It always surprises me that so much of the Archivist's job revolves around IT. The last two weeks have been a good example of how computers can be both a huge boon and can cause unnecessary delays.
The huge boon is partly that the College has supplied me with Adobe Pagemaker CS5. This is a decided improvement on the 10-year-old program I was using before. It will allow me to build the website around style sheets which should eventually save me quite a lot of time. The other nice innovation has been the program that allows me to run my Archive computer from home, or anywhere else in the country! It's an advantage because I can often spend an odd few minutes making progress without needing to be here. No, I won't be working from home on Fridays because I enjoy coming into school to see colleagues and pupils. However, while I was away last week, I thought I would be able to spend some time on the website - but that wasn't to be...
The downside of technology is that one is part of a communal enterprise - others can take initiatives that you really are not expecting. I was the victim of a well-meaning transfer of all my Archive files to a new file server. So, I used my new technology to window into a blank space! Of course I had ultimate faith in Mr. Davies and didn't fear that 30 year's work could be lost, oh no! However, here I am today in College, making up the time lost, restoring the links on the catalogue and getting everything working again - but not able to work much on the website meanwhile.
But progress is being made. Even at this early stage, numbers visiting the website are climbing from week to week. Meanwhile I have added the first sections of the College history and an index for the College Register. More pages of these will become available in the next few days. The emphasis now is not really on programs but on preparing content. If anyone would like to do some scanning for me, do let me know!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Archive Website Goes Active
Old news! You may well say that I have been talking about the new website for several weeks, but at last a section of it is ready to show. You may peruse the part on the Somme, which tells the story of the death of Archie Paxton through his letters and possessions, or you may look at 19th Century pictures. Other items will follow as quickly as I can prepare them. I am concentrating now on the 19th Century up to 1914 and will add sections of the College history and Register information, over the next week.
Happy browsing! Please tell me what you think.
Happy browsing! Please tell me what you think.
Friday, January 20, 2012
The OE News
Happy New Year! I intended to write a new blog right through January, but the pressure of correspondence has been such that everything else has been put off. Mostly this has been the effect of the publication of the OE News in December. This excellent magazine is now resurgent under the editorship of Steve McCubbin and creates a good deal of comment and interest - so much so that my small part of this more than keeps me busy.
Each year we try to publish at least one photograph with something wrong or uncertain in it, asking readers to correspond - and they do! This way we have amassed large numbers of new friends, who keep in touch on other archival matters. Though a lot of work, this is what we are here for.
This year there has been correspondence on three main matters - two of the photographs, one already published last year of the Granville dayroom in about 1960 and the other of the gigantic gym display for the 100th Anniversary Founder's Day have been particularly effective in causing discussion. The third issue was about Mr. Berridge and Hart-Smith. This has actually been an issue for many years, with murmured comments during reunions so that I already knew most people's opinions of 'Connie B'. There comes a time, however, when it is best to find out all there is to know. Mr. Berridge, housemaster of Hart-Smith in the late 1930s through to the early 1950s was a sententious and despicable person, we are told. He made a practice of 'sex talks' to boys in their dressing gowns and had recourse to using the cane on every possible pretext, often unjustly (thus 'Constant Beater'). He would certainly not be employed in a modern school, but on the other hand I have no evidence that anything particularly culpable went on. If it did, perhaps we should know?
What is surprising is that Mr. Berridge continued as housemaster for so long, certainly with the support of the College 'establishment'. I find it difficult to imagine that he retained this support without some redeeming qualities, and I am very aware that, listening only to the impressions he made on small boys, I may not have the full picture. If anyone can supply the necessary balance, I would be most obliged if you would get in touch.
Progress on the website has been brisk over the last few weeks. At present the foundations of the website are finished, as is the section on Archie Paxton and the Somme. The section on the 19th Century is my focus for today. However, nothing has appeared on the Internet, since it needs to be checked through by the IT Department. As soon as this is finished, we will publish.
The rest of the website will evolve over the next few months, as I mentioned in previous blogs.
Each year we try to publish at least one photograph with something wrong or uncertain in it, asking readers to correspond - and they do! This way we have amassed large numbers of new friends, who keep in touch on other archival matters. Though a lot of work, this is what we are here for.
This year there has been correspondence on three main matters - two of the photographs, one already published last year of the Granville dayroom in about 1960 and the other of the gigantic gym display for the 100th Anniversary Founder's Day have been particularly effective in causing discussion. The third issue was about Mr. Berridge and Hart-Smith. This has actually been an issue for many years, with murmured comments during reunions so that I already knew most people's opinions of 'Connie B'. There comes a time, however, when it is best to find out all there is to know. Mr. Berridge, housemaster of Hart-Smith in the late 1930s through to the early 1950s was a sententious and despicable person, we are told. He made a practice of 'sex talks' to boys in their dressing gowns and had recourse to using the cane on every possible pretext, often unjustly (thus 'Constant Beater'). He would certainly not be employed in a modern school, but on the other hand I have no evidence that anything particularly culpable went on. If it did, perhaps we should know?
What is surprising is that Mr. Berridge continued as housemaster for so long, certainly with the support of the College 'establishment'. I find it difficult to imagine that he retained this support without some redeeming qualities, and I am very aware that, listening only to the impressions he made on small boys, I may not have the full picture. If anyone can supply the necessary balance, I would be most obliged if you would get in touch.
Progress on the website has been brisk over the last few weeks. At present the foundations of the website are finished, as is the section on Archie Paxton and the Somme. The section on the 19th Century is my focus for today. However, nothing has appeared on the Internet, since it needs to be checked through by the IT Department. As soon as this is finished, we will publish.
The rest of the website will evolve over the next few months, as I mentioned in previous blogs.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Christmas!
It is sad to lose an important member of our community. Mike Oliver goes to be Head of the Senior School in Epsom College Kuala Lumpur, where he will be working from January. During his leaving do in Main Hall I was looking at the magnificent Christmas tree and remembering past Christmases, especially in Main Hall. Once it was called the Refectory, and was the setting for the most Dickensian occasion I know of at the College.
Pensioners each occupied one set of rooms out of four in each of the houses in the Asylum (the Terrace), one each side of the stairs on the ground floor and the same on the first floor. They were initially expected to buy and cook their own food, and facilities were provided for each of them. They had to promise that they each had an income of £50 a year, but it soon became obvious that several did not. In 1857 £10 per year was given towards the wages for a servant approved by the Headmaster, who also acted as Warden for the Pensioners. The Headmaster was also the Chaplain of the Pensioners, and took these duties seriously, especially the policing of who the Pensioners may have living with them. Their children may stay, up to the age of 15, when boys must leave. Girls stayed on to nurse their ailing parents. Pensions were stopped if permission was not asked for relations to stay, as they were if a Pensioner was absent for more than two or three weeks.
By 1857 Pensioners were often extremely poor. Despite being allowed £10 a year for 'servants' in fact they often had as little as £15 a year for food and expenses. Mr. Propert appreciated this and did all he could to raise their pensions over the next few years, but in 1858 life was very hard for many of them.This was the setting at Christmas, when John Propert personally invited all the Pensioners to Christmas dinner in the Refectory. Mr. Propert paid for this from his own pocket and gave them a thoroughly good time. There is and account of the occasion in one of the carefully conserved scrapbooks in the Archive, which I hope soon to publish.
The plan is to create a website for the Archive, concentrating first on the 19th Century. A large number of photographs are already organised, and this blog will form part of the finished product. I am concentrating first on updating the Alex Paxton part of the site that already exists, then I will start on the 19th Century, parts of which should be published over the next term. I have in mind to publish the records of all 19th Century Epsomians, their applications for Foundationerships and the applications for Pensionerships. I will also include as many of the pieces from the Scrapbooks as I can mount in the time available. I will probably have to move on with the 20th Century before everything is truly finished, but the website will gradually fill out to provide a facility both for those with specific enquiries and for those who simply want to browse. Hopefully this will stimulate discussion and further donations of archive items.
Meanwhile, Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all my readers!
Pensioners each occupied one set of rooms out of four in each of the houses in the Asylum (the Terrace), one each side of the stairs on the ground floor and the same on the first floor. They were initially expected to buy and cook their own food, and facilities were provided for each of them. They had to promise that they each had an income of £50 a year, but it soon became obvious that several did not. In 1857 £10 per year was given towards the wages for a servant approved by the Headmaster, who also acted as Warden for the Pensioners. The Headmaster was also the Chaplain of the Pensioners, and took these duties seriously, especially the policing of who the Pensioners may have living with them. Their children may stay, up to the age of 15, when boys must leave. Girls stayed on to nurse their ailing parents. Pensions were stopped if permission was not asked for relations to stay, as they were if a Pensioner was absent for more than two or three weeks.
By 1857 Pensioners were often extremely poor. Despite being allowed £10 a year for 'servants' in fact they often had as little as £15 a year for food and expenses. Mr. Propert appreciated this and did all he could to raise their pensions over the next few years, but in 1858 life was very hard for many of them.This was the setting at Christmas, when John Propert personally invited all the Pensioners to Christmas dinner in the Refectory. Mr. Propert paid for this from his own pocket and gave them a thoroughly good time. There is and account of the occasion in one of the carefully conserved scrapbooks in the Archive, which I hope soon to publish.
The plan is to create a website for the Archive, concentrating first on the 19th Century. A large number of photographs are already organised, and this blog will form part of the finished product. I am concentrating first on updating the Alex Paxton part of the site that already exists, then I will start on the 19th Century, parts of which should be published over the next term. I have in mind to publish the records of all 19th Century Epsomians, their applications for Foundationerships and the applications for Pensionerships. I will also include as many of the pieces from the Scrapbooks as I can mount in the time available. I will probably have to move on with the 20th Century before everything is truly finished, but the website will gradually fill out to provide a facility both for those with specific enquiries and for those who simply want to browse. Hopefully this will stimulate discussion and further donations of archive items.
Meanwhile, Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all my readers!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Finding People
One of the joys of being an Archivist is the many requests for information about past Epsomians. Just this morning I replied to a request for information about Sir Pendril Varrier Jones, founder of the Papworth Village Settlement and therefore of Papworth Hospital, Cambridge. These requests often require a hunt through the records and photographs to make sense of what we have and it is satisfying to be able to do this. However, other requests involve much deeper research, and recourse often has to be made to public databases and newspaper archives. A very good start can be made by refering to the National Newspaper Library at Colindale. This is part of the British Library and has lately established an excellent internet facility: http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ where for a small fee you can download newspaper pages. The search facility is so thorough that it is easy to generate thousands of 'hits', so be careful to define your enquiry closely. I was also interested to find out that, through membership of my local library (Surrey) I could gain free access to the remarkable 'Ancestry' database, which is so widely advertised. This includes access to Birth, Death and Marriage certificates and huge numbers of other references to family history resources. You can buy personal membership at http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ . I find this rather a large and diffuse archive of documents for which it is difficult to narrow the search effectively enough to save time. Therefore I prefer the facility offered by S&N Genealogy Supplies of Salisbury, who offer a competitive service with their Diamond deal. This gives complete access to Census, Birth Death Marriage, Roll of Honour, Landowner, Parish, Non-Conformist, Military, Electoral, School, College, Will, Newspaper etc. records at £119.45 per year. The advantage being that one can access everything from home or office, paying just once. At present there is an offer at: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/14day/ which gives a 14 day trial.
So, for those of you out there with a wish to find out who you are, this seems to be the way forward. Happy researching over Christmas!
So, for those of you out there with a wish to find out who you are, this seems to be the way forward. Happy researching over Christmas!
Friday, November 25, 2011
Archive Plans
It is some time since I last posted a blog. Family problems, retirement and the need to reorganise the Archive have left little time. However, now I am able to devote more attention to this and to other aspects of Archive policy and the Archive website.
The last months have been particularly busy. It was very pleasing to see the interest shown on Founder's Day in the Archive display and talk. the O.E. part of the day was a resounding success, with an excellent turnout of O.E.s and their families. Many did come on to the Archive talk, to the extent that we will have to find somewhere larger next year. the highlight were short films, shot in the late 1940s, by John Gaisford and his friends. These were remarkable, not just for the 'blood and thunder' form of the plots, but for the quality of shooting and the way they showed life at Epsom in those days.
Among the highlights of the last few months have been the details of William Wills Robinson's career in New Zealand and the piecing together of his life and achievements. He seems to have introduced Rugby Football to Aukland, New Zealand and appears in the very first teams for cricket here. Gradually the early sports history of the College is coming into focus, even though we have no real records before 1870 ourselves, If anyone knows more, please let me know.
Again I have found out that we have at least one O.E. who was a victim of the Nazi holocaust. I will explain more about this later in the year, by which time my research should have moved on. Obviously it is a particularly sad story, and I hope to write about it in next year's O.E. News. Remembrance Day brings a number of sad stories with it each year. I am trying to record stories about O.E. experiences in the Second World War, partly to use in school on Remembrance Days. Nowadays we have a Field of Remembrance, with each cross named, and researching the details continually brings up sad stories. If you have something to contribute, could you E-mail me the details? Unfortunately research is adding to the death toll from year to year at present, sometimes just confirming deaths, but sometimes finding new ones. If you know of any O.E. who has died in the services since the Second World War, I would be particularly pleased to hear from you.
These absorbing researches have rather taken my eye off the need to build up an Archive website, but now I am focusing on that. I hope to make real progress over the next few weeks and have something to show by Christmas. Initially I will be concentrating on photographs, but other features will follow as quickly as possible. I was pleased to see that Archie Paxton's website was used by our local newspaper, the Guardian, for copy on Remembrance Day - if you have not seen this small website about Archie, who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, do look it up: http://archive.epsomcollege.org.uk/paxton/
The last months have been particularly busy. It was very pleasing to see the interest shown on Founder's Day in the Archive display and talk. the O.E. part of the day was a resounding success, with an excellent turnout of O.E.s and their families. Many did come on to the Archive talk, to the extent that we will have to find somewhere larger next year. the highlight were short films, shot in the late 1940s, by John Gaisford and his friends. These were remarkable, not just for the 'blood and thunder' form of the plots, but for the quality of shooting and the way they showed life at Epsom in those days.
Among the highlights of the last few months have been the details of William Wills Robinson's career in New Zealand and the piecing together of his life and achievements. He seems to have introduced Rugby Football to Aukland, New Zealand and appears in the very first teams for cricket here. Gradually the early sports history of the College is coming into focus, even though we have no real records before 1870 ourselves, If anyone knows more, please let me know.
Again I have found out that we have at least one O.E. who was a victim of the Nazi holocaust. I will explain more about this later in the year, by which time my research should have moved on. Obviously it is a particularly sad story, and I hope to write about it in next year's O.E. News. Remembrance Day brings a number of sad stories with it each year. I am trying to record stories about O.E. experiences in the Second World War, partly to use in school on Remembrance Days. Nowadays we have a Field of Remembrance, with each cross named, and researching the details continually brings up sad stories. If you have something to contribute, could you E-mail me the details? Unfortunately research is adding to the death toll from year to year at present, sometimes just confirming deaths, but sometimes finding new ones. If you know of any O.E. who has died in the services since the Second World War, I would be particularly pleased to hear from you.
These absorbing researches have rather taken my eye off the need to build up an Archive website, but now I am focusing on that. I hope to make real progress over the next few weeks and have something to show by Christmas. Initially I will be concentrating on photographs, but other features will follow as quickly as possible. I was pleased to see that Archie Paxton's website was used by our local newspaper, the Guardian, for copy on Remembrance Day - if you have not seen this small website about Archie, who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, do look it up: http://archive.epsomcollege.org.uk/paxton/
Monday, January 10, 2011
Archive at a Crossroads
During the last few months since my last entry, a lot has happened at the Archive. While my helper, Max, continues to work away at sports results, I have been considering the future of the Archive in several different ways. One important change is bound to happen - that is my retirement from teaching in July. I hope to continue as Archivist, but nothing is yet settled. I would enjoy keeping a real link with the College and helping in different ways, but retirement would actually give me time to deal with the second change - to make the Archive more completely digital.
The intention, for some time, has been to build a large website for the Archive. This has been delayed by a number of circumstances, not least that technology has been advancing so fast that it's difficult to keep up with the possibilities. Now it should be possible to include scanned from all our wonderful scrapbooks, lists of holdings, lists of drama, sports results, biographies of the great and good and much else. We should have areas made up just of photographs and, of course, we should have a link into this blog!
The important recent development is that the College has decided to organise access to the biographical information held by the Educational Trust, which should allow us to work together to provide accurate records of OEs and add in the interesting information that comes to me from day to day. Readers of a technical bent will realise that this will allow me to formalise the records of names of past pupils, allowing accurate data retrieval - a huge boon to the Archive - which will eventually open up huge possibilities for cataloguing.
On another matter, I must thank my correspondents, especially Tony Brewis, for their recent contributions of reminiscences about Epsom during and after the Second World War. Such contacts considerably enliven the record, I find!
The intention, for some time, has been to build a large website for the Archive. This has been delayed by a number of circumstances, not least that technology has been advancing so fast that it's difficult to keep up with the possibilities. Now it should be possible to include scanned from all our wonderful scrapbooks, lists of holdings, lists of drama, sports results, biographies of the great and good and much else. We should have areas made up just of photographs and, of course, we should have a link into this blog!
The important recent development is that the College has decided to organise access to the biographical information held by the Educational Trust, which should allow us to work together to provide accurate records of OEs and add in the interesting information that comes to me from day to day. Readers of a technical bent will realise that this will allow me to formalise the records of names of past pupils, allowing accurate data retrieval - a huge boon to the Archive - which will eventually open up huge possibilities for cataloguing.
On another matter, I must thank my correspondents, especially Tony Brewis, for their recent contributions of reminiscences about Epsom during and after the Second World War. Such contacts considerably enliven the record, I find!
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