Mason Science College

Mason Science College was the first institution in Birmingham to provide degree-level teaching. It opened to students in October 1880 but it had been founded in 1870 by Sir Josiah Mason. The foundation stone for the college building was laid on 23 February 1875, Mason's birthday. Mason was born in Kidderminster in 1795. His father was a carpet weaver and later clerk to a carpet manufacturer. Mason had no formal education but learned to read and write with help from local nonconformist Sunday Schools. He had a number of jobs in local trades in Kidderminster, and moved to Birmingham in his early twenties to work for his uncle in the gilt-toy business. During the 1820s he purchased Samuel Harrison's business producing split rings. He developed the business by devising a way to split steel pen nibs mechanically, and won an exclusive contract to supply his products to Perry & Co. He invested the money he made in an electroplating business run by George and Henry Elkington, and set up new works and showrooms in Newhall Street, and also showrooms in Liverpool and London. Mason and Elkington also worked with Alexander Parkes in copper smelting and nickel production in the 1870s, and Mason established a nickel works of his own in Birches Green near Erdington.

Mason married Anne Griffiths in 1817. They had no children, and Mason spent much of his wealth on charitable causes during his own lifetime, including almshouses and an orphanage for girls in Erdington which he established in 1858 and was later expanded to admit boys as well. In recognition of his philanthropy he was given a knighthood in 1872. Mason's intention in founding a college was to provide an institution dedicated to scientific instruction, primarily for the benefit of citizens of Birmingham, and of his home town, Kidderminster. The foundation deed of 1870 was explicit in stating that literary education and instruction and all teaching of theology would be excluded from the college curriculum, but soon after the college opened the trustees had to make alterations to the deed to allow a broader curriculum to be taught in order for the college to comply with the regulations of the University of London which awarded degrees to Mason College students completing degree-level courses.

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