The Settlement was founded in 1920 by members of the local Quaker meeting house as an adult education centre. It was then known as the Letchworth Adult Education Settlement and became part of the wider Educational Settlement Association, following the example of Toynbee Hall In London. It is now one of the few such institutions still in existence.
In 1925 we moved into a Grade II listed Arts and Crafts building designed by Parker and Unwin who were the original planners and architects for Letchworth Garden City, the world’s first Garden City. The building was the originally the Skittles Inn. We have used this building ever since.
In 1995, the building was purchased by the Letchworth Corporation (now the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation) and is leased back to us. The purchase ensued a more secure future for us.
The original aims of the Settlement were twofold: ‘to provide facilities for adult education of as high a quality and as wide a character as possible’ and ‘to work for the development of the personality of the individual, through association in groups for study, discussion and the exchange of information and varying points of view…’
The Settlement was registered as a charity in 1963, governed by a Constitution. Over time the Constitution has been updated to reflect changes at the Settlement and to comply with best practice as the governance of charities has increased.
Originally, to attend the Settlement, you had to be a subscriber which entitled you to join classes. This was the only way to raise money at the time. The requirement to be a Member to enrol on courses remains today and is enshrined in our Constitution.
As you can imagine, over the years the Settlement has amassed a lot of paper records. A number of these have already been deposited in The Garden City Collection, an internationally significant collection of historical artefacts cared for by the Heritage Foundation. These are available for public inspection and some have already been digitised. More records will be passed to the Collection so that the Settlement’s unique heritage is preserved. Today the majority of our records are digital but we still have arrangements in place to protect them.
If you would like to find out more about the history of the Settlement, Kate Thompson, a former Hertfordshire County Archivist, wrote a book to celebrate our centenary in 2020. The book is called “Letchworth Settlement: A century of creative learning” and is available to buy from the Settlement office.
