Location & Campus

Concord College sits in the quintessential English hamlet of Acton Burnell, complete with black and white cottages, a castle, churchyard, and an ivy-clad post office and shop. Acton Burnell is a 25-minute drive from the medieval town of Shrewsbury which has an array of shops and restaurants as well as train links to London and the other major UK cities.  

Concord’s campus combines a mixture of modern and ancient buildings. In its extensive grounds, right next to the tennis and basketball courts, sit the ruins of the ‘Parliament Barn’, where the first parliamentary meeting of the English Commons is said to have taken place in 1283.  

Concord students are surrounded by carefully tended gardens filled with trees and flower borders. In the spring they enjoy the abundant wildflower meadows where nature thrives, and they often catch sight of wild deer, hares and squirrels in the fields and woodlands surrounding the campus.  

Main Hall, an impressive Georgian mansion, is the centre of activity on campus. It is here where students are welcomed to Concord for the first time and the building continues as a meeting place throughout their time at Concord.  

Main Hall is also home to offices, classrooms, our dedicated medical centre and post room. There are also student bedrooms at the top with far-reaching countryside views. 

Concord is a safe space for students, in part because of its rural location. On arrival visitors are met by friendly and efficient security staff at the main entrance. At weekends and night, students can easily reach duty teams and security teams.  

Concord’s seventeen boarding residences are dotted around campus and in Acton Burnell and nearby Acton Pigott. There is a mix of modern, purpose-built accommodation and older buildings which have been thoughtfully converted into student rooms, creating a homely atmosphere. All Concord’s bedrooms are single occupancy with cosy social areas and kitchenettes to make friends and relax. 

The dining room serves three meals a day, all carefully prepared in the purpose-built kitchen. Students have the option for cooking snacks for themselves too. The modern main student kitchen in the walled garden was submitted for the RIBA Stirling prize in the small buildings category and was shortlisted in the final six.  

The ‘West End’ common room is a modern and welcoming glass fronted social space with a snack bar, shop and plenty of space for Saturday discos, table-top games and sofas for relaxation. Outside sits a mini amphitheatre for outdoor performances. 

At the opposite end of the spectrum, in terms of age and appearance, is the Old Chapel common room. This old building has had many uses over the years. Originally built as a household chapel, it later became a dining room, then a sports hall and even once housed the College library. Now a peaceful space for relaxation, there are comfortable sofas and students can play the piano and admire the stained-glass windows and sculptures in the crypt.  

Concord’s ultra-modern £12 million Science Block was described by The Good Schools Guide as ‘among the most sophisticated we’ve seen – not just whizzy, university-standard labs but the museum-like foyer… (is) surrounding one of the coolest breakout areas we have come across’.  

Other notable buildings include the Jubilee building, home to the Mathematics department and the College library, which was opened by HRH The Princess Royal in 2009. The Economics, English and Art departments are housed in Castle Block, originally the stables when Acton Burnell Hall was a family home, and now sympathetically converted into spacious and airy classrooms.  

Built as part of the major expansion of the College in the 1990s, the theatre and sports facilities play a significant part in life on campus. The sports facilities include sports fields, three gyms, two sports halls, a high ropes course, tennis, squash and basketball courts and an indoor pool. 

Concord College is run like clockwork by its hard-working pastoral, domestic, IT, catering and administration teams. Walking around campus, students are surrounded by staff houses and offices where they can easily talk to our friendly and accessible staff when needed.