Nottinghamshire Deaf Society

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Nottinghamshire Deaf Society is based at a Victorian building on Forest Road West in Nottingham. It's a Grade II listed building and was built in the 1860s, when it was the home of the Nottingham Congregational Institute.

It all began in 1868 when the church noticed that Deaf people were unable to access their services. So a Bible class was formed and run by Alderman Gripper, which was specifically for Deaf people so they could learn about the Bible in British Sign Language. That’s BSL for short. The class wasn’t just about the Bible though as it provided a place for Deaf people to meet and socialise. As the class grew and more activities were held the need for a proper organisation became more apparent.

So in 1890 the Nottingham Adult Deaf Society was formed. Mr Greaves, who was Deaf himself, became the first Superintendent Secretary and Missionary.

By 1896 more hearing people had become involved in the Society and that same year the name of the Society was changed to the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Adult Deaf and Dumb Society. Why dumb was introduced, no-one really knows but it stayed until 1978.

The Society continued to grow and in 1930, they bought the old Paton Cottage Buildings for £7,000. Nottinghamshire Deaf Society as it is now was one of a fine block of buildings that consisted of Paton Lodge, which our Superintendent lived in, the Mount Hooton Wing, which housed the School for Deaf and Deaf-Blind Children and me. The main building housed the rooms, which were and still are used by the Society. They consisted of a large hall, an office, a committee room, a library, a billiards room, a card room and a separate room for women and girls.

The grand opening as the new premises took place on 29 January 1931 with many VIPs including the Duke of Portland and Lord Charnwood, President of the National Institute for the Deaf.

During The Depression of the early 1930’s many Deaf people were amongst those facing problems with employment. The Secretary formed an employment bureau to help combat this - he acted on behalf of Deaf people and contacted firms trying to find them work. We still support Deaf people today although in a very different format. Now we offer more of a supportive role rather than "doing things for them". Also in the 1930’s a boot and shoe repair workshop was set up in one of my back rooms, which employed several deaf men.

When war broke out in 1939 the school and part of the building was used as a temporary air-raid post with the basement being equipped as an air-raid shelter for one hundred people. The buildings all survived the war except for the beautiful iron railings, which were taken to be melted down for aircraft but at least the weather vane, survived.

In 1954 arrangements were made with the Notts County Council for the Society to serve as a Welfare Agency and to provide welfare services to Deaf people within the county. By 1956 the first Social Workers for the Deaf were employed.

A few years later, in 1960, the school moved out of the building next to the main building and was eventually leased to the Nottingham Corporation as an annex for Clarendon College.

During the next ten years major changes were made, both to the main building and the other buildings. The main problem was that we were expensive to heat and maintain. Firstly the boot and shoe repair workshop was closed as fewer people were using the service and it was no longer viable. Next, Mr Fox, the Superintendent, retired and Paton Lodge became vacant, it was decided that it would be best to demolish the building and sell the land off so in 1972 it was sold to the Derwent Housing Association to build flats. Those flats are still next door to us today. During all this Clarendon College moved out of the Mount Hooton Wing and in 1972 it was sold to the Commonwealth Association. So now there’s just the main building.

Towards the end of the decade it was decided to close the library and for it to be converted into a lounge bar. For two years Deaf craftsmen gave up their evenings and weekends to do the conversion. They also built a kitchen, improved the office space and added new toilets and showers.

The 1970’s saw a number of changes in the role of Deaf people and awareness of BSL as a proper language with its own grammar and syntax. Two Deaf people were appointed to the Executive Committee, Leslie Barnwell and William Hope. They were the first Deaf people to be appointed but it wasn’t until the 1980’s that an Interpreter was used to support the Committee.

In 1975 the first BSL classes were started for hearing people to learn to sign. The aim was for them to be able to communicate with Deaf people, to understand us and our culture. The class started with one hearing tutor and just ten hearing students. Compare that to eight years ago when in Nottinghamshire alone there were twenty plus Deaf tutors and eight hundred and fourteen students gaining professional qualifications and you can see how much things have developed over the past two decades.

In 1978 the Society changed its constitution as it was out dated and also the word ‘dumb’ was taken out of our title, as many Deaf people found it offensive, and we became the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Society for the Deaf.

During the 1980’s significant changes were made. In 1982 two new members of staff joined the Society, Marilyn Parsons as part-time Secretary and Gerald Carver as Caretaker. Then, in January the following year George Reynolds joined as our new Centre Organiser. Twenty three years later all three have only recently retired but now there are sixteen full-time and four part-time members of staff, five of whom are Deaf and all our staff now have to be competent in BSL as it’s the main form of communication. So you can see how the Society has grown in a relatively short space of time no wonder the building has to keep being extended!

Also, in 1983 we gave the people of Nottingham their first real taste of BSL when the first rally was held outside Marks and Spencer’s. Thirty Deaf members took turns holding conversations and the Deaf choir also performed.

That same year George passed his Stage III Advanced Communication in BSL and was accepted onto the Register of Interpreters. You may wonder why we're telling you this; well that year he was one of only nine people who were accepted nationally. Today in our unit alone we have seven Registered Interpreters but there is still a national shortage with only three hundred Registered Interpreters to over seventy thousand BSL users.

In 1986 the Society and the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University conducted a survey into viewers attitudes towards BSL inserts and subtitles for TV. The results showed that generally hearing people were in favour of subtitles and BSL inserts so why is there still inadequate provision today?

During 1986 the building had a bit of a facelift. The rendering that had been put on thirty years previous was taken off and the brickwork was restored to its former glory. The chapel was renovated and we had more office space created along with a workshop.

In September a very successful exhibition was held which the Duke of Devonshire opened. Over three hundred people who didn’t know anything about us before attended, including Civic Dignitaries and leaders of industry, it was a good thing we had the brickwork done!

By this time Deaf members were totally running our Social Club and approximately half of the Committees had all Deaf members. Ten years previously not one Committee had a Deaf member.

In 1987 Lisa Warnock joined us as the Information and Training Officer and she is another member of staff who is still with us today. Her role was to keep Deaf people informed of things that were happening and also to give Deaf Awareness Talks.

In 1988 we purchased a minicom so Lisa could use the telephone, as she is Deaf and can’t use a normal one. So, what is a minicom? Well, it’s a piece of equipment that looks a bit like a typewriter and is used with a telephone handset. The minicom sends sounds down the phone line and the sounds are translated back into words, which appear on the minicom at the other end.

1990 was an extra special year for us as it was our Centenary year and we had lots of celebrations and also a very important visitor came to see us, Princess Diana. It was a wonderful day. She officially opened our new office space and unveiled a plaque to commemorate the visit and opening. She also took time out to meet the staff, our mother and toddler group and also some of our members. A very enjoyable and memorable day was had by all, especially Gerald, whom Princess Diana told he looked like sizzling, streaky bacon because of his suntan but don’t tell him we told you that!

In March 1994 the Society moved into a portacabin at the Ewing School for the Deaf for nine months while major alterations were made to our building. The ground floor was altered to extend the Bar/Social Club and add a Games Room, we had a lift put in and a disabled toilet next to the Hall, a new kitchen and dining facilities were installed and we had a new floor put in above the Hall to create a Chapel, a Training Room and a Video Room.

In recognition of the changes made to me we were awarded the Nottingham City Council’s, Lord Mayors Award for Best Renovated Building.

Then on top of all that on 1 January 1995 the Society changed its legal status and became a Company Limited by Guarantee. We also changed our name to the Nottinghamshire Deaf Society.

To round off all the achievements of the previous year we had another Royal visit, this time from the Duchess of Gloucester.

In April 1997 the Befriending Scheme was formed. The aim of this was to recruit volunteers with BSL skills to visit and offer support to vulnerable and isolated Deaf people. The project went from strength to strength and last year we had twenty-eight Deaf and thirty hearing volunteers registered.

Also that year the Notts County Education Department finally recognised BSL and adopted a Bilingual Communication Policy for children, then in April 1998 because of unitary status the Nottingham City Education Department also adopted the policy.

1999 saw another step forward in the provision of Interpreters for Deaf people when in June the new out-of-hours service was formed. Its aim was to be able to provide an Interpreting service for emergencies such as A&E, Maternity and the Police. It started life as a one-year trial and is still going strong.

The next two years saw many changes with the staff team as seven members left us for pastures new and eight new staff started - three of those being into brand new posts.

In 2001 the ICT Project was born which has grown beyond all recognition. Simon joined us to keep tabs on our new ICT system and to assess the needs of and train staff how to use it. Now we have a successful UK On-Line Centre, which is part of a Government Initiative for everybody to be computer literate. Computer courses have been set up and are taught in BSL for Deaf members to come along and learn basic computer skills in their first language instead of being taught by a non-signing tutor at an FE college. Simon is also in the process of researching and developing the next stage of the course so that Deaf people are able to gain a qualification. We have also published our first web site and I’ve had a videophone installed by Powergen so that Deaf people can come here and contact them if they have any problems.

In August 2002 we had some very posh doors fitted in the Hall so it can be split into 3 rooms it’s the over crowding thing again! The Society has grown that much and is so successful that the building is bursting at the seams!

A new Welfare Rights Project for Deaf people was set up too so that Deaf people can access welfare rights advice in their first language as our Welfare Rights Officer is competent in BSL, so there are no communication barriers and no need for an Interpreter.

Finally, on 18 March 2003 the British Government recognised BSL as a language in its own right. This is a huge step forward for the seventy thousand Deaf people in Britain who use BSL as their first language.