Old students and staff past and present have come to meet us. Others write and send their memoirs, by email or by post.
Many people have generously given materials to add to the archive itself, and in this way we have added to our knowledge of the way things were done in the past.
It is always a privilege to meet and spend time with those who have known life here over the years. I have loved hearing their stories and memories, all of which add layers of detail to the bare bones of papers and documents. The paper resources are the bones, and the stories are the flesh and blood.
As a university of several thousands of students and hundreds of staff, looking back at the small beginnings of Newton Park, or the Domestic Science College is quite a leap of imagination. Newton Park began in January 1946 with 45 young women students, who lived in and around the centre of Bath as the college was not ready for use. It was a college in name only, and would not move to the estate itself until three years later. The Domestic Science College by contrast, began life in 1892, increasing the skills base of Bath residents, until one student, a Miss Heygate, asked to be trained as a teacher. Some of the memories of these early students are recorded in the archive documents from the 1950s.
Rural Science students in the early 1960s. This photograph was scanned for the archive by Mr & Mrs Entwistle, who were interviewed in July 2012.
The majority of the oral history interviews we have date from the late 1940s, 50s, 60s and 1980s. We also plan to interview those who have been here in more recent years, although of course their memories will reflect a different place in their lives, in addition to experiencing a changed phase in higher education. We have been struck by the ways so many rules have changed over the years, as well as the unchanging nature of first impressions of our buildings and landscapes.
Great stuff. There is a package of new goodies winging its way to me.
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