Helen looks back at the happy years she spent attending art classes at Wensum Lodge and how important the place was to her and other students.
My early life, education and career
My name is Helen Cooter and I was born in 1955 in a village by the sea in West Sussex. I was born in the same house that my mother died in which is quite unusual these days. I went to primary and secondary school nearby and then left home when I was 18 and went to University.
In the days of four-year courses Keele was quite unusual. It would be considered indulgent nowadays I suppose, but we did several subsidiary courses alongside my main courses. When I graduated in 1977 I did an English as a Foreign Language course and then some teaching in London on a summer course. Then I went to Italy and from there to Japan. I came back from Japan to England when I was 30.
I had done a few years abroad and I wanted to work in England so I did a PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate of Education) at Manchester University and then worked in Manchester teaching English as a second language.
Moving to Norwich and discovering sculpture classes at Wensum Lodge
I moved to Norfolk for my ex-husband’s job in 1998. I had three children and I wasn’t working at first because I had a two week old baby when we moved. I started going to Wensum Lodge after we had been divorced, in 2005. I did weekend classes There might have been some evening courses, but that would have been difficult with the children.
I’m passionate about education for all ages. I’ve always done paintings and stuff and I was particularly interested in sculpture so I went to a portrait heads sculpture course and then I also did portraiture painting courses. Over the years I also did Italian language classes. I speak Italian fairly well but was trying to improve my grammar. I started learning German too, but I didn’t continue that.
I started courses in 2005 and dipped in and out of classes at Wensum Lodge right up until when it closed, mainly with the sculpture because it was such a precious facility there. It’s so terrible it’s lost because there were kilns, all the equipment and a lovely cellar to store the clay where it stayed moist and didn’t harden up. It was a perfect place. I mean it was at such a lovely location, looking out over the river and, for sculpture in particular, it is going to be really hard to replicate. There are not many places in Norfolk that have kilns. I’ve heard that they did jewellery making and a lot of the equipment has just been scrapped. It’s just criminal.
I was involved with the committee or group trying to save Wensum Lodge, which has come to a standstill at the moment. But I got a sort of fanfare – an email from County Adult Education – saying they’ve found somewhere to do sculpture. You think great, but of course it was in a school where classes can only take place during the evening because the school’s there during the day. It’s not at all suitable and so nothing has happened. If someone is out there thinking they’d like to do sculpture, I’m not sure there’s anywhere they could go. Maybe to Alby Crafts, north of Norwich. But Wensum Lodge was all about the convenience of the location and the daytime and evening courses and it was about people congregating and meeting – a safe place to go.
It’s all about mental health as well. It’s all very well to put these things online and have the courses scattered all over the place, but people aren’t meeting and there’s no social contact.
The importance of Wensum Lodge as a hub for learning, creativity and socialising in Norwich
Wensum Lodge was always busy. There were always people coming and going, there was a café and people might stay on and go to Jurnet’s Bar. It’s about social contact and, you know, the current debate is about mental health and the best investment you could make in mental health is bringing people together to learn and create, as far as I’m concerned.
Many of the tutors were very experienced and had been there a long time especially in the arts and in the sculpture area because you need to have particular skills to teach that and to know the setup; it’s quite complex running the kiln. Wensum Lodge was perfect for that kind of art activity. I think there were a few days a week when the kilns would be fired. It was very efficient and your piece would be weighed and you’d pay extra for the firing in addition to the cost of the course.
I was always in a position where I could pay for my courses, so I didn’t ever enquire into what kind of support there might have been to attend classes, but I think at the beginning there might have been some concessions. The courses weren’t expensive, but they weren’t cheap either. I think one of the arguments might have been that it wasn’t accessible for all because of the costs, but that’s an issue with so many things nowadays.
The classes would have been under adult education rather than recreation and there were all ages attending classes. I know though that Wensum Lodge went more into vocational education – courses like language skills and basic maths and access kind of courses. I think there would have been funding for those courses because there would have been certificates and it ticks the boxes because it’s doing something that’s measurably useful, but of course you could never measure the mental health bonus and value of these courses. I’m just saying it was generally good health and social health.
I never got involved with the teaching at Wensum Lodge. That was too much like coals to Newcastle. I went there for leisure. There were some real characters in some of the classes and I’ve made lifelong friends from the courses. Some people had been going there for years, but I tended more to dip in and out.
My overall feeling about Wensum Lodge was it was always a place of great joy to go to. It was that hub. It had that sense that you’re all people busy doing different things. I know they had at one stage wine tasting, all sorts of languages, upholstery, jewellery. I was just focusing on the arts really. There was a café, but there was always a feeling that it was about to close down. The café could have been wonderful, but it was a bit rough. W Itas right on the riverfront with a terrace and they could have made a huge thing of that – even invite people from outside to use it. They had a notice board always covered with all sorts of things going on and all these things are important for bringing people together and networking and finding out what’s going on. Maybe that’s happening through Facebook or whatever now, but to me it’s nothing like going down there in person.
Wensum Lodge was an important part of my social life and in fact I knew a woman who was in her 80s – who was very involved in setting it up. I think ‘What would she feel now if she knew what had happened to that great resource’. It would have been the ‘70s. Her husband had died and she had met a partner through Wensum Lodge. They became partners in their 80s! It was wonderful, but that’s the kind of facility it was.
The closure of Wensum Lodge
King Street, where Wensum Lodge had a bit of a reputation, but I never came across any problems. There is a King Street Residents Association who say the street is wonderful now. They’ve worked hard and it’s a wonderful area and they don’t want to lose what they’ve got. I know that councils are strapped for cash – I understand that absolutely – but if Wensum Lodge could have been developed and you’ve got the literary centre in Dragon Hall, King Street could have been a real hub of creativity. I mean if Wensum Lodge gets made into flats it’d be such a loss and that kind of thing cannot be replaced.
I was involved with the Save Wensum Lodge committee and went to several of the meetings. We had a few protests and made some banners. I think things have come to a halt, but it’s made no difference. I mean, the council had made up their mind that they were going to close it. If you’re looking ruthlessly at money I can understand what their thinking was, but it’s not a decision for the well-being of the people of Norwich.
People used to come to Wensum Lodge from different parts of Norfolk because there was very little else on offer in the county. I felt that people could go there and could be who they were and be accepted. I do remember on several occasions in the sculpture course you’d have a model with curly hair and then someone would do their sculpture with straight hair and you think they’re not even looking at the model. You know, there’d be all sorts of creativity. No one was there to judge whether you’d done a perfect piece or something like that.
A huge variety of talents and creativity came there and they produced some wonderful work. We used to have exhibitions where people could sell pieces and it just gets me excited and upset thinking about it. I only know from my own experience people in their 50s can end up in a situation where they’re having to reinvent their life and Wensum Lodge was a place where people could go and be safe and creative and there was always a sense of something going on. If you didn’t like what you were doing, you could discover other things there that you could get involved with. I know so many people who’ve done languages there before they go on holiday or just out of interest. Philosophy was another thing that happened there. Now you go online or you go in the evening to some place that you’ve never been before and obviously you’ll meet your particular group, but not anyone else, so it doesn’t broaden your horizons. It was a terribly short-sighted move to close Wensum Lodge.
So to get my art kick now I’m enrolled at the moment on a short course in art, which is very good. It’s in the evening and that can be quite restrictive for people when they’re older. Maybe they don’t want to drive in the dark. You don’t meet others, you go to your course, you talk to your fellow students and you say goodbye and that’s it. There’s no coffee place and there’s no congregating.
I have to do sculpture with a friend who’s got some space where she can do it, but we don’t do it very often because sculpture’s messy and you need really good facilities for clay work. There isn’t a central place now for people to go. A sad loss.
I had wonderful years at Wensum Lodge and I feel very privileged to have experienced that and it is a huge loss – not just for retired or older people; we had students as well. I remember there was a young girl on one of the art courses who was then thinking of doing an access course. So people could come and then perhaps move on to something else.
You know, I think I could rant on forever. I just hope that somehow something could emerge from Wensum Lodge. My biggest fear is that we’ll open the newspapers one day and they’ll say it’s burnt down. It happens, I know and that really is a fear. The building’s empty now as far as I know.
I do think there is a place for online courses, but not at the cost of losing all the in-person stuff. So full circle, here I am in Norfolk, enjoying what I do and I’ve had a lovely, interesting, artistic life. It’s really connected me because I was working with the kids and it gave me a whole other connection with different kinds of people. And as I say, I’ve made lasting friends which is wonderful and we all feel equally angry and miserable about the state of things,
Helen Cooter talking to WISEArchive in Norwich on 11th March 2025 © 2025 WISEArchive. All Rights Reserved.
