football team formed one of the earliest clubs in the Midlands.


History

The earliest reported match for the club - a 1–0 victory over a club named Incogniti on 15 February 1873 - may have been the first game in Birmingham played under
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
laws. A return match played at
Adderley Park Adderley Park is an area in the east of Birmingham, England. Charles Adderley MP donated of land to create the park, which he managed privately from 1855 to 1864. The park was opened to the public on 30 August 1856. At the park's entrance were ...
saw the College win by 5–0. The laws which applied are not made clear; the lack of references to touchdowns in either match suggests they were not rugby matches. At the time, the
Sheffield rules The Sheffield Rules was a code of football devised and played in the English city of Sheffield between 1858 and 1877. The rules were initially created and revised by Sheffield F.C., Sheffield Football Club, with responsibility for the laws pa ...
were popular in the north of England, and the Calthorpe club, formed at around this time, was promoting the association laws. The club was a founder member of the
Birmingham Football Association Birmingham County Football Association, also simply known as Birmingham County FA or BCFA, is an association football governing body covering the historic county of Warwickshire (including Birmingham) and the Black Country region, England. The c ...
and played in the first
Birmingham Senior Cup The Birmingham Senior Cup is a regional Association football, football competition for Birmingham County FA club teams, organised by the Birmingham County Football Association. It began in 1876 and is the oldest County Football Association, count ...
in 1876–77, contributing £1 12s to the cost of the trophy. The club captain for 1876, William Thompson, introduced a passing game to the side in place of the dribbling game hitherto played, helping the club to the semi-finals of the competition in its first three seasons, beating
Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...
in 1877–78 en route to losing to Wednesbury Strollers in front of a crowd of 2,000 at Villa's Wellington Road ground. The Collegians went further in 1879–80, reaching the final, beating
Stoke Stoke may refer to: Places Canada * Stoke, Quebec New Zealand * Stoke, New Zealand United Kingdom Berkshire * Stoke Row Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stoke Gifford * Bradley Stoke * Little Stoke * Harry Stoke * Stoke Lodge Bucking ...
in the third round, in a tie delayed to allow the students to return to college after a mid-term break. In the semi-finals the club lost 3–0 to
Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
at the
Aston Lower Grounds The Aston Lower Grounds was a pleasure ground area in Aston, (since 1911, part of Birmingham), Warwickshire, England. It was open to the public in the late Victorian era. The facility included a lake, which lay across the boundary of the adjace ...
, but a protest was made that one of the Derby players was "cup-tied", having already played for Wednesbury Strollers in the
Sheffield Challenge Cup The Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup is a county cup competition involving teams within the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Football Association. Originally named the Sheffield Challenge Cup, it is the 5th oldest surviving cup competition ...
, against the rules of the competition which barred any player from representing more than one side in competitive matches. The protest was upheld and the College team put into the final, where they lost 3–1 to Villa. The match was the College's high point in football. The team never entered the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
and the next time they reached the quarter-finals of the Senior Cup, in 1881–82, they were beaten 6–0 at Wednesbury Old Athletic; the club's final match in the competition came the next season, a 9–0 defeat at Walsall Swifts in the third round. The Saltley College side continued playing in amateur football until 1967.


Colours

The club listed its colours as blue. The club later added yellow trim and red stockings.


Ground

The club's pitch in the college grounds was, like the
Muntz Street Muntz Street is the popular name of a former association football stadium situated in the Small Heath, Birmingham, Small Heath district of Birmingham, England, taken from the street on which it stood. During its lifetime the ground was known as ...
ground of Small Heath Alliance, notorious for being "indented with furrows, which caused an approaching line of forwards to bear resemblance to a thinly-tenanted switchback-car". Partly as a result the club was unbeaten at home until losing to
Wednesbury Old Athletic F.C. Wednesbury Old Athletic, often referred to as W.O.A.C., was an England, English association football club based in Wednesbury, West Midlands (county), West Midlands (Staffordshire at the time). There were three clubs that had this name. Original ...
in October 1878, by the score of 10–3, "much to the surprise of he cluband the other collegians who witnessed the match".


Notable players

The College was considered a nursery of footballing talent, relying strictly on "science" and avoiding charging, with players such as
Thomas Slaney Thomas Charles Slaney (1852–1935) was an English football player and manager who was the first manager of Stoke. Career Slaney was born in Stoke-upon-Trent and attended Stoke St Peter's School where John William Thomas was a teacher. Thomas ...
of Stoke City, John Brant Brodie of Wolverhampton Wanderers, George Copley, Tom Bryan (later of Wednesbury Strollers and Aston Villa), and champion sprinter Charles Johnstone all went through the College. The most famous college player however was
Teddy Johnson Pearl Lavinia Carr (2 November 1921 – 16 February 2020) and Edward Victor "Teddy" Johnson (4 September 1919 – 6 June 2018) were English husband-and-wife entertainers who were best-known during the 1950s and early 1960s. They were the UK's E ...
, who earned a cap for
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
in 1880, while captain of the College. The College also provided players to the Birmingham FA representative side, such as Rutherford and Goodyear, who played in the matches against the
London Football Association The London Football Association (LFA) is the regional Football Association for inner areas of London. The London FA was established in 1882 and is affiliated to The Football Association. The London FA administers all levels of men's, women's and ...
in 1878, and Johnson represented the Birmingham FA in the "junior international" against Scotland in 1880.


References


External links


Saltley Trust
{{coord, 52.4848, -1.8525, type:edu_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed buildings in Birmingham Defunct schools in Birmingham, West Midlands Tudor Revival architecture in England Educational institutions established in 1852 1852 establishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 1978 Teacher training colleges in the United Kingdom 1978 disestablishments in England