| Until very recently the large
comprehensive school in Selston that many of our village youngsters
attend was named Matthew Holland but I wonder how many of us know
very much about the man himself ?
Matthew Holland was born in 1872 at
Inkerman, Selston, one in a family of nine children. As the son of a coal miner,
life was tough and money scarce so by 1884, aged only twelve, Matthew left
school to work at the Underwood Selston Pit. Horrified by the injustice and poor
conditions in the mines, Matthew soon became a keen unionist and by the age of
twenty had been appointed Chairman of the Selston Branch of the Miners’ Union.
Being heavily involved in the ‘Big Strike’ of 1893, Matthew soon became a
‘marked’ man and in 1903 the colliery owners finally managed to ‘victimise’ the
socially minded Matthew out of the mines. |
Matthew & Catherine Holland |
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Portland Row, Selston
A row of forty seven terraced
houses without a jennel
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From mining, Matthew moved into
greengrocery and ran a shop on Portland Row for many years, where he lived with
his wife Catherine and their eight children. Far from being dissuaded, Matthew
continued to fight for justice for the miners and a good education for all. He
was one of the first students to attend local W.E.A. classes and in later years
carried the office of Regional Chairman of the W.E.A. In 1918 he was appointed
Chairman of the Labour Party in Broxtowe, backing the miners through their
ordeals in the National Strikes of the 1920s. During the 1926 strike, Matt’s
wife, Catherine would go out on the dray, travelling from village to village
begging for donations of foodstuffs for the starving miners and their families.
Some were pleased to help but others just hurled abuse at her. Back at his
greengrocery, Matt rarely bothered to use his scales, he just gave local
families what they needed. His habit for extending credit whenever needed led to
Matt re-mortgaging his own home so he could continue to help. Matt firmly
believed that the working classes had to stop just accepting their lot. They
should not accept poor housing standards and a lifestyle driven merely by the
need to survive and eat. |
| Matt’s varied political and social
interests continued and in 1928 he was elected County Councillor for
Nottinghamshire, in 1938 raised to Alderman and in 1946 became Chairman of the
Notts. Education Committee. Matthew devoted much of his life to improving
education for mentally and physically handicapped children and in 1955 was
awarded a C.B.E. in recognition of his achievements. He brought about many
changes at Hopwell School, a local institution for Special Needs children. The
buildings were renovated and oil lamps changed for electric lights and proper
lavatories installed. Matt, suggested that each boy have his own piece of land
to garden in the grounds and asked the head gardener to supervise. He took a
great interest in the welfare of the boys at Hopwell, arranging football matches
with other schools and taking a keen interest in the boys’ welfare even after
they had left school. Matt also ensured the Special Needs girls at Sutton
Fields were provided with decent tennis courts and taken out on outings to
concerts. Delinquent youngsters were also placed in Matt’s care and he
constantly worried whether he had done enough to help these youngsters grow into
‘decent citizens.’ Matt himself, handicapped by a defect of speech, knew how
hard it was to grow up classed as ‘different’. It was Matt who pushed for
residential schools for children with learning difficulties and one of his
greatest achievement was to oversee the building of the Special School in
Thieves Wood, which was in its day an innovative project attracting world
interest.
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Portland Row |
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Portland Methodist Church
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The Holland family were not only
concerned with education but also healthcare for all. Matt was involved with
the development of the Ransom Clinic, which provided 150 beds for tuberculosis
sufferers. Prior to this TB patients had been nursed at home leaving other
family members at risk. As a member of the Sanatoriums Committee, he made sure
that the Sherwood Forest Village sanatorium was built for the rehabilitation of
T.B. patients. Mrs Holland was also a prominent local figure, and in the early
1920s she started the Nursing Association in Selston, a welfare scheme to ensure
that all women in labour received skilled medical care. Women were asked to
contribute one shilling a quarter to become members of the scheme and after its
inception infant deaths fell in the area from 85 per 1,000 births to 23. It was
not until 1948 that the Local Authorities took over this important service.
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Like all prominent figures, Matt’s
ardent beliefs were often up for criticism and during his life there were
conflicts as well as successes. Matt was a keen pacifist during the days when
conscientious objectors were considered cowards. Matt as ever, maintained his
pacifist beliefs, calling open air rallies whenever he could. At one rally at
Crich, an unsympathetic group of hecklers bombarded him with clods of soil.
As a keen Methodist Matthew was also
Sunday School Superintendent at the Portland Chapel for over forty years and a
local preacher on the South Normanton circuit. He was also involved in setting
up ‘Pioneer Clubs’ providing outdoor adventure sports for local teenagers during
World War Two.
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| As Chairman of the Notts. Education
Committee Matt was involved in all aspects of education including the
introduction of adult day release and evening classes and oversaw the building
of the Mansfield Technical College. Matt also fought to have a new
comprehensive school for the parish built at Selston, rather than Bagthorpe as
originally intended. Foundations were laid at Selston in 1938 and Matt visited
the site every single week to monitor progress, until its completion in 1939.
However, with the outbreak of war, this fine new school was commandeered for use
by the War Office. It was not until 1946 that the building actually opened as a
school and Matthew was informed that the school was to take his name. |
The Opening of Matthew
Holland School |
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Nowadays with such
marvellous educational and healthcare provision we often forget that these
services didn’t just evolve over night. People like Matthew Holland had to
fight tooth and nail and gave a lifetime of service to ensure that there would
be education and health care for all…. If you would like to find out more about
Matthew Holland a book entitled ‘From Mines to Minds’ by David Wheatley is
available at the local library.
In 2006, Matthew
Holland Comprehensive gained arts college status and was re-named Selston Arts &
Community College (S.A.C.C.)
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