Description: Performance of 'Our Town', written by Thornton Wilder.
Built in 1909 as a gift to the people of Belper by the famous philanthropist George Herbert Strutt, The Herbert Strutt School started life as an Elementary School for Belper, Milford, Heage, Kilburn and Duffield. One of the finest buildings in the Belper area, the school was also given a large playing field, a library containing elaborate stained glassed windows, and in 1910 - a swimming pool was gifted by Strutt next to the school on Gibfield Lane The school is well known to generations of Belper residents who have passed through it. Pupils who attended the school were known locally as 'Strutty-Bangers'. Famous Strutty-Bangers include famous actors Alan Bates, Timothy Dalton and Graham Habberfield. The Blue Peter presenter Simon Groom also attended the school. However Belper's burgeoning population and educational reforms have seen the School become a Middle School (in 1973) and in 1986 the school became a Primary School, housing approximately 200 pupils as the Belper High School and the Belper Parks schools took the bulk of the growing teenage population of Belper. The school was well known for its traditional ethos as a Middle School. Uniform was compulsory and the school had a motto (The Strutts own motto tenax propositi - meaning 'firm of purpose' or 'what we have we hold'), a badge (again the strutts logo comprising of a hand grabbing a scroll), prefects, a house system and a firm style of discipline. The school in this location closed in 2007 and moved to new premises at Thornill Avenue. Information extracted from: http://bygonederbyshire.co.uk/articles/Belper:_The_Herbert_Strutt_School