University extension and County Durham miners

The story of miners’ Classics extends well beyond our book’s chronological scope, especially around Durham, to Joe Guy, a miner from Sacriston, who in 1952 studied Greek on a course set up by the National Union of Mineworkers and Durham Colleges’ Board of Extra-Mural Studies,⁷⁴ and a Yorkshire miner’s daughter named Barbara Taylor who was awarded a scholarship to read ‘Latin at London University’.⁷⁵ From tentative beginnings in 1886, the University Extension Lectures in Durham often included classical subject matter. The lecture series aimed ‘to bring some of the benefits of University teaching within the reach of persons, of either sex and of every class, who have been unable to join the University as Matriculated Students’.⁷⁶ Alongside others, courses on Roman poetry, Ancient Drama, Ancient History and Greek Philosophy were offered.⁷⁷ In 1911, Durham University joined forces with the WEA, and in 1916

the extra-mural teaching was directed by Revd. E.G. Pace, for whom ‘one major ambition ... [was] to interest more pitmen in Extra-mural work’.⁷⁸ He was sensitive to ‘suspicion both from University and the Miners’ side’, which he thought ‘probably goes back a long way’.⁷⁹ In 1924, 45% of students in the tutorial classes were manual labourers and 33% colliers. These tutorials were conducted in many mining communities. 1934 saw the presentation of a wonderful WEA/ University Tutorial Class in the Council School, Easington Colliery, entitled ‘Utopias’. Before any mention ofThomas More, the tutor, Ralph Todd MA, ran three classes on Ancient Athens and Plato’s Republic.*⁰

Ever popular were classes that incorporated local Roman history, drawing on a thoughtful balance of the latest scholarship and more populist publications, such as those published in Allen Lane’s excellent Pelican Books series (from 1936), which ‘cost no more than a packet of cigarettes’; since they were ‘aimed at the true lay reader, Pelicans combined intellectual authority with clear and accessible prose’.⁸¹ These classes provided abundant opportunity for day trips to nearby Corbridge and Housesteads, where lecturers in raincoats could point at (and declaim earnestly from) bits of Hadrian’s Wall, before admiring crowds of students.⁸² (Figure 22.5 and 22.6). In the late 1940s, Walter Taylor’s extra-mural Social History course covered the Roman Occupation of Durham County, and his evening classes (1957-1958), entitled Archaeology and History of Roman Britain, were well attended at Billingham Technical College.⁸³ A certain H.W. Harbottle also taught a course in Ancient History from 1954-1956, in the pit communities of

FIGURE 22.5 Walter Taylor and extension students, reproduced by courtesy of Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections. Courtesy of Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections (UND/DB15/IB/68).

FIGURE 22.6 J.P. Gillam and extension students, reproduced by courtesy of Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections. Courtesy of Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections (UND/ DB15/IB/59).

Langley Park and Chester-le-Street.⁸⁴ It is a shame that so few British universities today pay serious attention to the provision of cost-free education for the less privileged members of society.