2-879-274 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

County High School, Gedling Road, Arnold, Gedling, Nottinghamshire, 12/09/1958. A worker up a ladder checking a column is vertical using a spirit level during the construction of Arnold County High School. Work began on the site in March 1958 and construction was completed for the new school term in September 1959. 'Laingspan' was a flexible modular system of frame construction using precast pre-stressed concrete units. Laing developed the system in conjunction with the Architects and Buildings Branch of the Ministry of Education and consulting engineer AJ Harris. The Arnold school was the first building for which the system was used beyond a prototype extension to Laing's own Research and Development Centre. Designed to economise on steel consumption and minimise on 'wet trades' to speed up construction, the system went on to be used for other building types including offices and hospitals.