County Council buys Hartpury House and Home Farm

In 1948, the County Council decided to buy Hartpury House and Home Farm, which totalled 350 acres and paid around £47,000 for both properties. The house and out-buildings were altered to provide dormitories, classrooms, offices, dining and cooking facilities, an assembly hall, library and perhaps most importantly - a common room.

A poultry unit was established at Hartpury House and the farm was reorganised to include a new piggery and milking parlour.

First Hartpury College students enrolled

The Institute opened in 1949, and the opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Tom Williams, who performed the official opening.

Only male students were admitted and around 50 students were enrolled on the first course, many of whom were ex-servicemen. Lectures were held in the morning and practical work was undertaken in the afternoon. Four departments existed in 1949: Agriculture, Horticulture, Poultry and Rural Home crafts.

Students awarded National Certificate in Agriculture

In the early days, students were awarded County Certificates of Agriculture, but in the early 1950’s, in addition to this award, students sat examinations for the National Certificate in Agriculture.

1953 saw the college enrol the first intake of female students. According to the records, there were around a dozen women aged between 17 and 30 who studied the general course which included farming, poultry, horticulture and bees.

New qualifications awarded to students

Day release classes were introduced in the county, initially with no national qualifications, but later qualifications were provided by examinations with the City & Guilds of London or the Birmingham based Union of Educational Institutes. A new initiative launched with the introduction of an Advanced National Certificate in Agriculture, allowing students to study an additional year after completion of the National Certificate in Agriculture. Home Farm was also changing. Two extra milking stalls were added; a bulk tank replaced the churn milking system. Beef cattle were also introduced.

New Principal

Mr Griffiths retired and David Henderson was appointed as the new Principal; David had been working at the college since 1957. One of the new Principal’s first tasks was to reapply to the London Authorities to start a course leading to the Ordinary National Diploma in Agriculture (OND) and permission was given to start the course in 1978.

A new structure was introduced in the appointment of governors and new methods of financing the college were started. The number of part-time students rose dramatically as did the number of staff.

Pupil wins Farm Apprentice of the Year

Dairyman James Moore, 21, from Tuffley, Gloucester, beat 400 other entrants to become the English Farm Apprentice of the Year. James attended Hartpury College where he studied a City and Guilds in Agriculture. James spent his £500 prize money on a year working in New Zealand.

Eight years earlier Cotswold shepherd, Peter Brain, was selected to represent Gloucestershire in the same competition. Peter first worked at Manor Farm, Notgrove, before leaving in 1978 to spend a year full time at Hartpury College.

Hartpury welcomes Wharton as new principal

Malcolm Wharton was appointed as the new Principal and his first task in this new role was to address students and staff at the 40th Anniversary.

Malcolm was previously Vice-Principal of the Duchy College of Agriculture, Cornwall, where he was closely associated with the development of Equestrian courses.

New courses Introduced

The nineties were a period of great change for the college.

The first development was the introduction of two new courses – the National Certificate in the Management of Horses and the BTEC First Diploma in Agriculture.

Both were popular and with new courses developed in Animal Care and Rural Leisure, student numbers started to increase.

Hartpury Home Farm’s technical revolution

Hartpury College introduced its first higher education programme in Equine Studies and Hartpury’s love affair with all things equine had truly began.

Computer technology was brought in to help with the milking of 120 Friesian cows at Home Farm. The college was one of the first in the country to use technology which enabled tabs to be kept on milk yields and which also fed each cow individually measured amounts of food.

College gains independence and expands to enrol more than 1,300 full-time students

In April 1993, the college became an independent, self-governing corporation run by a Board of Governors and Directorate headed by the Principal Malcolm Wharton. Since independence, the college expanded rapidly and had over 1,300 full-time students enrolled. Nearly 200 staff supported this student population and the college began an ambitious programme to develop the campus and its facilities.

World Dressage Championships held in the College’s outstanding equine facilities

Hartpury is fast becoming the leading equestrian college in the country.

In 1994 Hartpury was selected as the venue for the 1994 World Dressage Championships for Disabled Riders.

Hartpury College becomes an associate faculty of the UWE

The college joins up with the University of the West of England to become an Associate Faculty. The partnership benefits both institutions providing a long sought-after land-based faculty for UWE, whilst increasing the proportion of higher education programmes offered by Hartpury.

This year the Princess Royal also visited Hartpury twice. She was guest of honour at the 60th Anniversary Young Farmers' Club Show in May and opened the European Pony Championships.

New degrees and facilities

UWE validates new degree programmes in Veterinary Nursing Science, Equine Business Management and a Masters Degree programme in Equine Science. A new Animal Science Centre opens, comprising an Equine Therapy Centre and Veterinary Practice.

One of Hartpury’s degree students won first and second place in classes at the 1999 British National Dressage Championships. Louise Jeffreys had been born with cerebral palsy and suffering from meningitis which left her with epilepsy at the age of seven. She also survived a fall which crushed several vertebrae in her spine just two years previously.

Rapid development in 50th anniversary year

A new Animal Hospital and Small Animal Veterinary practice opened. An extension to the Sports Hall was completed and included Human Performance Analysis Laboratories.

The Gloucestershire Rugby Academy began in partnership with Gloucester Rugby. The facility provided talented athletes with the opportunity to continue with their academic education while developing their abilities and potential to become elite athletes. For the first time ever, Great Britain was selected by the FEI (International Equestrian Federation) to host all three disciplines of the European Young Riders Championships and Hartpury was picked as the venue for the event.

A world of opportunity

Students studying the National Diploma in Animal Care took part in the first annual study tour to Borneo in June of this year.

Hartpury College launched a new Football Academy in September to promote youth development in football and allow students to enhance their future prospects in the academic field. The South of England Modern Pentathlon Academy (SEMPA) was also opened at Hartpury College in association with The Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain (MPAGB).

The Princess Royal visited for the official opening of the college’s new dairy unit and Hartpury helped train officials for the 2008 Beijing Olympics at its Three-Day Event.

Success for Hartpury’s Sports Academies

Hartpury Rugby Academy won the final of the Ram Rugby National University 7’s Tournament against Nottingham University on Sunday 1 May, bringing the college its first BUSA Championship title. The Hartpury Football Academy also won their first major competition in April 2005 when the BUSA first team beat Manchester University in the BUSA Shield Final. Both sides achieved three goals each and the game went to penalties, with Hartpury winning by 4 goals to 2.

Equine and Sport take centre stage

The inclusion of the inaugural CIC*** competition at the 2006 Mitsubishi Motors Hartpury Three Day Event in August drew the very best of British eventing. The event was won by British team member and Olympic rider, William Fox-Pitt. Zara Phillips used the event to ‘warm-up’ Toytown for the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, where she won individual gold.

A new state-of-the-art facility was developed to support Sports Science undergraduate teaching and research into human performance parameters.

The multi-million pound Equine Arena opens

Hartpury welcomed the Chairman of the London Organising Committee of London 2012 Olympic Games, Lord Sebastian Coe, to officially open the new £4.6million Hartpury Arena, providing a fantastic teaching environment for equine students and top-class competition venue. The inaugural competition held in the Arena was the FEI World Para Dressage Championships. This was the first FEI World Championships to be held in Britain in over 20 years with competitors all eagerly seeking qualification for the 2008 Paralympic Games. It was also the first year that A-levels were offered at the college. There were victories over UWIC in the BUSA (British Universities Sports Association) Rugby Championship Final at Twickenham and Team Bath in the BUSA Football Final at Loftus Road. The Under-19s rugby squad claimed victory over title holders, Truro College, bringing the British Colleges Cup to Hartpury for the first time in the history of the tournament.

College awarded Medal of Honour for Outstanding Service to Equestrian Industry

Hartpury College was awarded the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) Medal of Honour for outstanding service to the equestrian industry.

The Hartpury College Rugby Academy first team was crowned ‘Team of the Year’ at the 2008 BBC West Sports Award ceremony.

Hartpury was selected as one of the South West regions high quality training facilities to feature in the London Organising Committee (LOCOG) Pre-Games Training Camp Guide for the London 2012 Olympic Games – a potential training base for Equestrian and Modern Pentathlon.

An ‘outstanding’ year

Hartpury College was awarded ‘Outstanding’ following an inspection by OFSTED in November 2009, making it one of only three specialist residential colleges in the UK to be graded as Outstanding.

Hartpury won their third consecutive BUCS Rugby Union Championship at Twickenham, after winning the EDF Energy Intermediate Cup four days earlier at England HQ. Hartpury College was named as a Beacon College for Rugby by the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Hartpury was only the third college in the South West to achieve this status.

Sporting success continues at Hartpury

Hartpury RFC are unbeaten this season in their 26 league games, winning the Tribute South West One West League with what is believed to be a record breaking points differential of 1,013 and gaining promotion to National League 3 South West. Hartpury College won the first RFU Champions Cup at Twickenham in May 2010. The junior first XV were crowned champions of the inaugural RFU AASE. Many Hartpury Rugby Academy players were also involved in the Under-19s Regional Academy, England Under-18s and England Under-20s teams this year. The Under-18s girls’ rugby team made their first unforgettable appearance at the Rosslyn Park National Schools Sevens and took the title. They went on to win the British Colleges Women’s Rugby Knock-out Cup. Hartpury Football Under-19s were crowned the ECFA Champions and the junior first team won the English Schools Football Association Under-18 Colleges Cup. The junior netball academy won the South West Regional Schools Competition and made the final of the British Colleges and Schools competition.

HARTPURY TO AWARD ITS OWN DEGREES

Hartpury was officially granted university status and became Hartpury University operating alongside Hartpury College. It follows the Privy Council’s decision to approve Hartpury’s application for university title after a stringent and rigorous assessment process.

Hartpury’s journey towards achieving university status over the past six years has included being granted Taught Degree Awarding Powers (TDAP) (2017) and receiving the Gold award in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) (2017).

Investment in Digital Innovation Farm

We received £1.25 million government funding towards our Digital Innovation Farm – the first phases included the launch of our Agri-Tech Centre in 2019 and dairy parlour in 2020.

New Facilities Opened

Hartpury hosted the FEI Dressage and Eventing European Championships for Young Riders and Juniors, and the International Society for Equitation Science Conference.

The first students used the brand-new Graze student restaurant and learning centre.

This year also saw the opening of the Equine and Animal Assisted Activity Area and Tech Box Park for agri-businesses.