Brinsford Lodge was a hall of residence for The Polytechnic, Wolverhampton (now the University of Wolverhampton

University of Wolverhampton

The University of Wolverhampton is a British university located on four campuses across the West Midlands and Shropshire. The city campus is located in Wolverhampton city centre with a second campus at Compton Park, Wolverhampton; a third in Walsall and a fourth in Telford...

) from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. Prior to that it was a Teacher Training College for Malaysian students and, during the Second World War, a hostel for employees at a nearby armaments factory. It was located on the outskirts of the Staffordshire village of Featherstone

Featherstone, Staffordshire

Featherstone is a small village in the district of South Staffordshire, England, near to the border with Wolverhampton. Originally a farming community consisting of a few scattered farms. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and was owned by the Clergy of Wolverhampton Church...

, about 5 miles north of Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...

.

The early years (1941 - 1955)

The site came into existence around 1941 when an armaments factory was built on a greenfield site to the north of Moseley Old Hall

Moseley Old Hall

Moseley Old Hall is a National Trust property located in Fordhouses, north of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom. It is famous as one of the resting places of Charles II of England during his escape to France following defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.-Background:The Hall was built in...

, to manufacture armour piercing shells. The site was in two parts with Hard Metal Tools Ltd (which became Royal Ordnance Speciality Metals) producing tungsten carbide heads, and the explosive and propellants filled at Royal Ordnance Factory

Royal Ordnance Factory

Royal Ordnance Factories was the collective name of the UK government's munitions factories in and after World War II. Until privatisation in 1987 they were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply and later the Ministry of Defence....

 Featherstone, (Filling Factory No. 17). "The development also included a hostel for employees at Brinsford Lodge".

Andrew Biswell

Andrew Biswell

Andrew Biswell is the biographer of Anthony Burgess. He is a lecturer in the English department of Manchester Metropolitan University.Biswell wrote his doctoral thesis on Burgess's fiction and journalism. His biography, semi-authorised by Burgess's widow, is entitled The Real Life of Anthony Burgess...

 recounts in his biography of Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess

John Burgess Wilson  – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...

, The Real Life of Anthony Burgess

The Real Life of Anthony Burgess

The Real Life of Anthony Burgess is a biography of the novelist and critic Anthony Burgess by Andrew Biswell, a lecturer in the English department of Manchester Metropolitan University.Biswell wrote his doctoral thesis on Burgess's fiction and journalism...

(page 117) that the novelist lectured at Brinsford Lodge in 1946-47. Working under the aegis of Birmingham University, Burgess taught various courses at the lodge including history, politics and literature to demobilized soldiers to prepare them for life as civilians. The lodge was at that time an all-male residential college. Burgess’s employer was the Central Council for Adult Education in His Majesty’s Forces, Biswell notes.

Malaysian Teacher Training (MTT) College (1955 - 1964)

In the early 1950s, the Federation of Malaya

Federation of Malaya

The Federation of Malaya is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957...

 was in the process of achieving independence from the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and, at that time, schools in Malaya were staffed predominantly by expatriate British teachers. In order to assist Malaya in becoming self-sufficient in teaching staff after independence, Brinsford Lodge was offered to the Malaysian government as a Teacher Training College.

The college opened in 1955. The courses taught there lasted for two years. There were up to 300 students - 150 juniors and 150 seniors – on site at any one time and the last cohort left the college in 1964.

The buildings were used for administration, teaching or living accommodation (known as houses). Teaching accommodation was identified by its function (for example: Classroom, Tutorial), and the houses were identified by letters of the alphabet (for example: J House).

There is a Brinsford Alumni association based in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brinsfordian/

Wolverhampton Polytechnic Halls of Residence (1964 - 1982)

Following the closure of the MTT, Brinsford Lodge became the Halls of Residence for Wolverhampton Polytechnic, providing single-occupancy study/bedrooms for up to 250 students. The site retained its existing catering facility and consequently offered half-board accommodation. The houses continued to be used for accommodation and were renamed as 'blocks' (for example: J Block). The teaching buildings were also turned into accommodation, and retained their previous naming convention suffixed with 'block'. The names were abbreviated in day-to-day usage, so that people were now living in CR (Classroom), Tut (Tutorial), Geog (Geography), etc. blocks, but there was no longer any association between the names and their original function. Each block held around a dozen students and, in addition to the study/bedrooms and bathrooms, provided minimal cooking and clothes-washing facilities. Pairs of rooms from the MTT rooms were joined together and alternate doorways sealed over, giving larger single rooms for Polytechnic students.

The main disadvantage of the site was that its distance from the town centre meant daily coach services were needed to transport students to and from the main campus in the centre of Wolverhampton. Part-way through the 1973-4 academic year the Polytechnic opened a newly constructed self-catering hall (Randall Lines) near the Wolverhampton Wanderers football ground, in Wolverhampton town centre. This building was within walking distance of the main campus and its proximity had clear benefits regarding transport and easier access to the polytechnic facilities. Further halls of residence have since been opened.

Brinsford Lodge closed as a Hall of Residence in 1982. Without the drying effect of the heating system the buildings deteriorated rapidly, and they were demolished within a couple of years. As at November 2010, the site remains undeveloped.

Further information

• An aerial view of the Brinsford Lodge site (Google maps). The site is to the left of the marker. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=wv10+7sy&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=16&ll=52.644509,-2.099612&spn=0.006627,0.024376&t=k&iwloc=addr The Google Streetview option now shows glimpses of the desolate site.
• Websites showing some of the history of Brinsford Lodge http://www.brinsfordlodge.co.uk/brinsford/brinsford.html http://www.elliott99.plus.com/richard/brinsford.htm
• Photographs of the desolate site http://www.pbase.com/luc/04_alma_mater