If you’re into diggers, the JCB world headquarters must look a bit like paradise. The factory sits in the rolling green hills of the Staffordshire countryside, bordered by three lakes and its own golf course. As you drive there you pass a giant spider-like sculpture made entirely out of digger claws, and inside the building, stuffed with bright-yellow tractors, there is a JCB museum featuring the first cab to have an in-built kettle. At the end of the tour you can buy JCB scented candles, JCB cut-glass crystal and JCB jumpers from the JCB gift shop.
The most interesting thing JCB stamps its name on, though, is actually round the corner in the tiny village of Rocester. There, in a converted red-brick cotton mill, the JCB Academy for 13- to 18-year-olds is providing a remarkable alternative to Britain’s university–obsessed education system. The school, founded in 2010, is instead focused on developing ‘engineers and business leaders of the future’.
This is the most oversubscribed school in Staffordshire, with three applicants for every place
When I visited last year, the mill was a dense warren of banging metals, welding sparks and heavy machinery.
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