• Home
• About the School
• Balshaw's - Donated Archives

Calling All Old Balshavians!

Balshaw’s extensive school archive is being brought into the light thanks to the marvels of modern technology. Can you fill in the gaps?

The archives of the school are almost complete, certainly unique and definitely fascinating. Now, that archive is being brought into the 21st Century so little, lost stories of monumental times are being prepared for publication on the school’s website. The archive is being digitised and will become one of the most complete, searchable school archives in the district, if not the country. Dr. Naomi Breen came to Balshaw’s as school librarian, but, as her PhD research interests were about the material culture of school buildings in the Twentieth Century, she fell in love with Balshaw’s school building. She is now able to document the human stories of the school for all to access. Dr. Breen has located descendants of Balshavians from as far afield as Australia and Canada, as well as those still located in and around Leyland, gathering their memories, mementoes and personal archives to enhance the collection. For example, Ruth Halls, who now lives in Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia, about 4 hours west of Sydney, spotted her Grandma, Ruth Norris, in photos on the school website in July this year and sent another one (see below) in to add to the school’s archive of the Golden Hill School (Balshaw’s previous home) on Golden Hill Lane, Leyland:

 

[1]

In a cupboard in the Headteacher’s office is an extraordinary collection of documents, photographs and artefacts, along with reels and reels of cine-film with as yet unidentified contents.

This project has been an ambition of Headteacher Mr Steven Haycocks ever since his arrival at the school in 2014, “In my office sits an incredible archive of material including registers going back to 1842.  Its secretion in a cupboard has felt so wrong when it contains such a rich history, not just of Balshaw's, but a social and cultural history of the last century.

I am delighted to say that this is no longer the case.  Over the past weeks, Dr Naomi Breen has been bringing these archives to life as she scans them into searchable pdf files that we aim to share with the world.  It is an immensely exciting project and a considerable digital archive that we are going to be able to publish.”

 

This collection is largely down to the meticulous record-keeping of the Headteachers: “Pa” Jackson from 1903, whose efforts transformed the Golden Hill School into a Grammar School, to Messrs. Vic Oldland (who oversaw the move to the new building 1931-1960); Fred Bleasdale (1961-73: who oversaw a period of great educational change); and Paul Ingram (1973-1994: who oversaw the school’s bi-centenary in 1982) who all gathered material from their times at the helm; as well as the celebrated Jo Venn, who was a prolific letter writer and her collection of correspondence is extensive. Along with current Head, Steven Haycocks, Jo’s work with the Old Balshavian Association has greatly added to the archive, and given Dr Breen plenty of work to do. The school has invested in a state-of-the-art book scanner and is cataloguing every item for its website so people can search for relatives, view photos and artefacts and research from the comfort of their own computer.

 

Top: The Book Scanner in action; Below left: Dr. Naomi Breen scans a handwritten log-book from 1926

The School has always had an eye to its history, George Birtill, the then editor of the Leyland Guardian, was commissioned to write a history of the first 200 years of the School for the bi-centenary in 1982. Long-serving teacher (now Chair of the Governors) Keith Woodcock updated this history in 2014. This further very comprehensive booklet was compiled and edited by Keith and Ollie Woodcock, covering the period between 1982 and 2014 after a request by the then Head Teacher Miss Venn. However, it has been Old Balshavians, themselves, who have provided some of the most personal and interesting finds for the archive (more of which next week). Too many to mention have brought or sent in their own archives that they have kept to remember the happy times they had at Balshaw’s and now being collected and published for posterity.

Fortune favours this project because, just when a gap appeared in the school magazine archive, Kathryn Girvin (née Eccles) emailed the school to ask if we would like to have her Dad’s treasured archive of the Balshavian magazine. Harry Eccles, who taught modern languages at Balshaw's from 1964 to 1970 and who died in December 2019, was instrumental in developing the school magazine at that time and kept a record of activities with commentary and photographs, which provided all the copies of the magazine from 1965 until 1971. Kathryn commented, “It is good to know that there will be school archives for the future.”

This process is only just starting as documents and artefacts are being scanned and photographed to provide a unique insight into the life of the school, the changing face of education and their reactions to global events including World War II which have such resonance in today’s uncertain times; as shown in these scanned editorials from the start and end of the war:

[2]

[3]

“As a historian, this is my dream job,” says Dr. Breen, “I’m at home here at Balshaw’s and the archive is so amazing, so poignant at times, and so joyful at others, I’m just so excited to be able to curate this fabulous material and share it with the world.” This is a hidden history no longer but this is only the beginning: “If anyone has any archival material relating to Balshaw’s that would add to this project, please contact n.breen@balshaws.org.uk and we will add it to the collection.” In particular if anyone has any Balshavian magazines from 1959-1964, if indeed there were any, as production of the magazine suddenly stopped during that time and made a reappearance due to Mr. Eccles’ efforts in 1965. Additionally, school magazines or archives ffrom the 1970s and 1980s; the school will be very happy to receive news of these as these dates are the areas where The Balshavian has gaps.

Many thanks to all those who have donated their precious archives so far. We hope you enjoy exploring the archive.