Bernard Jennings was born in 1928 in Nelson, Lancashire, one of three sons of Irish parents, James, an electrician, and Margaret, a mill worker. He was educated at St. Mary’s College, Blackburn and from there went on to graduate in 1948 from the College of St. Mark and St. John, Chelsea, with a London University B.A. in History and a teaching qualification. (In 1958, he gained a Master’s degree, with Distinction, at the University of Leeds.)
After military service, he was appointed in 1951 as Tutor/Organiser in the Yorkshire Dales area for the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA). He and his wife Jean rented a house in Fremington, near Reeth, Swaledale. From there, Bernard was responsible for organising a programme of WEA evening classes in the Dales, and also for teaching four classes a week himself. He was a conscientious, popular, and well-informed tutor and used a variety of local historical records. It was not long before he was pursuing a further, related role, as an academic researcher and writer. In the house at Fremington, he unearthed a large collection of papers relating to lead mining in the Yorkshire Pennines going back over a hundred years. This drew him not only into teaching about this once extensive industry in his WEA classes, but also writing A History of Lead Mining in the Pennines (1965), jointly with Dr. Arthur Raistrick.
In 1961, he had been appointed as Lecturer in the Department of Adult Education and Extramural Studies at the University of Leeds. He continued in university life for the remainder of his career, and produced a further 16 books in the two fields of Yorkshire history and adult education. These included A History of Nidderdale (1967) and A History of Harrogate and Knaresborough (1970), both written jointly with his adult students. These two publications were not only the outcome of much impressive, original research in local history but also represented excellent examples of the tutor/student collaborative mode of liberal adult education developed in the Leeds Department from the 1950s onwards.
Bernard was wholly committed to the ‘liberal tradition’ of adult education: he believed in ‘learning for its own sake’, ‘the joy of learning’, and ‘learning for citizenship’; and he had a passionate belief in the innate intelligence and abilities of ‘ordinary people’, the large majority of whom — in those days — had no experience of post-school education. Throughout his career, he was active in and committed to the WEA and the principles which underlay it. He was the president of the WEA from 1981 to 1991; and he was author of the biography of Albert Mansbridge (1999), the founder of the WEA.
At Leeds, he was the head of the Liberal Studies Division in the Department of Adult Education and Extramural Studies from 1970; and then, in 1973, he was appointed a professor and the head of the Department of Adult Education at the University of Hull. He initiated a programme of six-year part-time degree courses, providing opportunities for many adults through ‘open access’ to the initial certificate stages. Of particular significance was the certificate/degree programme in Regional and Local History, which ran for 35 years in Hull, and for some years in Grimsby and Lincoln. Other successful programmes included those in Archaeology, Industrial Archaeology, Art History, Maritime History, and Country House Studies. In 1993, when he retired as Head of Department, he was appointed to a Personal Chair in Regional and Local History, a post he held until his retirement in 1995.
From 1987 to 1989, Bernard was one of three pro-vice-chancellors at Hull who, with other senior managers, played a pivotal role in the university’s financial survival during an exceptionally difficult period. Bernard’s rigour, determination and clear-sightedness were much appreciated by senior colleagues in the university, both at the time and subsequently.
Bernard had an extremely active life over and above his professional commitments. He was a lifelong Liberal, and was for a time a County Councillor for Richmond, North Yorkshire, as well as (unsuccessfully) a parliamentary candidate; he enjoyed music, especially Sibelius and Mahler, theatre and opera. He was also keen on cricket and football (he was a qualified FA referee). He was a very sociable man, with many friends, who loved parties, especially those held in his own large garden, which he had created himself. But above all, he was a devoted family man: he and Jean, who survives him, had 4 children, 13 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren.
He was a committed Christian and at his Memorial Service, at Kilham (near Driffield) in October 2017 it was clear that he was loved and respected by many, many people.
Alan Fowlie
Richard Taylor
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