Buildings Old and New

Recently, we took advantage of an opportunity to view the newest building on the Newton Park campus, and took the 'Work So Far' tour offered to students and staff. This new academic building has been under construction since 2011, and will be opened in 2014.

From an archivist's point of view, it was fascinating to see the latest expression of academic life which has taken shape on this spot. Richard and I have worked on the archive together since the building work began, and have researched and learned the history of this site as the university landscape alters in front of our eyes. There have been many things on this spot over the years, and many people have come and gone...

The Newton Park site is an ancient one, and remains from over 2000 years ago have been found here. Fragments of Roman floor tiles, discovered during post-war renovation of the Castle building, now reside in the vaults beneath the Roman Baths, where the county archive stores are located. Down there in the tunnels, they lie amidst the stones, carvings and ephemera of centuries-worth of Bath history. (By the way, you can go on tours down there - and they're free to local residents with a free Discovery Card - well worth going! For more details, see the website http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/whats_on/events/events_calendar/tunnel_tours_and_store_tours.aspx

The Newton Park estate was granted to the Bishop of St Lo (hence 'Newton St Loe') one of William of Normandy's men, after 1066. The Manor is mentioned in the Domesday Book. This family, and then the Nevills, developed the fortified manor house, part of which still stands and are still in daily use. In 1666 the estate was then sold to the Langton family, who, by the 1760s had built the grand house which sits at the heart of the Newton Park campus today.

Joseph Langton completed the development of his new home, with newly landscaped grounds. The work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, these grounds perfectly complimented the house, and boasted lakes, a garden temple and all the trappings of a country gentleman's lifestyle.

A new view of Capability Brown's landscape

This landscape is, somehow, rediscovered through the medium of a brand-new, state-of-the-art academic building, as from within, some beautiful new vistas are opened up. From each floor, the wide windows present different angles; from the top floor it is possible to see 360 degree views, over the main house, the landscape and the surrounding woods. It is spectacular.

The view across the valley towards Kelston Round Hill

In the 1940s, Newton Park passed out of the ownership of the Gore Langton family, and was purchased by the Duchy of Cornwall. It was leased to Bath City Council, who opened it as a women's teacher training college. Gradually over the years, it developed, became independent, and grew into Bath Spa University. It continues to develop - hence the new building, to be followed soon by the new student accommodation. In fact work on these halls of residence began this month...watch this space.

Richard captures new memories

The new academic building is positioned on a spot which has witnessed a great deal. In the 1940s there was a small orchard here, and beside it,  a tennis court was constructed. Both of these still existed until the 1980s. Adjacent to these, the first men's hall of residence - Hungerford Court - took shape; it opened in 1962.

Among the trees - the view from the first floor

These have all formed the foundations of our shiny new building. This seems very fitting. Former students and staff have returned to Newton Park and told us their stories of life in and around the rooms, the corridors and the grounds. Some were sad that the old things had to go to make way for the new, others were accepting of change and the need to move ever-forward. And of course, there are some people who would never want to return to their old haunts, preferring to hold their memories intact. At the archive, we have sympathy with all these views, and only hope that we will always do justice to memories, in all their forms.

Towards Newton St Loe and Bath

On the day Richard and I saw inside the new building, most of the people looking around were taking photographs, using cameras, phones or tablets. We were all capturing fresh memories, ready to pass on to the people who follow us...

Mary Dawson

One of the most prominent and inspiring characters in the history of the university is Mary Dawson, who was the first principal of Newton Park when it became a teacher training college in 1946, until her retirement in 1968. Many oral history interviewees have speculated that having made Newton Park her life, retirement was very difficult for her. She certainly threw her life into building the community of students she cared so much about.

Mary Dawson, 1928

At the time of Miss Dawson's appointment in September 1945, Newton Park itself was not yet habitable, and the series of setbacks experienced at the time will be looked at in future blogs. Suffice to say that what was supposed to be a six month delay turned into three years, and the 'college' transferred in 1949. Shortly afterwards, Princess Elizabeth (later HM the Queen) led the official opening.

Mary Dawson, c 1938. Lecturer in Education at Whitelands College, London

There is no doubt that Miss Dawson's strength of character and determination to fulfil her role, kept the momentum going during this time. She later wrote that she felt personally responsible for the young women students in her care, and was not prepared to let them down.

There is a portrait of her, painted around the time of her retirement in 1968, which now, once more, hangs in the main house at Newton Park. It has recently returned there having spent some years in the basement strongroom, as people had perhaps begun to forget what we owe this woman. The portrait is rather stern, which may be why it was consigned to storage. Recent oral history interviewees have told us that it does not show her in a true light, and that she was more caring than this portrayal might suggest.

The Principal, painted shortly before her retirement in 1968

Another recent addition to the archive collection is the photograph taken of Miss Dawson before the Second World War. This seems to reveal a different aspect. This is my favourite picture; she looks like a strong character, able to calmly face her challenges, perhaps?

The final image is of Miss Dawson, taken in 1971, when she received a Doctorate in Music from the University of Bristol. She was passionate about music, and saw to it that the music provision at Newton Park was well supported and extremely well thought of.

Mary Dawson, 1971

Suffragists and Suffragettes - tantalising snippets

This week, there was a flurry of media interest in the story of Emily Wilding Davison, who famously died at the 1913 Derby, trampled under the King's horse. As someone with a keen interest in the historical campaign for women's votes, I was fascinated to notice that this anniversary has been marked, while others have gone by, fairly unnoticed. This seems a terrible shame, and rather a missed opportunity, although  possibly understandable; the Davison case has the right level of high drama for a 21st century audience, perhaps.

The Suffragettes of one hundred years ago were the more militant, inheritors of the mantle set down by the Suffragists of the 19th century. From around the time of the Great Reform Act of 1832, when the voting franchise was extended in greater numbers than ever before, the question of whether it should be extended to everyone - to women, to non-property owners, to the working classes - vexed government, as well as those attempting to change suffrage legislation in their favour. It was strongly felt that the right to vote was the key to the door of influence, of power over your own life, and of power to change other's lives; the holy grail of democracy. Several changes in legislation over the course of the second half of the century would bring the vote to all men, but women continued to be marginalised. When the campaign was re-ignited at the turn of the 20th century, it was increasingly felt that different tactics were required. Women's Suffrage Societies attracted the most members, whilst the more militant Women's Social and Political Union, set up by the Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Many who joined the WSPU would later become disillusioned with their violent 'Deeds Not Words' mantra, and join the suffrage societies instead. This was particularly true after Davison's death at the 1913 Derby.

The BSU Archive contains two small pieces of information which give fascinating insights into the cause of women's rights. The first, the biographical details of a nineteenth century lady of the manor, and the second, the recollections of a Domestic Science student of 1911.

Lady Anna Eliza, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, eloped with William Henry Powell Gore Langton in the mid nineteenth century. The affair caused a scandal at the time, but they appear to have been a determined couple; the elopement was discovered, the marriage was stopped, but then went ahead anyway. Lady Anna was a visionary in her own right. As a campaigner for Women’s Rights she was amongst the influential group who signed John Stuart Mill's petition to include women in the Representation of the People Bill of 1867. Her husband, as the somewhat radical Conservative MP for Somerset, signed it too. Lady Anna was President of the Bath branch of the National Society for Women's Suffrage, and later became President of the Bristol and West of England branch. She would continue to support a number of women’s causes throughout her life, including general and medical education and welfare. She worked with Bristol activist Mary Carpenter on a scheme to train women teachers in India, and left £1000 to Girton College, Cambridge in her will on her death in 1879.  

Domestic Science College students at the turn of the twentieth century wore a distinctive uniform with scarlet blouses, long black serge skirts and stiff white collars and cuffs.These uniform blouses apparently rendered the students very conspicuous, and it would seem that any perceived misdemeanour was reported quickly.  In 1911, the militant suffragette movement was at its height. Eagle House, at nearby Batheaston, served as a place of recuperation to those recovering from hunger strike and force feeding during prison sentences. It seems, from the written memoir of one student, that the famous suffragette Annie Kenney came to Bath, and there 

‘hurled a brick through the GPO window in order to arouse attention and interest - we students were all the in the seething crowd - but alas the scarlet blouses were noticed and again we were reported'

And this is all it says...before the next stage of research, we cannot be sure if this was indeed Annie Kenney who was, after all, staying at Eagle House to aid her recovery. But the story of Eagle House is a fascinating one, and of particular interest to Bath Spa University. 

Friends and colleagues well known to the university's history department have researched, written about and recorded details of Eagle House, and the commemorative project which happened there then, and how this was re-commemorated, one hundred years later, in 2011. The Blathwayt family welcomed the Suffragette women to their home, inviting them to plant a tree, and at the same time keeping a unique photographic record of the act. Canadian Historian Cynthia Hammond carried out the research and Dan Brown of 'Bath In Time' digitized the extraordinary collection of images. The arboretum no longer exists, having been lost during a housing development in Batheaston, so three new trees were planted, at Alice Park, Victoria Park, and by the lake at the Newton Park campus of the university, in 2011. You can find out more about all this on  

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/people-and-places/womens-history/suffragettetrees/
and 
http://www.cynthiahammond.com/suffragettes_in_bath.html
and
http://www.bathintime.co.uk/search/keywords/suffragette
  

Exhibition Catalogue, 2011