In 1956/7, the department was relocated to temporary buildings behind the new Portland Building. Popularly known as the “cowsheds”, they were officially named the Cherry Tree Buildings. These single-storey concrete buildings provided staff rooms along two sides of a corridor, with a seminar room at the far end. Apart from a small residual collection, the majority of the departmental library was transferred to the Main Library in the Trent Building. The Cherry Tree Buildings were demolished in 2004.
The “temporary” buildings had some disadvantages, but Malcolm Jones remembers them warmly: ‘These unprepossessing, low-slung, brick buildings, painted white inside and out, with their metal-framed windows and central corridors, remain fondly in my mind as the setting of our student years, combining a formality of manners with the intimacy of a small and friendly department.’