The Archive Update 2009

There have been various steps taken since 2006.

The Display

In February 2009 I was delighted to sign over the entire contents of the display to the BDHS, so the display is now the property of the BDHS. The intention is for it to arrive in Edinburgh on the Thursday before the Grand Reunion in September 2010. After it has been on show for the whole weekend the idea is for it then to be transported to the headquarters of the BHDS in Warrington for storage,

The Display Cabinet

Some of you will remember this being made by Mr Barker and the boys in the 1960s. It stood under the window in the Front Hall and was used to exhibit items from the school museum and beetles, butterflies and so on. Again the intention is for this to go the BDHS office in Warrington to be used again as a display cabinet.

New Documents

Lord Boyd sent me two boxes of documents dating from 1954 onwards relating to the setting up of the school in 1955, the selection of the Headmaster, the organisation of the new school and so on, including the bringing of two Manchester University students to the school in 1959, called Mr Grave and Mr Sayer. It was very strange indeed to be reading about oneself 50 years ago….. Some of these documents have been added to the Archive in Woking and some to the BDHS.

Videos and films

It was absolutely splendid when a film company found ‘A Day in the Life of the School’ in the South East Film Archive. This was the film made by Michael Chawner and Alan Loft in 1971 and is in the Burwood Archive at the Surrey History Centre at Woking, who store their films / videos with SEFRA. The company interviewed Michael and included scenes from the film in their series ‘The Way We Were’ which was shown on ITV in July 2008. We have a DVD with subtitles.

It seems to me that this is just how our Archive should work, keeping our history alive.

SEFRA has put our videos onto DVDs, but has explained that they cannot edit the DVDs as coping with old films is their most urgent job. They have sent them to me and I shall be editing them. These include the videos of the English Speaking Board talks.

I hope that by the 2010 Reunion every piece of film and video will be available on DVDs from the OBA and that all will be there to be viewed. Of course they range in date from Miss Prentis’ 8mm films to the last videos taken in the 1990s.

The Microfilms

Very soon I shall be handing over the second set of microfilms, provided by Lady Boyd at the same time as those at Woking, to the BDHS and they will then eventually be available for viewing at Warrington where there are microfilm viewers. There is some material on them that is not on the three Archive discs that you can buy from the OBA.

The photographs

I had thought that they would all (some 2000) have been ready by now on CDs. Indeed I have been through them all, checking their quality and improving them where necessary. However, the indexing and arranging in suitable groups is going to take a lot longer yet. Again, they should be ready for 2010.

We hope that the BDHS will be able, by 2010, to produce a book of the official school photographs, both the school year photos and sports teams, with all names and comprehensive statistics, If this can be done it would be a companion volume to ‘Memories of Burwood’.

Other documents added to the archive with the BDHS are those about the activities and history of the OBA. Also, again for 2010, Ronald Gibbins is producing an excellent and extremely comprehensive ‘OBA Diary’, detailing the history of the OBA .

Do not imagine that the Archive is finished! It is living and growing. For example, every edition of the ‘Boars in Touch’ is sent to the Surrey History Centre. News about each of us Old Burwoodians adds continuously to the scope and depth of the Burwood Archive.

And still occasionally things pop up from the past, to our delight.

I am aware of two real gaps in the Archive. Mr Wood provided some kind of daily school diary for a Manager, or perhaps for all of the Managers. I have two square inches of it and it seems that there are no copies left at all.

Also, we have almost NO copies of the original Old Burwoodian magazine which is a great shame.

If any of you have any copies do please let us know!!

C.Sayer.