ARCHIVE NEWS
Buying treats at Grubbies, 1950s
TH E W E LLI N GTO N
D EC A DES PROJ EC T What was everyday life like for Wellingtonians in the past? What did they think of their living conditions and the food they ate? How did they react to school rules, fagging, and daily Chapel? Which teachers made a lasting impression on them? What were the highlights of the school year?
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o-one can answer these questions better than the students themselves, and so in the spring of 2020 we launched the Wellington Decades Project. By inviting Old Wellingtonians to respond to a questionnaire and send in their memories, we want to build up a rich historical resource, allowing historians of the future an in-depth picture of the Wellington ‘student experience’ during the second half of the 20th century. So far, we have concentrated on those who left College up to and including 1961. Around 550 OWs – all of those for whom we have contact details – have been invited to participate, and more than 150 have responded. College Archivist Caroline Jones is now compiling their recollections, which provide a remarkable insight into College life in the 1940s and 1950s – entirely fascinating, often amusing and sometimes eye-opening.
