The last term begins: Summer 1958

It is now the beginning of May, 1958 and Alice sounds as though she is in good spirits following the Easter break and has returned to college safe, well and prepared to be run off her feet. She tells her family of her relief that she completed her thesis during the holiday as she is already swamped with essays and performance assignments.

The summer timetable is just as full as usual: classes begin at 08:45 each morning (including Saturday) and in the week they continue until 17:45 - with a few strategic breaks. In addition to the usual schedule there are a host of extra activities and visits coming up which Alice is looking forward to. Amongst those coming to visit the college is tennis celebrity Dan Maskell who is going to be running a coaching session for the students. In the annual Students' Association Report, produced at the end of the year, this event is described as  'The highlight of the tennis season'.

As the term draws to a close the students are preparing a number of 'Dems' (Demonstrations for family and visitors) and Alice hopes that Roy can be accommodated by the Bicycle Shop man providing Bed & Breakfast so that he can stay and make the most of seeing the range of creative arts and sport that the college students are involved in, from swimming to dance and gymnastics. The annual College photograph has also been taken in preparation for the end of the academic year.

Alice also gives an update on her health which suggests she may have been poorly during the holidays as she still has 'lumps behind [her] ears' and is waiting for spots to now appear; she realises that it could be worse though as four others from her year have not yet returned due to suffering German Measles (there was no vaccine for this until the 1960s).

The weather has been warm and sunny, but Alice still has much work to do and is making the most of her free time on Saturday to start writing another essay. 

Dan Maskell's visit was a hilight for all the tennis enthusiasts

3rd Year timetable: Summer 1958

The bicycle shop: essential supplies for the staff and students

Leaving Bedford in a hurry - December 1957

It is now mid-December and Alice's commitments mean she barely has time to write a last letter from Bedford before heading off on her activity course which she has been preparing for.

She expresses her relief at completing a Pathology examination paper but has no time to relax as there is packing to be done in readiness for the Christmas holiday break and, more urgently, for the trip to Wales which is tomorrow:

Despite suffering from a heavy cold Alice continues with all her activities right up to the last minute. She has been selected to attend the equivalent of a modern day 'outward bound' course, run by The Central Council of Physical Recreation, an organisation created through the endeavours of the college's own Phyllis Colson.
Although the course is not a requirement for her studies it is one of the many extra-curricular activities that the ladies are encouraged to take part in as part of gaining a well-rounded education. Alice has had a long day getting there but is full of enthusiasm.

Once she has settled in Alice begins to write a small journal-type letter to her parents, filling them in on her new adventures in Snowdonia:

Extract from publication marking the achievements of Phyllis Colson upon her retirement in 1963, and featuring the CCPR Centre in Snowdonia.

February 1957: busy in college and beyond

It is near the end of February and Alice seems busier than ever with a healthy mix of work and play. Her first mention is of an entertainment which appears to have had a sea theme involving a heavily decorated gymnasium and even incorporating a pirate cavern. In a previous letter she had asked for a green dress to be sent and it appears that this had been a successful choice - adapting is the order of the day as she makes reference to the addition of net to make it fit to the theme.

Her thoughts are also tending towards a visit home and she is quite excited by the appointment there of a new curate. She encloses a songbook from the Bible rally she has attended and hopes that her Dad will contact the pastor  using details on the back cover.

Despite enjoying her extracurricular activities and looking forward to visiting home, Alice is also trying to make a decision regarding her academic subject choices in her 3rd (and final) year. She is disappointed with Miss Middleton apparently talking about her to other students, but feels vindicated and happier when she later receives an apology and is able to discuss her wish to continue; she recognises that life in an all female college can sometimes be fraught with 'the tension of relationships'. 

She closes with happy thoughts of the impending visit home and is already formalising day and time to meet up with Mum: roll on Half Term!

 

Teaching Practice and Christmas 1956

Alice is very busy with her teaching practice at the moment but hoping to get home for just one night to watch the original film of Oliver Twist which was first released in 1948 and produced by David Lean with Alec Guinness portraying Fagin.

Alice is working at a local village school in Harrold which she clearly loves, although not so happy about teaching P.E. in the snow. The social history is portrayed wonderfully with her astonishment that 8 children in one class still had to use a well to get their water.

It is apparent that Alice and her supervisor do not always get on, which must have made the teaching practice difficult at times.  She also mentions a new teacher who also doesn’t seem to fit in at the school who Alice feels sorry for.

Alice is looking forward to the Christmas Carol Service and there is a programme showing the Procession of Carols which would have been sung during the service.  She is then going on for coffee with her colleagues and music tutor, Mr  Thackray (who incidentally was appointed as the College’s first male lecturer in 1954) which she is looking forward to. The Christmas plays and pantomime are being rehearsed and seem to be coming on well with plenty of useful evidence for her teaching practice file.

Some aspects of student life don’t change; Alice has to ask her Dad for some money to pay her expenses and to buy some items she needs.

 

 

Drawing water from the well in the garden

A Very Busy Time

The end of June 1956 is a very busy time in Alice’s life, not only does she have revision for the looming exams but has teaching practice write-ups to complete.  Repeat school visits in Hertfordshire are also on the cards to look at schools selected for their architecture and good results.

The Demonstration appears to be an important event in the college year, Alice is attending practices and is involved in scene shifting, dress changes, policemen (sic) and waitressing; although it appears that the 2^nd & 3^rd years will be actually putting on the demonstration.  The annual church fete is also on the calendar and the 1^st years are in charge of running this.   

The 4^th July is the Inter Year Athletics meeting which Alice is training daily for and complains she is in the 800 yards this year which means extra training as she has further to run. There is also a 3^rd year sale on the same day where she plans to buy items cheaper in preparation for next year.

A visit to Mullion Camp in Cornwall is also looming large as Alice requests some extra items to take with her and reminds her parents the fees are now due for it.

A surprising element to Alice’s teacher training is a visit to Cambridge for dissections which she states:  ‘not a particularly enjoyable day but very interesting’

The final part of Alice’s letter home tells of spending Sunday ‘stitching and tailoring for a 3^rd year’, in preparation for the Demonstration, a sewing machine was borrowed from the vicar to help with this and Alice was very pleased with the results.

The final paragraph tells of her getting her hair cut by another 1^st year student who did well but ‘cut off so much we had to find a carpet sweeper to clean up the mess.’

Making alterations for Demonstration Day, 1933

Demonstration Day Programme, 1956

Dance Demonstration performed by senior students, c.1942-1945

College Plays and Performances

In her letter from 24^th March it is nearing the end of the spring term and Alice refers to end of term activities such as teaching her last lesson, receiving grades, sitting an anatomy test and fundraising for a conference trip by having a bob-a-job week. 

Among the things she mentions is a College Play ‘Christopher Columbus’ which was an adaptation of a play for radio by Louis MacNeice, first broadcast on the BBC in 1942. Alice was not in the play herself but these were clearly important occasions in the College calendar as Alice talks about inviting an external visitor along and waiting for critiques to appear in the local press. Tickets for this production were charged at 2s 6d and 1s 6d, which would be approx. £2.80 and £1.60 today. By Alice’s time at the College, posters and programmes for these performances were printed (as below) but in the earlier days they were all hand produced. The Archive holds some beautiful handwritten and illustrated programmes from earlier years, including some believed to have been illustrated by Cicely Read who was a student at the College from 1909-1911 and went on to become Principal for a short time before her sudden death in 1949.

Programme for the production 'Christopher Columbus'