Glasgow Church of Scotland Training College

• Established Church Normal Seminary

The Glasgow Church of Scotland Training College, or Established Church Normal Seminary, as it was known in the early days, opened on a small scale in 1845 in the Dundas Vale building which it had inherited from the Glasgow Normal Seminary. Teaching continued under the direction of Mr Forbes (a former teacher in the Glasgow Normal Seminary model school) and it was several years before the college again reached the standard required by the Committee of Council on Education for recognition as a training college. Relations with the nearby Glasgow Free Church Training College were strained initially but became more friendly in later years. The college flourished in the latter years of the 19th century, notably under the rectorships of Dr David Ross 1877-1899 and Alex M. Williams 1899-1907. The increasingly secular nature of education and society by the late 19th century led the churches to withdraw from teacher training and in 1907 the Church of Scotland and United Free Church Training Colleges amalgamated under the control of the Glasgow Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers.

Glasgow, Scotland

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2003); Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names, National Council on Archives (1997).

Created by Victoria Peters, December 2009.