Old Princethorpians

When people think of archivists, there are certain stereotypes that come to mind. Usually they think of an archivist as being squirreled away in a dusty basement somewhere, guarding our beloved collections from the eyes of outsiders. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Dust is actually extremely bad for documents as it attracts insects who might damage the collections and basements are often damp and prone to flooding. Also, archivists love to share the items they are preserving with anyone who is interested (and for some poor unfortunates, they’ll share them even if they aren’t).

One way that I have been trying to showcase what we have is by sharing information, stories and items from the Princethorpe Foundation archives via Twitter. For this update from the archives, I thought I would do a summary of three of the stories I have shared on Twitter since the last OP newsletter.

#LibrariesWeek (October 2019)

For libraries week, I spent time tweeting the research I’d done on the library at St Mary’s Priory and Princethorpe College. The Peeps magazine contained a wealth of information about the library at St Mary’s Priory including the fascinating facts that until 1956 the girls were not allowed to borrow fiction books during the week and that in 1949, it took over a year and permission from three different Ministeries in order to buy the wood to build some extra bookcases. That’s hard to imagine these days!

The library continued to be an important part of the school and in 1973 it moved from between the music room and gymnasium to a location where "it now has a very much improved situation, presently being found at the foot of the tower with all its peace and tranquility" (Michael Head, 1973 Princethorpe).

In 1978, Bessie de Vries retired from teaching for a new role as College Librarian, under her guidance the library flourished as she made it "a centre of learning outside of school hours". This included the Princethorpe PTA donating over 1000 books in one year!

That wasn’t the final chapter in the library’s story. It is clear that John Shinkwin agreed with R Penny’s wise words in the 1972 Princethorpe magazine that "A library position is important: if it is out of the way it will not be used as it should...” as he moved the library to its current location upstairs in the original priory chapel in 2002 after some extensive renovations.

 #ExploreYourArchive Week (November 2019)

At the end of November, archives across the country took part in Explore Your Archive Week and shared examples from their collections based on a different, often unusual, theme each day. Themes for this year included #HairyArchives #MysteriousArchives and #ArchiveVoices.

This gave me the chance to share photographs of nuns and teachers from St Mary’s Priory with their adorable kittens and dogs, to highlight how as an archivist I continue to learn about the collections when I solved the mystery of a medal that was awarded to girls who were members of the ‘Our Lady’s Association’ sodality, and to promote voices from the past by retelling the stories pupils have told me. One such pupil, Bridget, remembers getting into trouble for running and sliding along the school corridors at St Mary’s Priory and having to wait outside Mere Walburga’s Office - it didn’t stop her doing it again though as it was so much fun! A past St Joseph’s pupil also shared the memory of being taken to the roof of Stoneleigh Abbey to watch the bombs drop on Coventry during the Second World War.

#AustraliaDay (January 2020)

It might seem hard to believe given how landlocked Warwickshire is but St Mary’s Priory has a significant link with Australia dating back to the 1840s. Early missionary Dr Polding O.S.B returned to England to recruit 'suitable people' to help with the Australian mission. After he met Miss Gregory and persuaded the nuns at Princethorpe to allow her to make her novitiate and profession here, Sister Mary Scholastica Gregory travelled to Australia with him in 1847. Shortly after arrival, they founded a community at Subiaco near Sydney, where Sister Mary Scholastica was prioress until her death of Subiaco in 1849.

Archbishop Polding then asked the Prioress at St Mary’s Priory for more recruits. After a year's consideration, three of the community volunteered under the agreement that if they were no longer needed after five years, Sister Mary Scholastica McCarthy, Sister Mary Editha Amherst and Sister Mary des Anges Chivot would return to Princethorpe. They sailed in 1855. In 1860, Mere Sainte Agnes de Chastelet was seriously ill and asked her Sub-Prioress to 'Write to my dear children in Australia that their dying mother calls them back'. They returned to St Mary's Priory by January 1861 but were too late to see the Reverend Mother again sadly.

I hope that you have found the stories I have shared this time interesting. If you don’t already follow me and can’t bear the idea of missing out on my exciting future posts, you can find me on Twitter at @PFdn_Archives. For those of you who are already members of Princethorpe Connect, I will also be sharing an exclusive #ThrowBackThursday blog post on the first Thursday of each month. As a little teaser, this month’s title is ‘Let Princethorpe Archive Entertain You’ and is all about productions from the past.  You can sign up for Princethorpe Connect, the Foundation's alumni community here.