Bedford Training College
now Bedford College of Higher Education
1882 1982
Over 4000 teachers
of yound children
were trained here
Erected by Old Students to celebrate the Centenary
The training of teachers preparing to work in primary schools has a long history in Bedford, dating from the late Victorian period.
It began almost by accident, following the foundation of a Kindergarten school in the town in 1882. Bedford was attractive to families because good education was available - the Harpur Trust ran two schools for boys and began two girls' schools around this time.
But all four schools only took children from age seven upwards. Joshua Hawkins led a group who wanted there to be an infant school, and the Bedford Kindergarten Company was formed to bring this to fruition.
Mary Frances Sim was proposed as the first Headmistress of the school. Miss Sim had been an early pioneer in kindergarten methods, training older pupils to become kindergarten teachers; and she persuaded the Bedford Kindergarten Company to extend her remit at the new Kindergarten school in Bedford to include the training of students. And so the Bedford Training College was also born.
The Kindergarten school began in 34 Bromham Road in January 1882, but soon relocated to 14, The Crescent in April 1882. The Training College began here with five students and expanded quickly, remaining at the site for over seventy years.