A Short History of Geography at Loughborough

Loughborough University has its roots in the Technical Institute, which was established in 1909. Loughborough, a small town of the English East Midlands, was already celebrated for its light engineering industries and, in particular, was the home of the Brush Electrical Engineering Company, known, amongst other things, for the powerful electric motors that provided traction for trams and trains worldwide. Ironically, Ned Ludd, the 18th century reactionary who railed against the introduction of the textile machinery that facilitated the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century (and who is commemorated in the term Luddite) came from Anstey, not far from the town which was destined, in the late 20th century, to have the UK’s most celebrated University of Technology. The Technical Institute played a key role during the Great War of 1914-18, training women as munitions technicians. Recognition of its success in promoting further education came in its re-naming, post-war in 1920, as Loughborough College.




Beginnings
Subjects were added during the inter-war years, reflecting not only a broadening of the curriculum, but also the purpose of the institution, which, before World War II, had taken on the role of teacher training. It was in this environment that geography was established, modestly at first, with the appointment of Henry Widdup in 1947. Henry taught geography, but he also taught education practice. Loughborough College had become so successful that, in 1952, it was split into four separate institutions. By this time there were three geographers on the staff and they were employed by the Teacher Training College, one of the four off-shoots of Loughborough College.


Henry Widdup


The 1960s

In 1963, the Training College was re-named the College of Education and it was then that Geography became an identifiable entity – a Department. Henry Widdup was the first Head of Department and by 1966, he was leading a group of six staff:

Keith Boucher
Frank Drake
Lesley Frost
John Pearson
Colin Read
Henry Widdup


The 1970s
The early 1970s saw further growth of the Department with the appointment of three staff:

Will Hamley
John Herington
David Walker

Henry Widdup had retired in 1971 and Colin Read became the second Head of Department. One of the institutions that had had its origin in the split of Loughborough College in 1952 and which had become the College of Advanced Technology in 1956, had received a Royal Charter in 1966, following a national review of higher education by Lord Robbins (published in 1963).


Colin Read

This was the newly-styled Loughborough University of Technology. It was this institution that absorbed its neighbour, The College of Education, in 1977, bringing to the University a diversification of subjects by adding English & Drama, Design Technology, Physical Education, History and, of course, Geography. Significant was that the qualifications awarded by The College had been validated by the University of Nottingham up to 1971, at which time, Loughborough University of Technology became the validating authority. From 1977, geographers not only graduated with degrees awarded under Loughborough’s Charter, for the first time they became alumni of the University itself. In order to develop the new University Department of Geography, a number of appointments were made. Morag Bell joined in 1976. In the fullness of time, Morag was to be conferred with the title Professor of Cultural Geography and, from 2003, became one of the University’s Pro Vice-Chancellors. Geoff Petts was appointed in 1979 to boost physical geography in the curriculum.


Robin Butlin

Geoff eventually rose to the rank of professor before moving to the University of Birmingham in 1993, subsequently taking up the role of Vice-Chancellor at the University of Westminster. This year marked the arrival of the Department’s first research officer – David Evans, formerly of the University of British Columbia. Significantly, 1979 also saw the appointment of Loughborough University’s first Professor of Geography in the person of Robin Butlin, who had previously held a Readership in the University of London at Queen Mary College. Robin became the third Head of Department and was to win further staff appointments during what were the recession-hit 1980s.


The 1980s
Denis Cosgrove and Neil Roberts were appointed in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Both rose in rank to take the title of Reader before moving on to professorships elsewhere, Denis to Royal Holloway, University of London, and then to the University of California, Los Angeles, and Neil to the University of Plymouth. Mike Heffernan was appointed in 1985 to the only “New Blood” lectureship that Loughborough acquired in a stiff national competition. He eventually moved to the University of Nottingham where he is Professor of Historical Geography. In 1988, the Department of Geography grew by internal transfers of staff. The Department of Human Sciences had accommodated a number of ecologists. But, because of a shift in the emphases of research and teaching towards ergonomics, their role, as it stood, was becoming peripheral. As a subject, geography in the UK had espoused biogeography since the 1960s, but, as it happens, it was not represented amongst staff of the Department. The ecologists had an obvious affinity with the environmental bent of geography and the Department welcomed all three with open arms. They were:

Malcolm Greenwood
Max Wade
Gerry White

Later, in 1991, Valerie Black was to take the same transfer route. Max was later to resign his post in order to take a Chair in Environmental Science at the University of Hertfordshire in 1997.


The 1990s
Geoff Petts became the fourth Head of Department in 1991 and provided leadership until his departure for Birmingham at the end of 1993. The year 1991 also saw the appointment of two human geographers – Jon Beaverstock and Ed Brown. Jon was to replace Colin Read and to research and teach economic geography.


Geoff Petts

Ed was appointed to research and teach about “non-European societies…preferably [in] Latin America or Asia”. Self-evidently to those who know him, Latin America won out! Jon, promoted to a professorship in 2003 was, in 2006-07, briefly the seventh Head of Department before taking a Chair of Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham. The 1990s saw further growth, driven by the necessity of seeking prowess under the periodic Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Ian Reid, Professor of Geography in the University of London at Birkbeck College, was appointed Professor of Physical Geography early in 1994. Later that year, David Slater, Associate Professor of the Inter-University Centre for Latin American Research & Documentation, Amsterdam, was appointed Professor of Human Geography.


Morag Bell

At the same time, Morag Bell became the fifth Head of Department, serving until 1996 and again, later, between 2000-03. In 1995, Robin Butlin resigned to take the post of Principal of University College of Ripon & York St John and Peter Taylor, Professor of Political Geography in the University of Newcastle, was appointed in his place as the second (non-adjectival) Professor of Geography.


Ian Reid

Ian Reid became the sixth Head of Department in 1996, serving the first of three terms of office that stretched to 2009. Helen Rendell, formerly a professor in the University of Sussex, was appointed Professor of Physical Geography in 1999. A number of lectureships were established during the 1990s. Amongst those appointed who are still on the staff towards the end of the 2000s were Jo Bullard, Sarah Holloway, Phil Hubbard, Steve Rice, Tracey Skelton and Paul Wood (an alumnus of the University).


Jon Beaverstock

By the mid-2000s, all were promoted, Phil and Tracey to professorships, Steve, Jo and Sarah to readerships and Paul to a senior lectureship. Others came and went to promoted positions elsewhere, reinforcing the notion that Loughborough’s Department has been a significant ‘nursery’ of British academic geography. Marcus Doel is now Professor of Human Geography at Swansea, University of Wales; Caroline Nagel is a professor in the University of South Carolina; and Gerhard Masselink is Professor of Coastal Geomorphology at the University of Plymouth.


The 2000s
By 2000, the Department had grown to 17 academic staff. By 2009, there were 28, a six-fold increase in size since the formal inception of the Department in 1963. Staffing additions in the 2000s have been John Anderson (Professor of Physical Geography), Jeff Evans, David Graham, John Harrison, Richard Hodgkins (promoted Senior Lecturer), Michael Hoyler (promoted Senior Lecturer), Heike Jöns, Elizabeth Mavroudi, Jonathan Millett, Kathy Pain, David Ryves (promoted Senior Lecturer), Jan Semmelroggen, Dapeng Yu and Rob Wilby (Professor of Hydroclimatic Modelling and an alumnus of the University). James Sidaway resigned his Readership to take the post of Professor of Human Geography at the University of Plymouth, Sarah Hall, probationary lecturer, transferred to the University of Nottingham and Ian Candy, also a probationary lecturer, returned to Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2009, Phil Hubbard became the eighth Head of Department.


Phil Hubbard


The Support Staff
The Department is vitally served by its support staff, without whom, it would function infinitely less efficiently, if it could function at all! Rachel Breen took over the role of Department Administrator from Jeanne Preston in 1994. She leads a loyal team of secretaries – Sue Adcock, Sue Clarke, Sandie Duddle, Alison Rawnsley, Diana Snaith, and Claire Whelband, worthy successors to earlier secretarial staff – Ruth Austin, Jacki Bowyer, Gwyneth Barnwell, Betty Bushby, Gill Giles, Fiona Holt, Valerie Pheby and Kate Stevens. Mark Szegner provides essential service as cartographer and information technician, and is the successor of Ann Tarver, Erica Milwain and Peter Robinson. Stuart Ashby, Barry Kenny and Fengjuan Xiao give invaluable support in both the field and the laboratory as the technical staff team, successors to David Forrow and Vernon Poulter.


Administrative and Secretarial Staff, July 2008


Postscript
Together with its post-doctoral researchers, the Department staff complement in 2009 stands at forty-five. This is commendable growth, reflecting the University’s confidence in the ever-increasing strength of its Department of Geography. Were he still with us, Henry Widdup would take considerable pride in what has become of Geography at Loughborough University since its inception with his appointment to Loughborough College in 1947.

Ian Reid Head of Department 1996-00, 2003-06, 2007-09 July 2009



Staff "Away Day", Leicester Space Centre, 2005