Welcome

Thank you for visiting the Archive and Heritage section of Withington’s website. Across the following pages, you can enjoy many unique images and records from the School’s collection through a specially curated series of articles and photographs.

FoundersRoom

The Archivist Miss Hannah Brown and Archive volunteers study a number of interesting books in the Founders’ Room

The initial article within this section, titled Foundation, documents the first committee meeting that our Founders’ held in 1889. It also demonstrates the appointment of our first Headmistress and provides an insight into the very early years of Withington. All subsequent articles run in chronological order and describe a variety of trips and adventures, past pupil’s contributions to national events, in-house plays and performances and the gradual transformation of classrooms and school buildings.

Several of the articles have been written by members of the Archive volunteering club and have been based on original material. Sixth Form pupils have also assisted with the preservation of photographs and paper based records while volunteering their time in the Archive.

TowardsTheLight

Mrs Sue Marks and 6th Form pupils enjoy reading a selection of old newsletters at the Towards the Light book launch

In addition to encouraging current pupils to engage with Withington artefacts, the Archive has completed a range of exciting projects over the past year. Some of these have included a museum-style display at the Grand Reunion Picnic to celebrate 125 years of WGS and the award of a £5000 grant from the Annual Fund to digitise documents and to purchase display cases. The Archive has also overseen the installation of an impressive salon hang of our collection of framed portraits and photographs and most recently, has organised and run a series of successful Junior Heritage sessions.

Timeline2

The 11 metre long timeline display, complete with computer screens showing photographs at the Grand Reunion Picnic

The Withington Girls’ School Archive houses a broad range of School memorabilia including rare pin badges, items of uniform, old scientific equipment and printing plates. We also store a wide variety of printed books, handwritten manuscripts, event programmes from the very early years and a large collection of newsletters dating back to 1903. Our photographic collection is constantly expanding due to generous donations and covers all manner of subjects matters including; buildings, occasions and celebrations, snap shots of lessons and sporting fixtures. There are currently a number of artefacts on display in our specially designed Founders’ Room. These extraordinary objects are presented alongside many iconic portraits of the Founders and Headmistresses as well as images of classroom activities and important events.

We are always delighted to receive new additions to the Archive collection. We are most interested in objects and records that paint a picture of School life, disclose information about events that impacted on those connected to Withington or items that demonstrate past pupil’s careers after leaving WGS. If you own any memorabilia that you would like to donate to our collection, please email archive@wgs.org and we will be happy to provide an overview of our collection policy.

The majority of our Archive collection is available to view upon request and we welcome any new information regarding our items and records. If you would like to view any of our records and visit our Founders’ room, please get in touch via the same email to book an appointment.

 

Miss Hannah Brown

Archivist

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