Bergman Österberg Physical Training College — Newquay evacuation

The Bergman Österberg college trained women in physical education. Evacuated from Dartford to Newquay in 1940, it continued teaching in improvised accommodation.

The Bergman Österberg Physical Training College trained women in physical education. Its origins lay in the teaching of gymnastics and swimming at Hampstead in 1885; the institution later moved to Dartford.

In autumn 1940 it evacuated to hotels in Newquay. Students continued their training in adapted premises and outdoor spaces, including the private swimming pool at Baker’s Folly. Using that pool did not mean the college occupied the house.

The archive’s swimming history describes the difficulties as well as the opportunity: by 1943 the principal was arranging additional coaching in London. The Newquay episode belongs to the history of maintaining education through wartime displacement.