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Music playing

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The 1982 setting for Walton Hall, the
very heart of The Open University

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a far cry from its appearance in 1969.
The dilapidated hall stood amid fields

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and woodland secluded to the point
of being forgotten.

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The only other building on the estate,
the 14th C St Michael's church was

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equally in need of restoration and only in
occasional use.

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The overgrown drive seems an unlikely 
approach to a new and open university.

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The first task was to make the hall 
weatherproof and habitable whilst

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over on the west side low rise blocks were
being built for the first academic staff

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already involved in producing the first
foundation courses. All new building was

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to be in brick, relatively cheap and
available straight from the Bedfordshire

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kilns nearby. The second priority was to
provide temporary accommodation for the

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library - an essential backup for
academics working under pressure. There

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were few concessions to architectural
style, rapid construction and convenience

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were the order of the day. Foundations
were already appearing for the

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laboratories urgently needed to develop
the first home experiment kits for the

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Science foundation course. The only
planning protection was given to the rose

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garden at the side of the hall and the
mature trees on the estate.

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The hall itself had a special destiny
after its restoration to house the top

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people. Some minor refurbishing of the
entrance hall created a main reception

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area. Unchanged but beautifully restored
was the original 19th C finely carved oak

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staircase. This led to the principle
offices on the first floor for the Vice

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Chancellor, the University Secretary and
their supporting staff. The first

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occasion to attract the press to Walton
Hall was the visit of Lord Mountbatten

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who was invited to open the now completed
new buildings which were already in use.

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He was received by the Open University's
first Chancellor Lord Crowther,

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the Pro Chancellor and Chairman of the
planning committee Sir Peter Venables, and

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the Vice Chancellor. The minister given 
responsibility by Harold Wilson for

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launching the university, Jennie Lee, was
among the guests.

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[Lord Crowther] Lord Mountbatten, Pro 
Chancellor, Vice Chancellor,

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my lords, ladies and gentlemen

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we are met here this morning to mark the
formal completion of the first phase of

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the construction of this permanent home 
for the Open University. Now it might at

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first sight seem odd that an institution 
who's habitat is the air, which only

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narrowly escaped being called the
University of the Air, should need a

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local habitation as well as a name.

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I suppose that when the
idea of an open university was first

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mooted the natural assumption might have
been that it would occupy a few floors of

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some anonymous office building in London.
That may have been the natural assumption

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but it was clearly the wrong one. We are
not a society for the propagation of this

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or for the abolition of that. We are, we
will be, and we are one of the great

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permanent institutions of the country and
though our nature is inevitably largely

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aerial, electronic, invisible, we must put
down a toe on earth somewhere. We count it

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a great privilege to be able to have
Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Mountbatten

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of Burma to perform this dedication
ceremony for us. We are greatly honoured

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by his presence. Lord Mountbatten.
[clapping]

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[Lord Mountbatten] Mr Chancellor, Mr Pro
Chancellor, Mr Vice Chancellor, ladies and

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gentlemen. I am indeed honoured to be 
invited to open The Open University but it

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at first puzzle, how one could make an
university more open than its name already

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implied. But I gather it is the buildings
which house the staff and the means of

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dissemination of programmes that are to be
opened today and I am proud to perform the

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opening ceremony. This is a test of
technology, will the strings work?

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[clapping]