Wymondham College - Lincoln Hall

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 8 Dec 2009

Lincoln Hall - named after Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865), the 16th President of the United States, who successfully led his country through the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. Lincoln Hall was greatly extended in 2008 to provide accommodation for all Year 12 and Year 13 students. Wymondham College > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1610973 is described as being a unique state day and boarding school offering an educational experience unlike any other. The site has a long history of occupation, beginning in Roman times. In the early 20th century its use changed from parkland belonging to neighbouring Morley Hall to a golf links but with the outbreak of WWII food production became a priority, and the golf course was taken over by a local farmer who cultivated the land and managed to achieve one season's crop. Then the site was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works. In September 1943 a military hospital, comprised mainly of Nissen huts and other temporary buildings > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1610888 was opened here. The patients, injured airmen returning from bombing raids over occupied Europe, were brought by ambulance train to Spooner Row station > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1412130 and by fleets of ambulances to the hospital from there. The hospital closed in 1945 but the site remained the property of the War Ministry and became a transit camp for troops of the Royal Norfolk Regiment embarking overseas. Because of the great demand for teachers after the war, the Ministry of Works in 1946 started to convert the vacant hospital buildings into two training colleges which were officially opened in 1947. After approximately 1500 teachers having been trained here, the colleges closed in 1950. Wymondham College was opened in 1951 - the temporary buildings that were left by the army serving as dormitories, classrooms, laboratories, common rooms and staff accommodation until the 1990s - with the Modern Languages block, the water tower > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1610921 and the chapel (housed in the last remaining Nissen hut) serving as reminders of the men and women who worked at the hospital and who died there. The current boarding houses were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s along with the Sports Centre, the Music Block and Lincoln Hall > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1610999.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0