3-078-148 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Horticultural College, Swanley, Kent, 1890. 'This institution is designed to enable young men to acquire a thorough and practical knowledge of the latest and most scientific and the most profitable systems of horticulture, fitting them to become either prosperous cultivators, or to enter on the duties of landholders, horticultural farmers, market gardeners, resident estate agents, stewards, surveyors, bailiffs, or colonists...The College...occupies a fine old family mansion, formerly in the possession of Sir Edward Reed, M.P. Its lecture-hall is the saloon constructed for the Bessemer Channel steamer...The house is an old square-built, roomy country dwelling, clad with ivy, surmounted by a bell-turret...It contains class-rooms, a dining-hall, a chemical laboratory, a library, dormitory accommodation for about fifty students, a dairy, workshops, an apiary, poultry runs, an engine and boiler for jam-making, a small petroleum gas-factory, and store-rooms. Attached to the house are about forty-three acres of land, planted with fruit-trees, and in the practical management of the fruit and vegetable grounds, mushroom-beds, and conservatories the students will find the application of the theoretical knowledge they gain from books and lectures'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.