Digby Stuart College Society of the Sacred Heart

The Society of the Sacred Heart had been founded in France by Madeleine Sophie Barat (1779-1865) in order to provide a sound academic education based on religious principles for Catholic girls, with a great importance placed on teacher training. The first English foundation of the Society was at Berry Mead Priory, Acton, in 1842, and in 1850, the foundation moved to Roehampton, where a school was established. In response to a need for Catholic teachers after the Education Act of 1870, a teacher training college for girls was established at Roehampton in 1874. This was only a temporary home, the nuns at the Roehampton convent providing accommodation for the College until it could move to its new home, 'The Orchards' in West Hill, Wandsworth. The acquisition of the property and the organisation of the College were the work of an eminent English nun, Mother Mabel Digby, the superior of the Roehampton community. Obeying the government requirement that a practising school be established in connection with the College, Mother Digby duly set up a 'poor' school at Wandsworth, which flourished and proved a great asset to the students and the pupils. Charlotte Leslie was appointed as the first Principal.
In 1894, Mabel Digby left Roehampton for Rome, and was succeeded by Reverend Mother Janet Stuart, who worked hard to improve the system of teacher training at West Hill, and also encouraged her nuns to further their own education, often by taking degrees. Teaching followed the requirements laid down by the Department of Education, but was also expanded to include cookery and needlework. She also recognised developments in the teaching of younger children.
By 1901, student numbers had risen to 104, and in recognition of this the Society acquired St Charles' College in St Charles' Square, North Kensington. Students and staff from the Wandsworth College took up residence in 1905, and took the name 'St Charles' College'. The College continued to thrive, with students taking part in local religious and secular organisations, mainly relating to family welfare. The 1920s saw a growing academic link between St Charles' and Bedford College, and the setting up of the London Training Colleges Delegacy in 1928 only intensified the links with the University of London.
The College was evacuated to Cold Ash, Berkshire, in 1939, where they were housed in the noviceship house of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary: it remained there until 1946. The houses at Roehampton and St Charles' Square were heavily bombed and suffered significant damage. In 1946, St Charles' was sold to the diocese, and the decision taken that the College should return to its birthplace at the Roehampton convent. It was renamed 'Digby Stuart College', in memory of Mabel Digby and Janet Stuart.
The post-war era was a time of expansion. Between 1946 and 1953, the College was slowly rebuilt both physically and academically. New buildings were erected, including the East and South wings, the new Science and Primary Education block, and the Harvey, Fincham and Richardson blocks. Academic studies were developed, and the College became one of the constituent colleges of the University of London Institute of Education, which came into operation in 1949. In 1963 the three-year course started, followed by the fourth year BEd course in 1968 and the post-graduate Diploma course in 1971. Student numbers rose. Plans to form a union of the four voluntary teacher-training colleges in the south-west of London began to take shape in the early 1970s, with the four acting as an academic unity to offer BA, BSc and B Humanities degrees, validated by the University of London, from 1974. The Roehampton Institute of Higher Education (RIHE) was formally incorporated in 1975, with each of the constituent colleges - Froebel, Whitelands, Southlands and Digby Stuart - retaining its own corporate identity. The title Roehampton Institute London was subsequently adopted.
Though its degrees were validated by the University of Surrey from 1985, full university status was achieved in 2000, when the Roehampton Institute formally entered into federation with the University of Surrey and became known as the University of Surrey, Roehampton.