On the 16th of May, the catalogue of the Ashburne Hall Archive went live. By far the largest collection of material relating to the University’s halls of residence held by the Library, the archive contains around 500 items that provide valuable fragments of student life at Ashburne since the hall’s founding in 1900. Within the collection, researchers will find minute books, financial and administrative records, student publications and photographs alongside some more unusual items such as student diaries, room inventories, hall prayers, bonfire songs and ephemera.
Established in 1900 as the University’s first all-female student residence at a time when higher education was extremely male-dominated, Ashburne became associated with many of the University’s pioneering women. I first visited Ashburne Hall to survey heritage items on display for the database of the University Heritage Collection. On the main staircase to the dining room, I was pleased to discover a sculptural piece, Turning Form, dedicated to Kathleen Drew-Baker, the pioneering botanist and former resident of Ashburne whose work enabled seaweed cultivation and prevented starvation in Asia after the Second World War. The Ashburne Hall Archive contains correspondence with Kathleen’s husband, UMIST professor Henry Wright-Baker, relating to the hall’s memorial after her death, as well as research by students into her life and work. The hall was also associated with early supporters of women’s education such as Samuel Alexander, Alice Cooke (Owens College’s first female lecturer), C.P. Scott and Phoebe Sheavyn (literary scholar, feminist and later Warden of Ashburne Hall).
The Ashburne Hall Archive had an immediate impact when it arrived at the Archive and Records Centre in late 2022, providing a significant amount of material for an exhibition on changes to student living, titled ‘A Home Away from Home’, which formed part of the ‘A Living Library’ exhibition at the John Rylands Library in 2023. A group photograph of Ashburne Hall residents showed the presence of women of colour in our university community in the 1960s. A particular highlight was a pamphlet from our Student Ephemera Collection protesting against rules and restrictions in the Hall in the 1970s. The pamphlets were cast from windows to protesting crowds below, as evidenced by the footprint on the top left of the page. We also exhibited a photograph of a same-sex kiss from the 1920s, playfully captioned ‘Partners, presumably’, found in a photo album in the Ashburne Hall Archive, and a beautifully-illustrated copy of Yggdrasill, Ashburne’s annual student publication.
Named after the Ash tree (‘the tree of life’) from Norse mythology, Ashburne Hall’s Yggdrasill was both a case of clever wordplay and a representation of the comforting, all-encompassing residential experience. As the first edition in 1901 explained,
‘Yggdrasill, the Ash-tree of Existence, figured the whole of Life. It spread its boughs over the whole Universe and watered its deep-set roots from the Urd fountain or burn. At the foot of the tree sat the three Norns, Fates – the Past, Present and Future. The Title, therefore, is connected with the name of the House and in some sort represents or suggests an emblem – a firm foundation and a claim to an alliance with all bands leagued in those noble pursuits which are the breath and spirit of existence.’
The Ashburne Hall Archive contains an almost-complete run of Yggdrasill from 1901 to the present day, containing poetry, reflections and commemorations that provide many valuable insights into life and events at the hall.
The process of collecting and preserving the archive is an important part of Ashburne’s identity and culture. Before it was transferred to the library in December 2022, the archive was stored in the hall’s discrete archive room and was managed by an honorary Ashburne Hall archivist, a post held most recently by Sheila Griffiths. Upon surveying the material, we found evidence of assistance in collections management from Library colleagues; I was able to make use of an excellent handlist of material written by John Hodgson and Fran Baker in 1998, and most items were well stored in archival boxes. Great care had also been taken by the honorary archivist and volunteers to maintain the safety and condition of the archive. Files showed regular donations of documents from former students relating to their time at Ashburne and research into the hall’s history by student residents. It was important that evidence of this activity was preserved by being sensitive to the archive’s arrangement.
The new arrangement of the Ashburne Hall Archive aims to make the archive accessible for users whilst retaining evidence of the Hall’s collecting activities over the past 125 years. Institutional records such as minute books are listed first in the new catalogue, followed by financial and administrative records and other documents relating to the everyday operational activities of the Hall. These are followed by records of Hall life such as scrapbooks, record books of student societies and activities, student publications and photographs. Finally, there is a large ‘miscellaneous’ series consisting of mixed collections of files, ephemera and donations of personal papers. Some of the most lively and engaging material can, of course, be found here – such as the ‘Bar Book’ in which advice on the running of the Hall bar was passed down between student representatives in (literally) colourful messages, or eight ‘bonfire songs’ from the 1940s and 50s that were sung by students at Ashburne and other halls before the annual 5th of November dance.
We anticipate that the Ashburne Hall Archive will be an important resource for researchers across the humanities, informing research into the experiences of women and girls in higher education, processes of memory and commemoration and changes in ways of living in student accommodation throughout the twentieth century. As the first dedicated residential provision for female students at Owens College, the early history of the Hall forms part of our story of the struggle for women’s participation in our university community. Importantly, as records of a ‘traditional’ hall of residence in a distinctly non-traditional, non-elite university, the archives of Ashburne and our other residential halls can offer fresh insights into the diverse backgrounds and experiences of students in twentieth-century Britain. As we take custodianship of the Ashburne Hall Archive forward, I hope that the archive remains a valued, living and enduring collection for all current and former residents of the Hall.