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College History

Bridgwater & Taunton College is an amalgamation of Bridgwater College, Cannington College and Somerset College.

Bridgwater College can be traced back to 1888, when Bridgwater School of Art opened in George Street. By the 1920s, the School of Art had moved to Blake Street and became part of Bridgwater Technical School, later renamed Bridgwater Art and Technical Institute. In the 1950s, the premises expanded within the town to include sites on Mount Street, Queen Street and Broadway, and was renamed again to become Bridgwater Technical College. Finally, the College relocated to its current site at Bath Road in 1979 and 1983.

Cannington College, the local agricultural training provider opened in 1921 and merged with Bridgwater College in 2004. It brought with it campuses in Cannington, Paignton and Yeovil. Students studying animal management at the Paignton campus accessed Paignton Zoo until 2017 when the campus closed.

The college in Taunton originated as the School of Science and Art and was established in Bath Place in 1856. This followed the Great Exhibition of 1851 which inspired arts education and saw several new art schools open across the country. By the 1960s, the College spanned three sites: Corporation Street, the Old Huish Grammar School and the Elms on Wellington Road. All remote sites eventually closed, with the Wellington Road site housing all the provision by the 90s.

In 2016, Somerset College merged with Bridgwater College to form Bridgwater & Taunton College. University Centre Somerset, the higher education offer across all three campuses, was launched.