Coventry College of Education (Canley College)

 

Coventry College of Education (Canley College)

by Pete Clemons

Graphic from Hobo (Coventry Music and Arts Magazine) February 1974

For many years any gig I saw on the Warwick University campus I simply referred to seeing the band at Warwick Uni. Generically called the place Warwick Uni when I referred to gigs. Only recently, through research, have I discovered that some of those bands may actually have been at Coventry College of Education.

As such I am attempting to rectify this situation and give Canley College the recognition it deserves.

Also it personally explains a decades old puzzle as to why venues, at times, looked different. I guess I assumed the Uni simply had several band rooms which technically it did. But at that time, bearing in mind I was probably still a teenager, I was more interested in seeing the band rather than wonder about the room they were playing in.

People, me in particular it seems, absolutely got confused, primarily because both venues operated as bustling, high-profile stops on the UK college gig circuit. Adding to the confusion, the former Coventry College of Education was absorbed into the University of Warwick in the late 1970s and became its Westwood Campus.

The history of the college can be traced through several key milestones. It appears that the college began around 1948 when it was established on Kirby Corner Road inside a converted wartime workers' hostel to urgently address a post-war shortage of teachers.

By 1958 the college became coeducational and was officially renamed the Coventry College of Education. Under the long-standing leadership of principal Joan Dillon Browne (who served from 1948 to 1975), the student roll grew to approximately 1,500.

Canley College of Education (historically known as the City of Coventry Training College for Women then Coventry College of Education) was a prominent teacher training institution in Coventry that operated as a separate entity until its incorporation into the University of Warwick in 1978. It expanded significantly in the 1950s and 60s, offering specialist courses in areas like secondary PE. Later, the site is known as the university's Westwood Campus.

From the late 1960s to the late 1970s, the Coventry College of Education (colloquially known as 'Canley College') boasted a fantastic live music scene. Students flocked there to see massive touring acts such as Genesis, Thin Lizzy, Wizzard, Status Quo, Stealers Wheel, The Pirates and many more. Meanwhile, the University of Warwick (and its growing Warwick Arts Centre) was pulling in the likes of Pink Floyd, The Wailers, and The Smiths.

And maybe I am not alone in my generic terminology of 'Warwick Uni'. It appears that because the college sat roughly 2 miles from the main Warwick campus, ticket buyers regularly mixed up which campus venue hosted which artist.

The fact that the Coventry College of Education sat in Canley (while Warwick sprawled out toward Gibbet Hill/Coventry) made directions tricky. Once Warwick absorbed the site, many gig-goers simply remembered seeing historic bands 'at Warwick' without realising the specific venue changed.

Either way the legacy as a whole, whether it be Canley College, Warwick Uni or the Arts Centre is something to be admired. And still today great entertainment can be found at the venue.