KIDDERMINSTER College returned to its roots when the purpose-built £9 million Market Street site opened its doors on Tuesday. Photography lecturer Norris Trout started at the college as a student 44 years ago and in 1964 joined the staff.

WHEN students saw the familiar face of Norris Trout walking the well-worn corridors of Kiddermin-

ster College on Hoo Road, cries of "All right Nozza!" could be heard.

Likewise, when a member of staff was looking for information - again it was Norris they turned to.

But as Norris has enjoyed a 39-year career at the town's college - it is little wonder he enjoys this status.

However, the history of the college stretches even further back than Norris Trout. Norris Trout who has had a 44-year association with Kidderminster College.

The beginnings of a formal educational establishment in the town can be traced to the mid-1800s with the founding of the Kiddermin-ster Mechanics Institute.

It was the School of Art within the institute founded in 1866 that had some connection with today's college.

The first School of Art was simply confined to the top floor of the town's "Commercial Buildings, " primarily used to store malt, hops and furniture.

In 1875, the mayor called a meeting and it was decided a new building would be sought to contain the ever-increasing student numbers.

The Exchange Street building was completed in 1879, with a School of Science being added in 1887. The completion of the project, with a museum and free library, was in 1894.

But the location of the newly built college was actually next to the cattle market - where the Market Street mutli-storey car park was later built - exactly the same spot on which today's college has been erected.

And Norris remembers the old buildings with some horror: "I first started at the college as a student in September 1959, at the old Market Street site.

"It was a Victorian building, very old with woodworm and dry rot everywhere!"

Yet despite his reservations, in 1964 Norris, who had only worked briefly at Brintons before attending college, was offered a job in the laboratories and accepted.

At that time, the demand for further education in the town was so great it was "all hands to the pump".

As Norris said: "I started on £9 a week in industrial chemistry, but at one time I found myself teaching hairdressing science, chemistry, physics and textiles and eventually photography which I teach to this day."

By 1952 the college had already decided the buildings could no longer cope with the vast number of students.

Norris said: "They decided to build a new college on the Stourport Road, but after reconsidering they chose the site on Hoo Road.

"The first part of the building process was the engineering and textiles department which opened in 1955."

For a while, the Hoo Road and Market Street sites operated in tandem while the Hoo Road complex continued to expand.

Eventually it was decided the Market Street building should be closed and the whole college was re-located to Hoo Road in September 1965 when the famed tower block also opened.

Norris remembers the late 60s and early 70s as a time of vast growth in the demand for FE. "Student numbers could quadruple in a year. There were queues for enrolment stretching down the road and names had to be taken for the year after as we couldn't fit them all in.

"It was hard to find rooms to teach in as the college was so busy. You couldn't put anything down - if you left a chair for a second someone would have taken it to use it."

Much of the demand lay in the former world class status the college gained for its textiles and carpet-weaving courses. "It was textiles that gave the college distinction across the whole world. We offered loom tuning and weaving, dying and design.

"We had students coming from South Africa, Iran, Australia - all over the place. The process and equipment we had was so good you could take a sheep's fleece and create a carpet from start to finish."

He added: "In the late 1960s they managed to obtain a four-year honours degree in textiles for the carpet industry - and the course took up three floors of the tower block."

Last month a re-union was called at the Hoo Road site, where past and present members of staff gathered to watch the sunset on the seventh floor of the tower.

Indeed, this has become an unmistakable feature of the Kidderminster skyline - and the breathtaking views of Wyre Forest sought from this height have been enjoyed by many over the years.

But as changes in the carpet industry affected the demand for carpet technology courses, the space once needed for huge pieces of manufacturing equipment was no longer required.

This left vast expanses of the Hoo Road site to lay dormant, and it had become uneconomical.

Plans to move to a modern town centre building came to fruition when works began on Market Street in 2001.

The Hoo Road college will be demolished shortly to make way for new homes.

And Norris has mixed feelings. "The old building was disintegratrating and it will be lovely to work in a clean and tidy college - but I shall miss the Hoo Road site.

"Leaving is strange after 40 years and I will miss the views from the tower block as on a clear day you can see 30 miles in most directions, including the Clee Hills and Malvern."