Geoffrey Heptonstall
Geoffrey was a Drama student at Newton Park College from 1970-1973. Here, he tells us about his mentors and the sense of liberation that was in the air. "Essays, poetry, pictures, wine and laughter flowed out of us there."
"The popular myth was that teacher education was a doddle. It was very demanding. Many of the people I knew were planning a creative life that would include teaching but not exclusively so."
Geoffrey Heptonstall, June 2022
"You'll love Bath College," my parents said. I studied Drama from 1970-73. Time has passed, but the links have never been severed. Nostalgia, some would say, plays its part. But was it really as good as memory says it was? Well, Bath in general and Newton Park, in particular, are undeniably beautiful.
That enchantment never quite leaves you. It is an ideal place to develop your creative ideas. Bath Spa University's great strength is the creativity that flows out of the Palladian stone.
We were lucky to have mentors like Gwyneth Morris, multilingual and empathic, and Ian Burton, a gifted playwright and director. Nick Otty, playwright and painter, was also teaching at Bath Spa for a time. They guided us in practical ways, like the Bath Festival and the Octagon Theatre, which were the springboard for later professional careers.
My Education Theory supervisor was Jane Stephens, a specialist in Philosophy, who instilled a lifelong interest in Cultural Studies and Social Philosophy.
To be honest, a four/five-year course was crammed into three years. The drop-out rate was high. The popular myth was that teacher education was a doddle. It was very demanding. Many people I knew were planning a creative life that would include teaching, but not exclusively.
There lingered that Sixties ethos of personal liberation and life as carnival.
Nobody cared particularly about money and responsibility. I lived for two years at 6 Upper Church Street. The rent was absurdly cheap given its location. Essays, poetry, pictures, wine and laughter flowed out of us there.
On leaving, I taught at Holyrood School in Chard for a short time. Then, I returned to Bath to act, write and mentor students at Bath College. Finally, I floated towards Cambridge and a life of writing and lecturing, mainly in adult education.
The Alumni Oral Histories project aimed to gather individual voices and views from the University's teaching alumni community and publish these stories in people's own words. Any views or opinions represented in individual posts are personal, belonging solely to the author of that post, and do not represent the views of other Bath Spa staff, or Bath Spa University as an institution.