The Village College

The Village College is a building constructed in 1937, designed by architect S.E. Urwin in collaboration with H. Morris, the Director of Education for Cambridgeshire. It showcases a modern movement style and is built from handmade 'Essex Primrose' brick by Collier & Co, with concrete dressings and steel window frames. The roofs are supported by steel or wooden frames and are covered with asphalt.

The college features a single-storey asymmetrical layout, with a main east-west range that includes a central corridor. Classrooms are arranged at right angles to the west end, while the assembly hall is positioned at right angles to the east end and the south side of the main entrance. To the east of the main entrance, the library, common room, and lecture hall extend the main range on the north side.

The entrance elevation includes a stepped paved court leading to double doors with sidelights set in a segmental opening adorned with blue eggshell tiles. Above is a plain parapet, with a tower block rising behind it, featuring vertical and horizontal moulded brick bands and tall single-light steel windows.

Inside, the details designed by Urwin are evident in the plain wooden panels of the public rooms and fittings in the school rooms, along with some items of furniture. The village colleges were intended to meet both school and village needs. Linton was the third college built in Cambridgeshire and the second designed by Urwin. Construction began in 1935 or 1936 in Bottisham and Linton, and it is believed that the designs for these buildings influenced architects Gropius and Fry in their design of Impington College in 1938.