Research – OCMCH Research Bursary (January 2023)

Having received several strong applications in the January 2023 funding round for the OCMCH Research Bursary, we’re delighted to announce that we will be supporting the research projects of the following recipients. We look forward to inviting them to Centre and working with them in the coming year.

Alison Butler (Independent)

Emma Cresswell (Oxford Brookes University)

Julia van Duijenvoorde (Heidelberg University & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

Stephen Parker (University of Worcester)

Nathan Travis (University of Chicago)

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Previous OCMCH Research Bursary recipient Deborah Hartland reflects on her experiencing working with the Centre over the past six months:

My research project involves an investigation of the way in which evangelicals nurtured faith and a sense of evangelical identity within the family, between the years 1760 and 1830. This involves extensive use of diaries and correspondence, along with journal articles and memoirs from the period. The Centre has a wide selection of books, journals and other material relating to the history of Methodism and more general Church History topics, which is proving helpful to my project. This is particularly useful as I live in a rural area, without access to a library with an extensive selection of books relating to the period, and the Centre contains books unavailable through the main Oxford Brookes Library. The availability of journals such as the Arminian and the Methodist Magazine is a great advantage, and the Centre is a pleasant and peaceful place in which to work. The knowledgeable and friendly staff have made working in the Centre an enjoyable experience. Their interest has made a real difference to my use of the Centre and I have really enjoyed the conversations I have had with them, both about my own project, and about their own research interests. These conversations have helped to extend my knowledge and opened up new areas of interest.

The next OCMCH Research Bursary funding round opens on 1 February 2023

Publication – Methodism in Great Britain and Ireland: A Select Bibliography of Published Local Histories

The Centre is delighted to announce the publication of Methodism in Great Britain and Ireland: A Select Bibliography of Published Local Histories by Clive D. Field. This volume is a joint production with the Wesley Historical Society.

Methodism has been a dominant force in the religious landscape of Great Britain and Ireland since its emergence in the eighteenth century. Its development has been richly documented in terms of the careers and achievements of the Wesleys and other connexional leaders. Yet it was at the local level that the ‘lived experience’ (social as well as spiritual) of Methodism was most evidenced, through the members and adherents of individual societies and chapels and in Methodist schools and colleges.

This volume offers the first systematic bibliography of local histories of Methodism. It cannot be comprehensive (for, at its peak, there must have been at least 17,000 chapels and other preaching places in the British Isles) but it does list around 4,000 of the most important publications on local Methodism from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. They are arranged topographically, according to current civil administrative units, and with a cumulative index of place names.

This book from OCMCH Publications is available in both hardback and paperback. Order your copy now by following this link.

Black History Month – the Methodist Church and Historic Links to Transatlantic Slavery

Plantation Scene and Slave Houses, Barbados, 1807-08 (Slavery Images)

Clive Norris, a historian of Methodism who works with the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History, has been asked by the Methodist Church of Great Britain to investigate its historic links with the enslavement of Africans.

It is at first sight an odd request, for two reasons.

First, John Wesley (1703-91), who is widely recognised as the founder of Methodism, was an active campaigner for the abolition of enslavement. Lying on his deathbed, he asked a friend to read to him from the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, formerly an enslaved African himself, a publication to which Wesley had subscribed.[1] And the last of his letters which has survived, written a week before he died, was to fellow-abolitionist William Wilberforce, and urged him to continue his ‘glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy, which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. . . Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.’[2] Second, Methodists were typically artisans and other working people; few would have the means to invest in trafficking enslaved Africans or in Caribbean sugar estates. The movement was financed primarily by the regular giving of its members, and the going rate was a mere penny a week, perhaps £5 today.

Olaudah Equiano/Gustavas Vassa, 1791 (Slavery Images)

However, we cannot escape the fact that the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans was a significant component of the eighteenth-century British economy, comprising as it did the ‘triangular trade’ between Africa, the Americas and the homeland; the extensive production of cotton and other commodities on plantations worked by enslaved Africans; and the many industries in Britain which depended on these activities for their raw materials or markets. Overall it is estimated that ‘economic activities equivalent to around 11% of British GDP were directly involved in or associated with the American plantation complex.’[3] 

One early stronghold of Methodism was Bristol, which was a major port serving the triangular trade. Bristol became involved in the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans in 1698, when the London-based Royal African Company lost its monopoly of the English trade with West Africa.[4] Between 1698 and 1807 Bristol merchants financed at least 2,060 voyages to Africa merchants, most before 1750;[5] between 1756 and 1786 Bristol sent 588 slave ships to Africa, though the rising port of Liverpool sent 1,858.[6] Between 1698 and 1807 it is estimated that Bristol slaving ships carried some 587,000 abducted Africans to the Americas, of whom 486,000 (82.8 per cent) survived the Atlantic crossing. This represented around one-sixth of the British empire’s slave trade, and Bristol was probably the third largest Atlantic slave port.[7]

The tentacles of the trade reached into every corner of Bristol’s economy. Bristol’s merchants financed the voyages of the ships which abducted thousands of men, women and children from Africa, and took them to the Americas to be worked to death. Bristolians captained the ships and provided their crews. Bristol shipwrights built and maintained the vessels, local dockers manned the port, and local traders furnished the food and other supplies.[8] Bristol coffee houses hosted endless business meetings; local people also worked as builders and tradesmen, servants, and in many other ways to service the slave trade indirectly. And crucially, Bristol banks such as the ’Old Bank’ on George Street financed the slave trade and the wider commercial life of the city. As one historian has observed: ‘In the period of Bristol’s greatest prosperity, few of its citizens did not have some connection, direct or indirect, with slaving ventures.’[9] It seems likely, therefore, that—even if many had principled objections—some of the 750 or so members of Bristol’s Methodist society had links with the trafficking and subsequent exploitation of enslaved Africans, and Clive is exploring this possibility.

Establishing the facts will be challenging but it is of course only part of the story. It immediately prompts the questions: why did people act as they did and how should we respond to that? Take for example, Sir Philip Gibbes (1731-1815), a prominent Barbados slaveholder with Bristol connections. He was widely admired for his piety and humanity. In his autobiography, Equiano described him as ‘a most worthy and humane gentleman’ who ‘saves the lives of his negroes, and keeps them healthy, and as happy as the condition of slavery can admit’.[10] John Wesley counted him as a friend.[11] Gibbes sought to provide for the spiritual welfare of his enslaved workers but only in a strictly limited way. Thus he encouraged the saying of grace before their breakfast (‘bless our labours . . . grant that this present meal may convey to our bodies nourishment and health, and to our minds gratitude and love’); but not before lunch, which would be too disruptive to the working day.^[12] Hero or villain? The answer is that the eighteenth century was an age of complexity, contradiction, and confusion, much like our own.

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[1] Journal and Diaries VII (1787-1791) [vol. 24 of The Works of John Wesley], ed. W. Reginald Ward and Richard P. Heitzenrater (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2003), 348. 

[2] John Wesley to William Wilberforce (24 February 1791), The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., ed. John Telford, 8 vols (London: Epworth Press, 1931), VIII:265.

[3] Klas Rönnbäck, “On the economic importance of the slave plantation complex to the British economy during the eighteenth century: a value-added approach,” Journal of Global History 13 (2018), 327.

[4] David Richardson, The Bristol Slave Traders: a collective portrait (Bristol: Historical Association, Bristol Branch, 1985), 1.

[5] David Richardson, “Slavery and Bristol’s ‘golden age’,” Slavery & Abolition 26, no. 1 (2005), 36.

[6] C. M. MacInnes, Bristol and the Slave Trade (Bristol: Historical Association, Bristol Branch, 1968), 6.

[7] Richardson, ‘Slavery and Bristol’, 36, 38.

[8] Richard B. Sheridan, “The Commercial and Financial Organization of the British Slave Trade, 1750-1807,” Economic History Review New Series, Vol. 11, no. 2 (1958), 249. There was a trend over time for enslaved Africans increasingly to be sold on credit; the slavers returned home in ballast, while the planters marketed their sugar and tobacco directly; ibid., 252.

[9] C. Duncan Rice, The Rise and Fall of Black Slavery (London and Basingstoke, 1975), 131.

[10] Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself, Fourth Edition, Enlarged, 2 vols. (London: Printed for, and sold by the Author, 1789), I:210.

[11] John A. Vickers, ‘The Gibbes Family of Hilton Park: an unpublished correspondence of John Wesley’, Methodist History, vol. 4 (1968), 43-61. 

[12] Philip Gibbes, Instructions for the Treatment of Negroes (London: Shepperson and Reynolds, 1786, reprinted with additions 1797), 79-81.

Centre – OCMCH Annual Report 2021/22

The Centre has published its Annual report for 2021-22 – an acknowledgement and celebration of our achievements over the past twelve months. OCMCH Director, Professor William Gibson, had the following to say about the Centre’s work over the last year,

2021-22 has been another productive year for the Centre. The Coronavirus Pandemic has continued to have an impact on our working practices; and on the types of outputs we are able to achieve. In spite of this, 2021-22 has also been an extremely successful year for the Centre. We have been able to host, organise, and attend both online and in-person events; return to primarily working on-campus; and engage with others as part of work with individuals and visiting groups. We have been able to welcome readers back to our Reading Room, and also to visit other archives and heritage sites as part of our wider work and research.

The Centre continues to work with an increasing number of external partners, ranging in involvement from The Methodist Church and The Westminster Society; to The Manchester Wesley Research Centre and Wesley House, Cambridge; and newer partnerships, such as with The Methodist Insurance Company, and Southlands College (University of Roehampton). We have continued to work with, and to support, our collection owners, working closely with the Avec Consultancy Trust regarding the development of their archive; with the Methodist Philatelic Society over the deposit of their collection, and financing of a new bursary; and, as ever, with the Wesley Historical Society, with a focus on the growth and development of their collections and space allocation, particularly at this time of transition for the Society.

Digitisation and online engagement continued to play an extensive, and growing, role in our work this past year – with almost 2,000 additional items now available online, and over 1 million views have now been achieved across our online collections.

This Report serves to illustrate much of the hard work completed by the Centre this past year, and also the impressive impact this is having – particularly in an increasingly digital field.

You can download a digital version of the full Annual Report, here.

Publication – A History of Methodist Insurance in Britain by Clive Norris

The Centre is delighted to announce the publication of A History of Methodist Insurance in Britain by Clive Norris. The production of this book coincides with the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Methodist Insurance Company, and it tells the story of how Methodists acted, from the earliest days, to protect their chapels and other buildings from fire and other risks.

After several failed attempts in the first half of the nineteenth century, the various strands of British Methodism, including the Primitive Methodists (1866) and the Wesleyans (1872), established property insurance concerns, financed by leading lay members and managed jointly by businesspeople and clergy. These protected an expanding nationwide network of chapels and schools, and provided crucial underpinning for the movement’s mission of spreading the gospel and delivering educational, welfare and social services.

The narrative encompasses an era of wrenching social change, two World Wars, and a technological revolution, but the purpose, ethos and daily operation of today’s Methodist Insurance Company would look familiar to the pioneers of one and fifty years ago.

This book from OCMCH Publications is available in both hardback and paperback. Order your copy now by following this link.

Publication – latest title from OCMCH Reprints

Today sees the publication of the second title from OCMCH Reprints, a series of publications which draws on the historical collections of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History to provide high quality reproductions of out-of-copyright books that are scarce, inaccessible, or otherwise unavailable in digital formats elsewhere.

This reprint volume compiles two works by the Rev. Arthur A. R. Gill (1868-1937); The Archdeacons of the Diocese of York, and The Dean and Chapter of York, both originally published in 1915 and long since out of print.

A native of Devon, these works were compiled when Gill was vicar of Market Weighton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, a living he held from 1910 to 1925. He was subsequently appointed to All Saints, Pavement, and St. Saviours in York, and he was made a canon of the cathedral there in 1932. Gill’s historical interests found outlets through his membership of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and he was a contributor to the East Riding Antiquarian Society’s transactions. His writings are now preserved in York Minster Archives.

The works presented here represent an early attempt to compile an authoritative list of the dignitaries of the cathedral of York, occasionally peppered with Gill’s characteristic remarks. Against the entry for the last Treasurer of York (the post was dissolved under Henry VIII), he notes that ‘as the Treasures had been filched, there was no need for a Treasurer’.

The volumes were originally published by St. William’s Press in Market Weighton, the printing works of local the Catholic Reformatory School. In the 1890s, the boys of the school produced over a million pamphlets a year from their presses.

‘The Archdeacons of the Diocese of York; with, The Dean and Chapter of York’ is available now to purchase in paperback and hardback. Click here to order.

Research – Seely and Paget project newsletter

Alongside English Heritage and other partners, Dr Peter Forsaith and Tom Dobson of the OCMCH are leading on a project to celebrate the centenary of Seely and Paget, architects. From the 1920s to the 1960s, the partnership of John Seely (later 2^nd Baron Mottistone) and Paul Paget was notable for their close personal relationship as well as for their architectural work. Their melding of traditional and new styles and materials was already becoming unfashionable at the time, and was eclipsed by the modernity of the 1960s onwards. This work is now being re-evaluated, however, including viewing them as early practitioners of conservation architecture. 2026 marks the 100^th anniversary of the partnership’s registration with R.I.B.A., and will be a focal point for many of the project’s outcomes.

Download the project newsletter, now:

Seely and Paget, Architects – issue 1 (March 2022)
Seely and Paget, Architects – issue 2 (September 2022)

Women’s History Month – Rev Miriam Moul Reflects on Women in Ministry

Rev Miriam Moul at Westminster Chapel, Harcourt Hill

As Methodist Ministers often do, I’d like to begin with a quote from one of Charles Wesley’s well-known hymns – O thou who camest from above. Wesley writes ‘Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire to work and speak and think for thee. Still let me guard the holy fire and still stir up thy gift in me.’

As a female Methodist Minister, I’m often struck by the stories of those female ‘pioneers’ within Methodism. From the great Susanna Wesley to today’s presbyteral and diaconal colleagues, all have sought to ‘guard the holy fire’ and through working, speaking, and thinking for Jesus, have used their gifts in innumerable ways. They have sought to fulfil their callings to serve God and the people called Methodists. Amidst many and varied obstacles within the patriarchal system these women stepped forward, pioneering a way for those like me in the future.

So to my story: I grew up on the Isle of Wight, and didn’t encounter a female Minister until my early 20s. Growing up week by week in my local Methodist Church, I heard women preach and teach as Local Preachers. Seeing women leading worship was a common experience for me, part of what was normal at church. Yet that didn’t extend to female Ministers. In my consciousness churches were led by men. I knew that there were women ministers, but the lack of a visible female leader in my own context was stark. My main frame of reference was watching reruns of The Vicar of Dibley, seeing many of the humorous scenarios that Geraldine Granger experienced, and the genuine discrimination she faced. Encountering my first female minister opened for me a new way of seeing my burgeoning sense of call to ministry. Ordained ministry had always seemed beyond the realm of possibility, until I saw someone like me, in a collar, presiding at the sacraments, pastorally caring, leading. Suddenly there appeared a role model, someone who made me believe that what I felt called to might actually be possible.

After two years at The Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham, I entered the itinerant ministry as a Probationer Presbyter in 2015, more than 40 years after women were first ordained as Presbyters (Ministers) in the Methodist Church. Much has changed, and for the better, I’m certain. My Methodist cohort in training was approximately 80% female, most of whom were coming from established careers and having had families. In my probationer’s appointment in Kent, I was the first woman presbyter that one of the churches I served had experienced. As a woman, both young and single, I think there was some scepticism about the new ‘young lady minister.’ Some Vicar of Dibley-like moments materialised as I was introduced to the local community. These included multiple invitations to Christmas dinner in my first year – I only accepted one and there was not a Brussel sprout in sight! I could never tell whether being described as a ‘breath of fresh air’ was a positive thing or whether ‘you’re not much like your predecessor’ had any loaded meaning other than, ‘you’re not a middle-aged man.’ The public perception of clergy as male, white, middle-aged, middle-class, is reinforced in television and film and throughout the media. There is still work to be done in challenging this perception.

The Methodist Church has come far in its journey towards gender equality, but it is vital to recognise how far we have yet to travel towards full inclusion of God’s diverse and beautiful humanity. Throughout generations of Methodism, women have had to prove that they were not only as good at preaching as men, but better, in order to be valued. Women in ministry have had to weather the storms of overt and casual sexism. Women have faced many obstacles to being fully valued as Ministers in their own right, rather than supporting players. In early Methodism, female preaching was seen as disruptive, perhaps it is time to redouble our efforts to again disrupt the accepted order in seeking justice and solidarity for all. Not only gender equality, but for all those who continue to be underrepresented in the life of the church, whose voices and experiences have been silenced, people of colour, those who live with disabilities, those who live with mental health issues, those who belong to the LGBTQ+ community and many more.

To conclude I’d like to share one of many positive and joyful stories of my own ministry in the Methodist Church. I had led a large funeral for a much loved member of a village community. People from across the village and the wider town community had attended. After the service I was ‘working the room’ chatting to people. A rather strident looking gentleman approached and said “I’m a Catholic.” Immediately I wondered where this conversation was going to go. I felt my defences rise as I waited for the next sentence. To my utter surprise, the next words uttered were “If all women ministers are like you, I must write to the Pope and tell him we need to ordain women.”  I remember standing open-mouthed for what felt like minutes. To have my ministry valued by someone who would traditionally have opposed it because of my gender was an experience I’ll never forget.

I hope that in the years to come we will continue working towards gender equality and the full inclusion of all peoples in the life of the Church, that all who feel called as beloved children of God, will be able to work, speak and think for Jesus.   

Rev Miriam Moul

Miriam is Methodist Chaplain in the Multifaith Chaplaincy Team at Oxford Brookes University. For more information about International Women’s Day at Brookes, click here.

Women’s History Month – Margaret Birchall, Southlands College student in the early 1870s

In 1873, Margaret Birchall received the news that she had been placed 86th in the 1st Class in the results of the Queen’s Scholarship Examination.[1] After a five-year apprenticeship as a pupil-teacher at the Windsor Street Wesleyan and Sunday School, Toxteth, Liverpool, the results of this examination qualified her to take up a place at a teacher training college on a grant if her circumstances allowed.[2] They clearly did, as she was also informed that she should enter Southlands College on 7 February, where she studied between 1873 and 1874.

Windsor Street Wesleyan and Sunday School, Toxteth, Liverpool (photo credit: Helen Watt)

Born in 1852, Margaret was the daughter of James Birchall, who ended his time working for the London and North-Western Railway as Outdoor Superintendent of the Goods Station, Park Lane, Liverpool, and his second wife, Margaret, née Sayer. It is not known when the family had become members of the Methodist Church, but they had certainly done so by 1850, when the couple’s second-eldest daughter was baptised in the local Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.[3]

Hudson Family Collection. Postcard of Southlands College, Battersea, 19th cent.

Therefore, it was probably only natural that Margaret should attend Southlands Training College, founded on 26 February 1872 only around a year before her entrance, as a Methodist teacher training college for women.[4] As the college was then in Battersea, it must have been a big step to travel from Liverpool to London to take up her place.

Westminster College Archives. Wesleyan Education Committee register of teachers (extract, 1873)

Nevertheless, it so happened that John Newton Hudson (1853-1933), a fellow pupil-teacher in Liverpool and her future husband, had been appointed Second Master at Kentish Town Wesleyan School in 1871. He was to stay there until 1874, so that the couple were in London at the same time while she was at college. Also, it is clear that her time at Southlands must have been very important to her, as she kept several items relating to her course and companions there.[5] These include her books of lecture notes on Theology; Domestic Economy, and Paraphrase, as well as books of maps relating to the British Isles and the world, extremely carefully produced, with accompanying details.

Hudson Family Collection. World geography exercise book, 1874 (OCMCH Digital Collections)

Besides these, she retained her ‘Friendship’ Album, containing many inscriptions and drawings by fellow students, including an entry by Rev. G. W. Olver, Principal of Southlands College. Besides a picture of Rev. Olver given to Margaret in 1874, her family photograph album contains many carte de visite-style photographs of young women, probably also dating from the 1870s. Since many were taken at the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, which had studios in Regent Street and Cheapside, these images may prove to be portraits of some of those fellow students.

Photograph of the Rev. G. W. Olver, c1874 (OCMCH Digital Collections)

After finishing her training in London, Margaret returned to the north-west. By December 1874, she had passed her probation as a teacher at Mount Pleasant Wesleyan Infant School, Bacup, near Rochdale in Lancashire, and was headmistress there for more than two years.[6] Another family photograph album includes a picture of her, identified by her daughter, Marian Hudson (also a teacher), in a group portrait, perhaps dating from that her time.

Group photograph including Margaret Birchall, c1870s (photo credit: Helen Watt)

While she was still teaching, Margaret kept a diary with entries dating between 1876 and 1877.[7] From these notes, we gain an impression of her life as a teacher, including her satisfaction that ‘all my girls got excellent again’ (entry for 4 February 1877) and her growing relationship with John. We can also see something of her spiritual development, showing perhaps how hard she was on herself in trying to live an upright, Christian life. Also mentioned in the diary are various family members, including her parents and all but one of her sisters: Sarah; Mary; Caroline (Carrie), and Alice, as well as John’s step-sister, Annie Reynolds.

Margaret Birchall Diary, 1876-7 (OCMCH Digital Collections)

However, a connection with Southlands College also appears, as the last note (entry for 5 February 1877) records receiving a postcard for her birthday (the previous October) from Rev. Olver, with a touching reference from the Bible to Numbers VI, 24; 26 (‘The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:’ and ‘The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.’).

The diary also notes that Margaret covenanted at Mount Pleasant Wesleyan Chapel in Bacup in 1877. After her marriage to John in April of that year, Bacup is where they made their first home, with John as Headmaster of Bacup Britannia Wesleyan School for the first eleven years of their time there.

Postcard of Mount Pleasant Wesleyan Chapel, Bacup, Lancashire, 19th cent. (photo credit: Helen Watt)

On her marriage, Margaret did not entirely give up teaching, as she taught women in the Sunday School at Mount Pleasant, and was also at one time or another a Junior Class Leader; member of the Leaders’ Meeting; Bacup Circuit Stewardess, and member of the War Relief Committee during the First World War.[8] She may also have kept in touch with at least one friend from Southlands, as can be seen in a letter received from her in 1888.[9]

Hudson family group photograph, 1927 (photo credit: Helen Watt)

Except for a few years in Padiham, Margaret and John continued to live in Bacup with their growing family for a further period until John’s retirement in the early 1920s. They then moved to Manchester where they can been seen in a family photograph taken to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1927. They are surrounded by their five surviving children, three of whom were also teachers, and the remaining two, a Methodist Minister and a doctor respectively. Also present were their two daughters-in-law, one of whom had also been a teacher, and their four young grandchildren. Later, these children would include a Methodist Minister; a Methodist Missionary in China, and a piano teacher. Sadly, Margaret died of a stroke a few months after the anniversary. Although an enduring memory of her was that ‘her influence was always on the side of righteousness’, as Mrs Hudson, she was also remembered with respect and affection in the Bacup Circuit as well as in the town.[10]

Helen Watt, February 2022

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[1] Now part of the Hudson Family Collection at the OCMCH.

[2] Jenny Keating, ‘Teacher training – up to the 1960s’, History in Education Project, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, December 2010, available via the website of the IHR web archives https://archives.history.ac.uk/history-in-education/ (accessed 19 Feb 2022).

[3] Baptism of Mary Birchall, 29 December 1850, in the records of Mount Pleasant Wesleyan Methodist Church/Pitt Street Wesleyan Methodist Church, available at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=PRS%2FLIVERPOOL%2FBAP%2F1062357 (accessed 19 Feb 2022).

[4] See the history of the college, available at https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/colleges/southlands-college/history/ (accessed 19 Feb 2022).

[5] Now part of the Hudson Family Collection at the OCMCH.

[6] Parchment certificate of Margaret Birchall in the Hudson Family Collection; Obituary, Mrs Hudson (née Maggie Birchall), 1873-74, from the dates, perhaps in a publication of Southlands College.

[7] Also preserved among the family papers, with later entries by Marian Hudson dating from 1966.

[8] Obituary.

[9] Now part of the Hudson Family Collection at the OCMCH.

[10] Ibid.

The Hudson Family Collection is currently being catalogued and at the Centre. Some items from this collection can be accessed online at OCMCH Digital Collections. For more information about International Women’s Day at Oxford Brookes University, click here.

Archives & Library – “Long may She Reign”: Westminster College and its relationship with Royalty

On 6 February 1952, HRH Princess Elizabeth was proclaimed as Elizabeth II: Queen of Great Britain, its remaining Empire, and the rapidly growing Commonwealth. Westminster College, located as it was in the heart of London, was within earshot of the tolling of Big Ben as part of the King’s funerary procession on the 15th of the month, just nine days later. This February marks seventy years since the Queen’s accession to the throne, and the start of her Platinum Jubilee year. To mark this occasion, we explore the relationship between Westminster College and royalty which, throughout its operation, saw the rule of six monarchs from Queen Victoria to Elizabeth II.

Westminster College first opened its doors at 130 Horseferry Road in October 1851: the year of the Great Exhibition. Writing in The Westminsterian in 1947, one student records that its gatehouse was ‘carved with the Imperial Initials’ of Queen Victoria, physically reminding all students of Westminster who was on the throne when the College was established. These same students later lined the street outside the main gates in a symbol of respect following her death in 1901.

The next reference to royalty in the College archive can be found in the logbooks of Principal H. B. Workman, who records the coronation of George V in June 1911, and its surrounding holiday, in his reflections on that term (above, left). According to College legend, George V later visited Horseferry Road during the First World War. Unfortunately for those who like to shroud the College history in glory, this was to visit the Australian forces stationed at the College during the First World War (above, right), rather than to visit the educational institution whose buildings were situated there.  

Throughout the next half century, relations with the royal family continued to be peripheral, with events throughout the city, but never inside the College walls. John Bridge (later one of Westminster’s most famous alumni), noted that royal events were among some of the most memorable for his time at College, remarking that the ‘period 1934-38 was noteworthy for the number of important Royal events – the 1935 Jubilee celebrations, the Royal Wedding and the King’s funeral.’ The coronation of George VI touched the College similarly – its rear quad was utilised as a car park, presumably because of its closeness to Westminster Abbey.  

The one and only visit by a member of the royal family to Westminster College occurred in 1951, when Princess Elizabeth visited as part of the College centenary programme. As she arrived, the College flag was lowered, and the Royal Standard was raised. The Princess then addressed gathered crowds in the quad before touring the buildings, and meeting some members of staff. In her speech, the Princess commented on the fact that the Wesleyan Methodist Church had chosen to establish the College in a ‘poor and destitute area’, where there was ‘many uncared for children in need of teaching’ rather than in a location which carried an ‘atmosphere of academic calm’, as would have been expected. The Princess’ visit concluded with a rendition of the College Yell – something that is said to have shocked/surprised/scared her, depending on who you believe.  

Upon the death of George VI in 1952, Dennis Andrew (President of the Union Society) wrote a letter of condolence on behalf of the students, and a swift response was received, signed by Colonel Martin Charteris. Report of the accession of Elizabeth also featured in the Lent 1952 edition of The Westminsterian, followed by a full page photograph of the new Queen (top of page). Her coronation the following June received a similarly large entry, if only because the College students lined the streets surrounding their buildings and (once again) performed the ‘College Yell’, and were mistaken for the boys of Westminster School!  

When Westminster College relocated to Oxford in 1959, they tried to recruit a member of the royal family to attend its official opening on 21 May 1960 – asking first for The Queen, then the Duke of Edinburgh. The organisers were told first that The Queen could not visit the same institution twice so closely together – even if one visit had been prior to her ascension and to different buildings. The Duke of Edinburgh was apparently busy on the selected date. Despite this, a toast was made to the monarch at the end of lunch, with the menu cards simply noting ‘The Queen’.  

Prior to its merger with Oxford Brookes University in 2000, the only other significant royal event was that of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. The College, now devoid of the lively atmosphere of London, did not line the streets and make such a noise that it was reported in national newspapers – as was the case for the Coronation. In fact, the only photographs in the College archive for that year are of sports matches and academic events.  

The seventieth anniversary of the Queen’s ascension this week will pass in similar quietness – if only because of the large-scale national events planned for the beginning of June. Despite this, an exhibition of archive material has been curated on campus, as a small marker of this momentous occasion.  

Thomas Dobson is Collections & Digitisation Officer at the OCMCH. The Westminster College logbooks of Principal H. B. Workman are available online, here.