Deputy Library Manager, Tracy Lord, has taken on responsibility for BGS’s archives, which date back 500 years. She talks about the hidden treasures she’s discovered among the dusty documents and precious old school photographs.
‘I’ve worked in the school library since I joined BGS in 2008, and while I’ve had spells working in the archives over the years, it’s only recently I’ve taken on its responsibility. Before I was appointed, Lesley Purcell was the BGS Library and Archive Manager, and she worked really hard to help get our archives set up. I’ve tried to carry on with setting up the foundations that Lesley started to build so we have a great archive for the future.
I love the fact that my job is different every day. I can be cataloguing old photographs, researching a past event, looking for information on an Old Bradfordian (OB) or even sharing interesting information with our current pupils. I’m a history buff, and I love learning more about this school and its OBs. We have a full collection of our Old Bradfordian magazines since they were introduced in the 1800s. They are a brilliant source of information and they provide a great insight into life at BGS over the years and, along with the serious stuff, there are some hilarious pieces too – who knew, for example, that in the 1960s when custard was on the menu, the school needed 22 gallons!
Work in the archive is very time consuming – every item, document, photograph, etc. has to be fully described and processed and then catalogued onto our new database. And we have lots and lots still to get through! We have many treasures, including photos, plans, former pupil records, books, press cuttings, paintings, trophies, society group records – the list is endless. We’ve recently started digitising our photographs. We’ve started with our oldest (over 100 years old) ones first as these are deteriorating and it’s vital we take urgent steps to preserve them before they’re lost forever. I think our oldest photograph dates back to 1870 and it’s a form photo. Some of the pupils in it look like they’ve walked out of a Dickens novel – it’s hard to believe it’s our school! We’re making good progress with these, but we still have lots to get through. It’s reassuring to know that once they’re digitised, these wonderful old images will be preserved for the future.
I’ve also been working my way through some really interesting old books that were donated to the school many years ago. I discovered one book, which wasn’t in great condition, had an inscription to the school from Field Marshal Montgomery. He did a Speech Day for us and he obviously brought his book and donated it. We even have a Shakespeare Folio from 1806 which is in fabulous condition and was donated to the school at some point. We had students who were learning about Macbeth come down and see it and it was wonderful to talk to them about it and see their faces. We’ve also got a Luftwaffe map which was donated. It must have been taken from a German pilot at some time. It really brings history to life for the children when they can see the railways and other targets which are highlighted and why.
Another discovery was an old frame with a copy of lots of signatures in it. It was a copy of a document from 1641 when the signatories were pressing for the removal of the then headmaster! Our Headmaster, Simon Hinchliffe, now has a copy of this in his office.
While it’s always wonderful to be able to create displays for visiting Old Bradfordians, it will be amazing for our archives and its treasures to be online eventually so wherever our OB community is in the world, they can view them. It will be a huge amount of work but it will be well worth the effort as our archive treasures need to be shared and seen.
In the meantime we’d love to receive old photos of the school or of pupils. Once we have completed the lengthy project of cataloguing we should be able to see where we have gaps in our collections too, and we can appeal to our OB community to see if anyone can help us fill the gaps. We can then digitise the missing photos etc, and hand them back to the OBs.
Our school records date back more than 500 years and as custodians of these in the library, we believe it’s vital to properly protect our wonderful and colourful history and to make these fascinating records as easily accessible and searchable as we can. What we’re doing now is setting the solid foundations for this so that current and future generations will be able to really enjoy them. It’s very exciting!
“… it’s vital to properly protect our wonderful and colourful history and to make these fascinating records as easily accessible and searchable as we can.”
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