Book excerpt: This book examines the development of British post-Second World War short-term residential adult education, through the lens of the Shropshire Adult Education College (1948-1976) and the tenure of Sir George Trevelyan as its first warden. Trevelyan is acknowledged as the godfather of new-age spiritualism in the UK and is credited with the development of eclectic and esoteric learning opportunities in arts, traditional crafts, culture and ecology. Embodying the spirit of a new national drive for optimism and enterprise in the post-war period, Trevelyan, and his contemporaries at other colleges, took risks and innovated in new pedagogical approaches to adult education, capturing the imagination of hundreds of students, before being stifled by an increasingly restrictive policy framework and financial strictures. The book considers the ideological drivers and tensions behind this unique form of education - its inception, evolution and virtual demise - and seeks to learn from its complex history to inform education in the future.