About the archive

The BSU Archive is a growing collection of documents, images and memories based around the history of the university.

There are papers from the nineteenth century and accounts of seeing Newton Park for the first time only a few years ago. Old students' photograph albums sit alongside old ledgers and minute books. Peer's robes from the 1902 Coronation of King Edward VII have recently joined architect's pictures from 1950. And all this, in an office in the Stable block of Corsham Court, a building which has yet to reveal its exciting past to us!

Under the guidance of Dr Roberta Anderson, and assisted by undergraduate students on the Humanities at Work module, I work on building the archive into a useable resource, for the benefit of students, staff and alumni. So little seems to be known about the beautiful places we inhabit, or the fascinating history they reveal. I hope to change that.

Yet the richest addition to the BSU Archive are the oral history interviews which former students and staff have kindly allowed us to record. We have heard of the development of music, art and creative learning, and of lives spent in the education of the young.

Most of the people who have trained here, be they at the School of Art, or the Domestic Science College, or at Newton Park College, trained to teach. The quality of their experiences are remembered as an important and life changing period of their lives. Many have very fond memories of life in Bath or Corsham, where they witnessed life beyond their own, and people they still remember vividly. They took these experiences into their working lives, and in turn developed succeeding generations. Our current students benefitted from the society they changed, and the university now produces graduates who enter a vast range of professions in the global sphere.

This is the first blog entry of many, I hope. Every week we uncover new and fascinating details of the history of Bath Spa University and its component parts. A new instalment will appear each week, so welcome aboard and see you again soon!

Kate James
Postgraduate, Part time Lecturer, Student Mentor and compulsive sniffer of old papers...