Heronsbridge School

On the E side of Ewenny Road, S of the junction with Cowbridge Road and near the junction with Wyndham Crescent.

Opened in 1929 as the Glamorgan County Council School for the Blind, offering boarding accommodation and teaching for visually impaired children.

The Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act of 1893 required school boards to provide specialised education for blind and deaf children. It also made education for such children compulsory up to the age of 16. The 1918 “Fisher” Education Act reiterated the 1893 commitment to educating the blind which had yet to be realised in practice. The implementation of the Fisher Act provisions also fell short due to the economic crises of the 1920s and their impact on government funds.

The economic crisis was particularly severe in South Wales due to the struggles of the coal industry, but in spite of these problems plans for a school for the blind in Bridgend were drawn up for Glamorgan County Council in 1927 by W. James Nash of the Council’s Architects department. The school was opened by Rev William Saunders (1871-1950), a County Councillor and member of the Education Committee.

When first built the school consisted of 4 classrooms, 2 handwork rooms, 2 recreation rooms, 4 dormitories, staff quarters, kitchens and laundry. The clock tower was added in 1931, paid for by local subscription and organised by Bridgend Urban District Council. Extensions were added 1933 to provide a gymnasium and concert hall, a further 2 handwork rooms, 4 piano practice rooms and 2 more dormitories. It received pupils from across the country – of the 107 pupils in 1933 fewer than 40% were from Glamorgan and every county in South Wales was represented by at least one pupil. With increasing rationalisation of specialised education in the inter-war years Heronsbridge became the only school in Wales for partially sighted children, those in North Wales were sent to Liverpool rather than Bridgend for education.

The school operated on a bilingual basis and it ran its own annual Eisteddfod and provided instruction in Welsh to those members of staff who were not Welsh speakers. Welsh only speaking pupils were initially required to learn English before being instructed in Braille but in 1935 the school’s first principal, FE Hewitt, organised a conference on Welsh-language Braille which helped developed Braille as a system suited to the Welsh language.

With education reform in the post war years there was an increasing tendency to provide mainstream education for all children and specialised boarding schools became less popular. The Glamorgan County Council School for the Blind continued with alterations and extensions added to the rear to cater for changing education needs. In 1996 it was merged with another local school (Heronsbrook) and became Heronsbridge School. From then it has provided Primary and Secondary Special School education with more day attendance and offering wider special educational needs.

W James Nash, the architect of the school, was born in Swansea and started his working life as an architect in London before taking up a post in 1904 for the Western Division of the Education Committee of Glamorgan County Council. He was responsible for a large number of schools in the pre-war years: Aberavon (1907), Onllwyn (1907) Pontrhydyfen Primary (1907), Kingsbridge (1908), Sketty Junior (1909), Tyderwen (1909) Penclawdd Council (1910), Caerau (1910), Trebanos (1910), Cwmavon (1910) Talcennau Road, Port Talbot (1911), Eastern infants, Port Talbot (1911), Pontardawe Boys (1914), Seven Sisters (1914) as well as extensions and alterations at others. He volunteered for service in WWI and in 1915 was commissioned in the 23rd (Pioneer) Battalion of the Welch Regiment. He saw service in the eastern Mediterranean at Salonica, eventually being promoted to Captain. Little is known about his work after the war until 1929 when he designed the blind school. Heronsbridge is his only known work from after WWI and is regarded as his most accomplished design.