The closure of Darlington's College of Technology will bring the curtain down on more than a century of history. Julia Breen reports.

WHEN Education Minister the Duke of Devonshire opened Darlington's first college of technology in 1897, it was labelled "Darlington's latest white elephant" by critics.

The ornate building in Northgate, built on land bought for £1 a yard from the North Lodge estate, was designed by Darlington architect GG Hoskins and opened to 564 students.

The town, with a population of 37,000 which had increased eight times since the steam age rolled into the North-East in the early 19th Century, was a major industrial base and was in need of a skilled workforce.

At the time, only nine per cent of 14-year-olds were in full-time education.

But doomsayers were left dumbfounded when, by 1905, there were nearly 800 students and a new lecture hall and laboratories had to be built.

The courses offered included engineering, building, botany, French, German, Latin, wood carving, cookery, drawing and painting, and needlework.

On February 11, 1905, Sir Isambard Owen, principal at Armstrong College, Newcastle, described the Darlington building as "a beautiful monument to the town", as he opened a lecture hall.

Engineering courses grew rapidly, with enrolments doubling in the first five years. A mechanical lab was opened on October 20, 1910, by steam turbine inventor Sir Charles Parsons.

In later years, the college grew so quickly that lessons were taking place in unsuitable buildings all over the town, which were described as being "ill-lit, badly-ventilated and ill-heated", with students having to squeeze into seating designed for schoolchildren.

In 1955, the college took over the former Girls' High School, in Cleveland Avenue, which had moved into a new building at Hummersknott.

The Northgate building remained in use, but with 3,000 students on the roll there was not enough space in the two buildings and lessons were still held at 20 separate premises in the town centre.

Work started in 1961 on the Darlington College of Technology, in Cleveland Avenue, which was opened in 1963 and is still in use, with more than 20,000 students each year. The campus still incorporates the girls' school.

In 2000, the college's Catterick centre - an online learning centre - was opened by the Prince of Wales.

In the same year, Peter Shuker, college principal, retired. He had taken the college from a cash crisis in 1991, through a £3m redevelopment in the mid-1990s, into a record-breaking recruitment of students.

College site company is preparing to make a move

ENGINEERING firm Torrington last night confirmed it was looking to move to a new site in the region.

The factory, on Darlington's Yarm Road Industrial Estate, is thought to be the preferred site for Darlington College of Technology's multi-million pound complex.

The bearings maker has suffered a large number of job losses over the past few years, reducing the workforce from almost 400 in 1998 to just over 100 today.

The company shed 24 jobs a few months ago, following the axing of 66 staff just over a year ago, when it blamed increasing competition from Eastern Europe. It now employs 105 staff in Darlington.

Andy Dillon, manager of the Yarm Road plant, said: "We have been looking to relocate to smaller premises over the last few weeks.

"We have reduced our workforce considerably and the site is now too large for us."

The Northern Echo understands that Torrington is looking to move to neighbouring Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

Regional development agency One NorthEast has been in discussions with the college with a view to brokering a deal.

It is believed the agency may be looking to buy the site from Torrington, then sell it back to the college at a reduced price when it is ready to move, helping to safeguard jobs at the company in the process.

Until recently, Torrington was owned by the international Ingersoll-Rand group, but two weeks ago it announced its sale to the Timken company in an $840m deal.

Torrington, with 10,500 employees worldwide, has a network of more than 50 offices and 27 manufacturing plants in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

The acquisition has made Timken the world's third largest bearings company, with approximately $3.6bn in annual revenues.

Company chairman WR Timken Jr said: "We are excited about combining Timken and Torrington, two of the most respected names in manufacturing.

"This will create a stronger bearings products and solutions company that will give us a larger platform to increase shareholder wealth and better serve our customers."