Archives Update

News from St Swithun’s Archives

Photo Challenge

Following on from the success of an online puzzle challenge over lockdown, the St Swithun’s archivist set another competition for staff and pupils over the summer term.

Taking inspiration from Fettes College in Edinburgh, who re-enacted a photograph from their archive for the school’s 150th anniversary, the aim of the challenge was for each house to choose a photo from the school archive and recreate it as accurately as possible. A point was awarded for every submission and extra points were given for how accurate the photo was compared to the original. Our judges consisted of the school archivist Elly Crookes, the head of history David Filtness and Dave Wallington our marketing and communications officer. The responses were fantastic! The winning boarding house was Hillcroft and the winning day house was Mowbray. Staff also got involved. The school’s domestic staff were strong contenders for 1st place with their fantastic recreation of the Earlsdown boarding house domestic staff in 1900.

Headmistress Jane Gandee and our school chaplain Paul Wallington also submitted a strong entry with their recreation of the photo of our school founders Anna Bramston and Amélie LeRoy. However, the winning submission was from the Senior Management team who covertly pulled off a fantastic and very accurate recreation of a gym class the 1950s… L-R: Martyn Gamble (Bursar), Graham Yates (Deputy Head, Pastoral), Jane Gandee (Headmistress – pictured upside down!), Charlie Hammel (Deputy Head, Academic) and Reverend Paul Wallington (School Chaplain). ■

Heritage Open Day Tours

This year St Swithun’s was pleased to be involved in the Winchester Heritage Open Days (part of a nationwide initiative held every September) during which institutions across the country throw open their doors to celebrate their heritage, community and history.

St Swithun’s archivist, Elly Crookes, focussed her time and resources to make an informative and detailed presentation which resulted in our school heritage reaching a wider audience. Attendees from as far as London came to explore St Swithun’s on Sunday 12 September and were treated to three private tours of the school followed by a talk about our school history and an opportunity to see some of the amazing records we have in our collection.

The event was a resounding success with one attendee commenting:

St. Swithun’s is an important part of Winchester’s history and the history of education for women. Hope The St. Swithun’s shortbread also went down very well!

Elly produced a small tour guide for the attendees to follow and you can see the digital version on the Community Hub hub.stswithuns.com/pages/archiveresources ■

The St Swithun’s Coat of Arms, granted on 9 June 1936. Paid for and presented by Dr and Mrs Simpson in memory of their daughter Puck (HH 1935), who sadly died from typhoid.

Photograph of a School Chronicle from 1897 showing Winifred as sub-editor

Jane Austen’s Descendants at St Swithun’s

At the start of this school year we were very excited to discover that the great-great nieces of Jane Austen attended St Swithun’s.

Dorothy, Honour, Winifred and Lois AustenLeigh were the daughters of Reverend Arthur Henry Austen-Leigh - the great nephew of Jane Austen. They lived at Winterborne rectory and Arthur sent all of his daughters to St Swithun’s, which was known as Winchester High School for Girls at the time.

Dorothy, the eldest, joined in the summer term of 1894 but as the school chronicles start from 1896 the only information we have about her time at school is that she was in Hillcroft. In 1895 she is listed on the Old Girls’ register as living in Reading, where she worked as an honorary assistant secretary for a hospital supply depot. In the 1913 register she was staying with her sister Winifred in

India but by 1919 she was living with her other sister Honour back in Reading.

More is known about Violet Winifred Austen-Leigh as she joined a little later. In fact, she was the sub-editor of the first school chronicle in 1896 which features an article written by her. She was also the captain of the first XI hockey team in 1896 and representative of the games committee in the same year. By 1897 she was treasurer of the tennis club and in 1899, president of the newly formed music committee.

After leaving school, Violet lived in Botley and then married Hugh Jenkyns on 14 June 1910. They moved to Lahore, India in the October of 1910 and she gave birth to two children in the following years.

Honour Austen Leigh arrived at Winchester High School in the summer term of 1895. She was a member of the tennis and hockey teams, a member of the science society, she managed the school aquarium and received a commendation from the Royal Drawing Society in 1899. She worked as a voluntary aid detachment in Aldershot, Malta and France between 1915 and 1917.

Lastly, Lois Austen-Leigh arrived in the Easter term of 1899. She played for both the first and second hockey XI teams, was a representative of the hockey committee in 1900 and assistant secretary of the tennis committee in 1901. During the WWI she worked as a gardener for the Red Cross and later in life published four mystery novels between 1931 and 1938.

All of the sisters were in Hillcroft.

To read more about the family and their connection to Jane Austen, you can visit this website: www.winterbourne.freeuk.com/ chaustenleigh.html

Part of the archives display at Old Girls’ Day 2021

Old Girls’ reunion

The school archive played a big part in Old Girls’ day on Saturday 11 September and had the opportunity to display some of its records for visiting alumnae.

The archivist toured Old Girls round the school and for those who joined online, a special tour was recorded beforehand which can be watched on the St Swithun’s community hub. hub.stswithuns.com/pages/our-history

Records chosen for English A-level students to study

English lessons

At the end of the summer term the English department held taster sessions for prospective A-level students. Our archivist was asked to help deliver two taster sessions on using context and culture when approaching and analysing literature.

A selection of records was chosen and students were asked to choose an item, analyse it and research the context of the period it was created in.

Amongst the records selected were a scrapbook containing articles and pictures about popular culture in the 18th century and a medal awarded to our school founders in recognition of their work in rehabilitating Belgian refugees during WWI.

In a second English collaboration recently, L4 students learnt about the importance of letter writing and our archivist was invited to talk about the significance of letters in the 19th and 20th centuries. Elly spoke about the postal systems during this period, common writing implements and even brought along some of the important letters in the school archive collection to show how letters were structured. L4 were particularly impressed to see the letter signed by Queen Victoria herself!