Back to the Future? How 1960s students predicted things to come...

On the occasion of Newton Park College's 21st Anniversary in 1967, a commemorative magazine was published. The magazine is a fascinating snapshot of student views, ideas, and approaches to life, and every time I read it I find more to add to the research...

It contains pictures, art work, surveys and articles. In between sections there are adverts for Bath businesses, most of which are long gone. The only one I recognise is that of 'a tobacconist in the city centre, here advertised as selling pipes and cigars for the discerning smoker' (pipe and cigar smoking students? Not quite the picture we might expect, perhaps...?)

The 21st Anniversary magazine

There is an interview with the founding Principal of the College, Mary Dawson, in which she looks back on her lifelong career in Education shortly before her retirement in 1968. As a university graduate in 1924, through further training and promotion throughout the following decades, she had seen massive developments in the field of higher education in her career, the culmination of which was the development of Newton Park College from 45 women students in January 1946 to the mixed college with hundreds of students in the 1960s. She left it in a strong position, and an ethos which embraced change. Bath Spa University has much to thank her for today.

Student style - 1946 and 1967

                                   
The article entitled 'State of the Union Report, 1988' looks ahead another twenty one years, and speculates, with tongue firmly in-cheek, on what the future might bring. As ever, some things are wrong, but some are eerily accurate. All of them reflect the time they were written, of course, and are very thought-provoking.

My thanks to the writers, Bob Fenner and Dave Spreadbury - where are you now, I wonder? Your ideas have been huge fun to read, and students here in the 21st century have loved discussing them.

Here are a selection of gems from the article. Enjoy!

'The 17th storey to the multi-level car park was added this year..'

'The visit of King Charles III will be well remembered' 

'Among the more important machines being considered...are a Condensed-Lectures-on-Tape machine, and an Instant-Apologies-for-Absence machine.' 

(let's hear it for Minerva and email?!)

'The Union bar continues to flourish despite the fact that each student is rationed to ten pints of beer per day. This state of affairs will unfortunately prevail until the Union brewery is completed. Plans are already being considered for a distillery. The Student's Union is planning to raise its tobacco acreage by 50% this year.'

The article also predicts that student numbers would grow to around 6,000 (not far off, but it would take around another fifteen years to reach that number) And that in order to find good jobs, students would have to stay in training for longer.

The line between satire and reality is sometimes very fine...

(Quotes taken from 'Newton Park 1946 - 1967', published 1967, various authors including D Spreadbury, B. Fenner, D. Moon, T. Browne)

by Kate James

Learning from the Landscape

I'm now in the second year of my PhD, focussing on the themes of citizenship and community during the early years of Newton Park Teacher Training College. My current task is a deep analysis of the archival documents relating to those founding years, under the leadership of Mary Dawson, the first Principal.

'It was recognised that this beautiful landscape must, of itself, educate the students' (Mary Dawson, 1946)
Picture: Kate James

Going through some of Miss Dawson's speeches, one theme repeats again and again. This is the idea that the historical environment of Newton Park was considered a learning resource in itself, in addition to the teaching the students received from their books, lecturers and school practices. 

The built environment and landscape of the park represents over a thousand years of English History. 

Mary Dawson wrote in 1954 that 'there is a sense in which the students are heirs of a rich culture with roots deep in time.' 

Ancient buildings - the stable at Newton Park today
Picture: Kate James

Newton Park gatehouse, where generations have passed to and fro
picture: Kate James

Miss Dawson, as a historian herself, became fascinated to discover as much of the history of Newton Park as she could, and she sought the help of Darlow and Molly Humphries. Professor Humphries, a governor of the college, taught at Bristol University and Molly was the college's own history lecturer. A file of papers accumulated by the Humphries is part of the archive collection, and demonstrates the research methods of the time. Back in the 1950s, each item of information was garnered through a painstaking series of letters or time-consuming visits with uncertain outcomes. Some of Professor Humphries correspondents were helpful, but many are guarded or protective of their sources. Some were even deliberately unhelpful.

Today we can look up digitised archive records instantly; so much has changed in the world of research. Newton Park has changed too, with new buildings and vastly more students, but at its heart it retains all the historical aspects so admired by Mary Dawson, Molly and Darlow Humphries

 Kate James

  

A Special Meeting

In the course of running the BSU Archive, we are lucky to meet a wide range of people who have been involved with parts of our institution over the years.

Often, meeting people and listening to their memories helps to complete the fragmented picture which archive work produces.

By their very nature, archive documents give a piecemeal impression of a time and a place. It can be difficult for historians to form a complete story from the fragments which remain of the past, but by listening to people, and spending time in the field of oral history, we can gain a much fuller picture.

Most recently, three of the team were thrilled to spend a morning with Anne and Bill, two people with much to tell us about life on Newton Park. 

Anne lived in the grounds of Newton Park College in the 1950s, when her father was head gardener. Bill was Mary Dawson's nephew, and he often visited his aunt during the time she was Principal here, spending school holidays enjoying the freedom of the grounds and the attentions of the students.

Bill and Anne, sitting together on the College hostel wall in Newton St Loe, 1950s

Bill and Anne became lifelong friends, and shared a love of the Newton Park surroundings which is evident to this day. 

Our current students, Carol and Hayley, had a great time, chatting and sharing experiences of their own time here. There was much to discover from one another, not least the ways that building use has changed, and the amount of development there has been over the years. Anne showed us the house she lived in with her parents, which is now the small office suite at one end of the Stable. She described her garden and the interior of the house to us, and reminisced about the places in the grounds and around the lake where she used to play. In those days, there were around 200 students, and the relatively small community were able to be much more familiar to one another than we can possibly be today. 

Bill, with the portrait of his Aunt

Bill enjoyed the chance to walk around the lake, and showing his wife the place that she had only ever heard about. She too was impressed that, despite new buildings, the landscape retains its beauty, especially near the lake and looking back towards Main House. This is a theme which comes up again and again when people revisit. (Bill's dog appreciated the walk around the lake too!)

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

Bugs, damp and rusty pins: Conservation challenges in the archive

Here in the archive, although most of our documents are relatively modern (20th century onwards) we still have to consider the potentially damaging effects of the environment.

The 'nine agents of deterioration' is a theme very familiar to Conservator Emma Gatehouse, a Bath Spa graduate who now works for the National Trust. She developed an interest and expertise in this area during MA Heritage Management studies at BSU, and has advised the archivists here on aspects of preservation and collections care. (By the way, those nine agents of deterioration are fire, water, loss, physical, chemical, biological, light, humidity and temperature)

As well as being an archive storage area, our room at Corsham Court is also a working office, so the rather cool temperature has to be accommodated through extra jumpers for the archivists! It also means that we are surrounded by archive quality storage boxes, and in the corner, our two display mannequins stand, awaiting their chance to show off any period clothing. On a day to day basis, 'Archie' and 'Little Archie' model our coats and scarves for us, and move their positions according to who was last in the office (or do they actually move independently...?) If anyone is ever in the office on their own, the mannequins either keep you company or give you the creeps, depending on your frame of mind...

Archie Archive and Little Archie, modelling our coats...

Conservation issues vary with the rest of the archive materials. During office hours, care needs to be taken with food, drink or greasy fingers; we can't risk the documents when it comes to careless handling. Some of the postwar papers, from the early days of Newton Park, are copies of letters and were produced on very fragile paper. There were paper shortages at this time, and so copies were produced on tissue-thin fragments. Many of ours were filed at the time, in bulky bundles, held tightly in one vulnerable corner by a brass split pin, which has long since rusted in position. The papers now need to be removed, but this risks further damage in the process.

Tissue thin paper, in a bundle of letters from May 1945

Other issues surround the manner in which documents were produced at the time, and items such as glue, sticky tape and paper clips can themselves damage any papers to which they are attached.

A photograph of Thelma Willoughby, in the photograph album she kept of her years at Newton Park. The album was passed to the university after her sudden death in a bookshop a few years ago. The album contains a wonderful record of the years 1949-1951.
But what shall we do with that paperclip, rusting away in the corner?

Ancient sticky tape? The cutting is from 1915, but it was taped into this scrapbook much later. Removal will mark and possibly also damage the paper.

Some of the long college photographs are rolled so tightly, they can barely be unrolled. Doing so is an exercise in patience, as previous owners of such photographs have discovered. Some have come to us cracked and damaged, especially at the ends.

Domestic Science College photograph 1937. Like a coiled spring, it won't unroll beyond this !

Collections such as albums and scrapbooks are often best left intact, whatever their condition, since handling or dismantling will not only damage them further, but change the nature of the grouping. Two overstuffed scrapbooks exist of Principal Mary Dawson's early years at Newton Park, compiled by a good friend and supporter. They represent the challenges and triumphs of those early years in a way which is unique, so we will just handle them with care!

Mary Dawson's scrapbook, kept by her friend. A treasure trove of memorabilia from 1946 

Some documents are well beyond our scope and skills, and the 19th century parish maps which once belonged on the Gore Langton estate had to go to the expert conservators at Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre. The repaired maps look great, and one now hangs in the Main House reception at Newton Park, for everyone to enjoy.

Estate Map of Newton Park, beautifully flattened and restored - well, all the pieces that were saved over the years, anyway...

Finally, our Conservation adviser, Emma Gatehouse told us the most important rule to bear in mind when working with any kind of archive document, and one which is used by all collections, however big or small, important or humble. (Especially useful when funds, time or space are short!) 'The Three C's' - namely Caution, Compromise and Common Sense.

And now, time to tackle those rusty split pins....