Guest Blog Post - Laura

This week, Laura gives her view of the last few months:

'Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,We have had our summer evenings, now for the October eves!' (Humbert Wolfe)

So, summer is coming to an end and autumn is taking over, creating beautiful scenery for us to admire on our way into the office (armed with jumpers and scarves) but before I begin my final, scary, year at university, I wanted to take the time to reflect on what we have been doing over the summer, and what I have discovered so far. 

Since my first trip to Corsham on the 17^th April, I have not only learnt a lot about working at an Archive, but also about the history of Newton Park and its residents, from the Gore-Langton family, to the students who walk around the campus today.

This summer we have been busy, from completing our exhibition preparation to cataloguing each and every item in our office! In between these two jobs, we have been transcribing oral interviews, as well as going to a number of re-unions organised by the Alumni Association at the university. My first ever day at the office was spent cataloguing, and though over the summer we changed our method, it is still one of the most important tasks we do, as it ensures easy and straightforward access for future historians looking to find specific documents relating to their research. It has meant many hours sitting at a computer screen and describing and numbering each and every item we have, before placing them into special archival-standard storage boxes.

Cataloguing - so satisfying once its done!

As I joined the Archive in April most of the oral interviews we have had already been conducted, though I did have the opportunity to sit in on one of them, which was fascinating, to meet somebody and have them share their experiences of what it was like to come to the university over thirty years ago. Writing transcriptions are also interesting, especially if you were not at the actual interview, as you get to hear people’s stories and memories, however the actual transcriptions are extremely time consuming, as on average it takes seven hours to transcribe one hour of audio! However despite how time consuming they are, they are interesting, and it is an invaluable skill to gain, especially as it has increased my typing speed significantly!

July Reunion at Newton Park

July Reunion - meeting new friends, re-visiting old haunts

Having heard the memories of many individuals through listening to their oral interviews, it was a fantastic opportunity to join some of them at their re-unions in July. Whilst we were there Hayley, Kate and I were asked to talk about our experiences of being students at Bath Spa, which was great, as it meant we reflected on our time here, and realised what a lovely place this university is. I really enjoyed talking to the alumni, hearing their stories as well as telling my own! One particular memory that we learnt had been shared by many students of the university, despite their era, was sunbathing on the roof! Having overheard a lady talking about how she used to climb onto the roof of stable block to catch some rays, Hayley felt obliged to share with her that I, also, found my way onto a balcony area of my halls to catch some sun. Obviously some things never change!

Mrs Thatcher's Generation

Whatever your politics, you will not have been able to ignore the death of Margaret Thatcher, a woman we all know something about. Whether through direct experience, or through the stories which have been published over the past weeks, we all know something of the life, work and achievements of this country's first woman Prime Minister.

Mrs Thatcher's generation? The Class of 1949 at Newton Park

I can see many parallels between women like Margaret Thatcher and the generations of former staff and students we have interviewed. These interviewees are predominantly women, as in the past we produced mostly women teachers. And because these women trained to be teachers, they had careers, some long, some short.  Some married, some had children. Most continued to work to some degree or another. They are the generations who grew up in the shadow of war, who attained a certain standard of living, promised in the aftermath of the thirties and forties in Britain. This cultural background coloured their opinions, their upbringing and their education, in a way which we struggle to understand today. 

1948: A student attends an interview with Miss Dawson, accompanied by her parents (and younger sister?) . Newton Park was not ready for use until 1949, so may only have been visited for the interview and annual Commemoration Day in June.

It seems to me that people then got on with things in a different way. Instead of fussing about things, you put your head down and worked hard, since, by contrast to wartime conditions, life was a good deal better. The privations of their youth (wartime restrictions and so on) coloured their future lives. My generation ridiculed this tendency; we certainly didn't understand it.

During the oral history interviews, I've been ready to hear about issues of feminism, of equal rights, and of unfair treatment towards working women. Although on one hand it seems a little disappointing when these things are absent, it also makes me feel humble to know that in the 1950s and 1960s, you proved yourself by simply getting out there and getting on with it. The only 'complaint' was around the firm expectation that a woman teacher should wear a skirt!

Sue, at Wellow Station on her way to teaching practice, early 1960s.
(Photo: S.Tewson)

I myself come from a family of similarly strong women, who ran businesses with their families, and tackled any tasks which happened to need doing. I'm not sure if my feisty grandmother would have described herself as a feminist (or whatever the term would have been for her generation) but she certainly expected people to work hard and make a difference to their lives - the difference being dependent on the amount of hard work one was willing to put in. This attitude, born of a particular time and place, is perhaps now passing from our culture (discuss?!)

Famous people like Margaret Thatcher will have their stories told many times. The history books will be filled with details, opinions and analysis of the part they played in the nation's story. Not so the thousands who got on with the job every day, and lived through the same years. 

Oral History is a way to counteract this. By talking to the people who experienced life here, we hope to bring the nuanced details of history to the archival record.

Commemoration Day choir performance, 1964 (Photo: S. Tewson)

We continue to welcome a host of fascinating people to interview. Next month will be the turn of a former Newton Park student from the 1950s and a music lecturer who saw several decades of change in the same setting. Its always a pleasure to hear their words, and we look forward to sharing their stories.

Oral Histories - voices of our past

A large part of the work of the BSU Archive involves talking to people who have had an association with parts of the institution over the years.

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.