Living Museums is dedicated to history and heritage projects - created with and for young people
"The House Mr. Strutt Made"
The Herbert Strutt Primary School, Belper
In 2008, Dorothy Heathcote undertook a project at the Herbert Strutt Primary School in Belper, Derbyshire. The school was founded in 1909 by Herbert Strutt, whose family owned cotton mills in the town.
Dorothy was invited by the Head to undertake the project, just as the school was about to move to new premises. He told her that he would like the children to "look at the very structure of the school ... to know that men’s bodies lifted all these stones, sawed these timbers, had no electric tools, carved these stones, built brick by brick, and died young, a lot of them.”
With a class of 8-year olds, Dorothy chose to set up an enterprise “that does building structures” and specialises “in fire-damaged buildings or flood-damaged buildings; buildings that are falling apart”. At a certain point, a commission letter arrived from a client, “Sculpture Works Ltd.” It began: “It has come to our notice that you specialise in examining building structure, with a particular viewpoint.” It continued (and “this is the drama”, Dorothy observed):
We are hoping with your experience you will be able to uncover various levels in the life of a building including the following voices:
1. The voices of the materials, e.g. The Stone and cast Iron
2. The voices of those who laboured to turn those materials
3. The voices of those people who have
used the building to the purpose Mr. Strutt had in mind at its original inception.
The building in question was, of course, the very school which the children were in. Dorothy observed: "So in my mind, voices of bricks, voices of people lifting, and so on, is going to be at the heart of the work these eight-year olds will do. So they're not staring at, 'How big is a room?' but [thinking about] what went on; the children learning here. 'What happens to this desk, when there’s a voice beside it? What about the person that built the desk?' And so on.
The children arranged him in costume, so he could represent Mr Strutt as a “portrait” (modelled on an actual portrait hanging in the school). Then when the “portrait” was ready, the children spoke to him, and asked, “What is it you've come for?”
And this is what he says: “I have a mind to build a place where little children, boys and girls, will learn to read, know their letters and number, and count money, and write. This is what I wish.” So he says, “I have asked my clerk to tell you what I wish you to do today.”
A poem was introduced, loosely based on “The House that Jack Built.”
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"This is the school Mr Strutt made
First dreamed in his head
And made it to happen
By planners and workers
Who strove with their hands
And muscles and backs
And those of great horses
Who pulled with a will
To make this fine school Mr Strutt built."
The class adored Mr Strutt. He couldn't be there all the time, but when he wasn't there, they always wanted to know where he was, because he was the heart of why we do things. ...
So according to the age you teach, you need to consider how you will create that centre from which everything will flow. This [the poem] was constantly referred to, through Mr Strutt, because the children couldn't read it, but they danced to it, and they quickly learned a lot of it, and then they showed Mr. Strutt around the school that they knew about.
Images on this page feature: the original school building; and the “commission” letter and poem that Dorothy produced. Photos of Dorothy working at the school, by Chris Webb.
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