Cranfield near Bletchley

Alan Morris, parish councillor and prof emeritus from Cranfield Uni is one of the Cranoraks. With his Cranorak hat on (much needed in this weather)  he's sent the following interesting "what if?" regarding the College of Aeronautics.

In the height of the Second World War a committee was drawn together under Sir Roy Fedden with terms of reference ‘to prepare and submit to the Minister of Aircraft Production detailed proposals for the establishment of a School of Aeronautical Science’. The resulting report appeared in July 1944 under the title ‘A College of Aeronautics’ and thus was born what eventually became Cranfield University – but it was not intended that it would be the one seen today. 

Fedden was head of the Bristol Aeroplane Company and a tough customer 

so he steered his committee to come forward with a radical and original concept - to create a new post-graduate institute with high quality facilities built from scratch. For the permanent buildings the Ministry of Works prepared a plan and came forward with a fine set of Palladian style buildings as shown in the picture.

The new college was to be equipped with a hall capable of holding 1,000 people with a main entrance and dinning hall; this facility being located in the building with the tower.  In the splendid building to the left of the main entrance would be housed the academic staff and the senior adminstrators.  

The Fedden report envisaged a full range of lecturing and experimental facilities including a library and for those more energetic squash courts, a gymnasium and a swimming pool. In fact most of the buildings and facilities that currently exist at Cranfield University.  All of this was, however, to be constructed on a site in the vacinity of Aldermaston and not at Cranfield.

Of course this wonderful new college came at a price and the Fedden Committee estimated that capital expenditure would be £2.61 million with net recurrent expenditure of £360,000. In today’s figures £287 million and £39.6 million respectively.   

The Treasury did not like the numbers.  But Fedden’s team had suggested that, to get the ball rolling, a temporary scheme could be used whilst the new buildings where constructed.  The temporary site would be used for a maximum of three years and advantage could be taken of an existing RAF station as these were becoming available with the approaching end of WW II. Even though we are looking back 70 years I’m sure I can hear someone in the Treasury chuckling because they know that what starts as temporary often becomes permanent ending with substantial savings.  And the temporary site was to be the RAF station at Abingdon.  Except, in my copy of the Fedden report, someone has crossed out Abingdon and written, in pencil, Cranfield near Bletchley and that came to pass.