Henry Morris (1889-1961) Secretary for Education in
Cambridgeshire and founder of Village Colleges, was a passionate advocate of
‘decorated schools’. He inspired others such as Stewart Mason, educational
administrator in Leicestershire, and architect Stirrat Johnson-Marshall whose
work is recorded elsewhere on this website.
The first village college opened at Sawston in 1930. Village
colleges aimed to provide not only juvenile and adult education, but also the
social and cultural activities Morris saw as necessary for a healthy and
progressive rural community. He believed passionately in the educational
importance of an aesthetic environment, epitomized in the distinguished design
which he secured from Walter Gropius for Impington Village College, opened in
1939.
Over the last two years Sawston Village College celebrated
its 80th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Morris’s
death, with a film made by students about the life of Henry Morris. Continued
cultivation of the arts at SVC as well as its caring maintenance of the
original environment indicates the continuing influence and relevance of his
ideals.
Henry Morris – the Life and Legacy http://www.sawstonvc.org/films/
Chapter 4 The Silent Teacher (21 to 30 minutes) explains how
Morris was a great lover of the arts, believing that people learned from their
environment. The school should be a ‘silent teacher’, for adults as much as for
adolescents. Physical space, if beautiful and authentic, would contribute to
successful learning. Schools should grace the rural landscape. He believed in
the potential of art for social change. Art should be accessible to everyone,
architecture contributing socially and aesthetically to the quality of one’s
life.
Sawston Village College, Fountain Court
Italian Maiolica in cloister of Fountain Court
