Warrington Training College (WTC) and S. Katharine's College (SKC) Archive

S. Katharine’s College began in 1844 with the Anglican foundation of Warrington Training College, established in response to the need to provide suitably trained women teachers for the increasing school provision. The ‘training school’, later called ‘college’, was associated closely with St. Elphin’s School housed in adjoining buildings but by the 1880s an increasing independence had been established as the college expanded. This Warrington existence came to an abrupt end in December 1923 when a serious fire caused sufficient damage for the college buildings to be abandoned. Pictured to the left are the College staff in 1911 with Revd. Morley Stevenson, Principal 1882-1923.

Warrington Training College survived temporary relocation at Battersea, London, before the building and opening of the Liverpool site in 1930. The former name seemed increasingly inappropriate and the Warrington Chapel dedication of S. Katharine was chosen as the new name of the College in 1938. No sooner had the consolidation at Liverpool got underway when pre-war planning and air-raid precautions necessitated the evacuation of the College buildings on the day war was declared in 1939. The David Lewis Northern Hospital requisitioned the buildings in Childwall and the. The College was re-located to Keswick for the duration of the war only returning to Liverpool in 1947. Due to an increase in student numbers premises in Keswick were retained and additional buildings taken at Scarisbrick Hall near to Ormskirk, Lancashire.

The completion of additional new buildings and facilities in 1963 consolidated the College to the one site in Liverpool, and then federation with the Liverpool teacher training colleges of Notre Dame and Christ’s led rapidly to the formation of the Liverpool Institute of Higher Education in 1980.

The S. Katharine's College Archive catalogue is now available to download together with a list of S. Katharine's College slides.

Sisters of Notre Dame - Mount Pleasant Training College 

The Mount Pleasant Training College Archive from the Notre Dame British Province was deposited with The Sheppard-Worlock Library in January 2015. The Notre Dame College in Mount Pleasant is one of Liverpool Hope’s Foundation Colleges. In 1980 the college relocated to Childwall to merge with Christ’s College, and federated with S. Katharine's College under the title of Liverpool Institute of Higher Education (LIHE), took place in 1979.

The archive contains material dating from 1856 to 1980 including correspondence relating to the founding history, the Governing Body, and the Board of Education, Catholic Education Council reports, and information relating to Principals and some student records. A list of these items can be found on the Mount Pleasant Training College Archive catalogue, available to download. Please note, the amalgamation and federation papers and some property and finance records, are as yet unprocessed and uncatalogued.

Christ's College

Sadly, very few archival materials relating to Christ's College were retained during after the federation and the little held in the archives are uncatalogued. Please email the Special Collections Librarian, specialcollections@hope.ac.uk for information.

Nugent is a charitable organisation which offers support to adults and children across Liverpool and throughout the North West of England. The origins of Nugent date back to the 1800’s and the pioneering work of James Nugent (1822-1905) in relation to child welfare, relief from poverty and social reform. Monsignor James Nugent, better known as Father Nugent, was a Roman Catholic Priest of the Archdiocese of Liverpool. He was a passionate social reformer, appalled by the state of the homeless living in the squalor of Victorian England, he dedicated his life to the education and rescue of destitute children. 

His statue (created in 1906) can be seen today in St John’s Gardens, adjoining St George’s Hall in Liverpool. The plaque on the statue reads “Apostle of Temperance, Protector of the Orphan Child, Consoler of the Prisoner, Reformer of the Criminal, Saviour of Fallen Womanhood, Friend of all in Poverty, a foot to the Lame, the Father of the Poor.” The work of Father Nugent had a dramatic impact on the lives of thousands of vulnerable people and his work continues to this day, through the charity organisation Nugent.

Monsignor John Bennett (1891-1965) was the administrator of The Catholic Reformatory Association, The Catholic Children’s Protection Society and Father Berry’s Homes, for over 40 years. He was able to build upon the pioneering work for child welfare, in Liverpool, by previous administrators - Monsignors Nugent and Pinnington. He was an important character in the developing form of social welfare, where his influence and expertise often extended beyond Liverpool. He was involved at national level serving as part of the Central Advisory and Training Council. At international level, he was directly involved in the development of child welfare in Malta, after an appeal by the Governess of Malta, Lady Laycock. Canon Bennett would become the biographer of Monsignor James Nugent in 1949, when he wrote the book, Father Nugent of Liverpool.

The archive contains 26 books and 266 items, including: Father Nugent’s letters written during his time as Chaplain of Walton Gaol and as co-founder of the Liverpool Catholic Children’s Protection Society; Monsignor Bennett’s correspondence letters covering subjects such as child welfare, juvenile delinquency, child psychology, and the end of child emigration to Canada; and also Bennett’s correspondence with Lady Laycock and the development of care of deprived children in Malta. A list of  items can be found on the Nugent Archive, available to download.

In 2017 Liverpool Hope Archives & Special Collections were fortunate to receive a significant collection of education research material donated by the Culham St. Gabriel's Trust. The collection belonged to Dr. Lois Louden, a prominent figure in Education and Church Schools in the North West.

Overview

Dr Lois Mary Robertson Louden (1938-2015) was an historian of education, education advisor, lecturer, author, guide, and general educationist who specialised in studying the relationship between the Church and Schools, with particular emphasis on the National Society and Methodism. Her academic studies and career spanned from 1956 to 2015. Louden was also an active member of the Lancaster Methodist Church and volunteered for many organisations, including the NHS Ambulance Services Trust. Louden was largely active in the Lancaster and Blackburn area, and took a special interest in the history and development of the schools and education authorities in that area. Read more biographical information about Dr Lois Louden in the Hope Special Collections blog.

The Collection

The Lois Louden Collection consists of two halves, books and archival papers covering a wide variety of topics including the general history of education, schools, and the Methodist Church. There are specific texts concerning Church Schools, public education, missionary movements, education as a value to society, education and law, women in education, and biographies and autobiographies of individual educators. Among the most rare and possibly most valuable materials in the collection are the six School Government Chronicles, which date from as early as 1885 and were an index or ‘gazette’ of issues in education at the time of their publication. They contain announcements and short articles regarding changes to school programs and structures. Louden also owned a series of Wesley Historical Society North Lancashire Branch Bulletins containing a selection of prayers and society notes.

Another valuable set of materials are Louden’s collection of The National Society Annual Reports. The Church of England National Society was established in 1811 to provide Education and Church Schools in every Parish, especially for poor children. The reports Louden collected run almost consistently, except for a few years, from 1920 to 1989 and contain a plethora of interesting and useful content regarding the National Society.

The second half of the collection contains over eight linear metres of archival material, catalogued as the Lois Louden Papers. Three categories are identified; research, work-related materials, and personal materials. A significant aspect of Louden’s personal papers is her research of education and church schools. This includes research organised by location and school, such as materials she collected relating to St Martin’s College, research organised by event, such as the 1902 Education Acts, and research organised by topic and type of school. Additionally, there are materials relating specifically to the Church of England and the National Society.

Lois Loudon’s interest and passion for education was as much personal as it was professional and the books and archival material she has left behind will be an invaluable resource for the contribution to future research in the history of education, specifically (but not limited to) Church Schools in the Lancaster and Blackburn areas, and the Methodist Church.
The books are fully catalogued and available to search on our Library Catalogue and the Lois Louden Papers archive listing is available to download.

Archbishop Stuart Blanch

Hope has been fortunate enough to receive materials from the estate of Archbishop Stuart Blanch (1918-1994). These include notes from his student days at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and notes for sermons, lectures, talks and speeches made while Bishop of Liverpool (1966-1975) and Archbishop of York (1975-1983). There are also hand written works on the Gospels and transcripts of various broadcasts and press articles. Lists of these papers can be found on the Archbishop Stuart Blanch Archive, available to download. Read more about Archbishop Stuart Blanch and the Annual Memorial Lecture that takes place here at Liverpool Hope University in association with the Diocese of Liverpool.

The Baker Library - Vatican II Council 

An archive of material relating to the Vatican II Council, dating from 1929 to 1996, originally collected by a delegate and observer of the Vatican II Council, Rev. Dr. William G Baker. The Baker Library Vatican II Archive of contents is available to download.

WEC International Research Collection
(Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade)

In 1964, Patrick Johnstone was working with Dorothea Mission in South Africa. The mission had a passion for prayer and world evangelism. While attending a prayer conference in Kenya, Patrick was asked to compile information for intentional and strategic prayer at the conference. Patrick produced a 30-page booklet covering 40 countries. In 1970 he was challenged to rewrite it, but believed that any future edition would need to cover the world. A new edition was printed in 1972.

The first globally-focused edition, Operation World, was published in 1974, and a further edition published by Operation Mobilisation in 1978. The most recent is from 2010, which is a complete update of the 21st century edition, released in 2001. Operation World has been translated into several other languages: German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Indonesian, and in part into Italian. The cumulative number of copies printed in all languages exceeds 2 million.

Jason Mandryk, Director, Editor Operation World (6th-7th editions) and Patrick Johnstone, author Operation World 1st–6th editions, discuss the origin and development of Operation World and is widely regarded as ‘the definitive prayer guide to every nation’ and the recipient of the ECPA Gold Medallion Award for Excellence in Evangelical Christian Literature.

The WEC International Research Collection is the culmination of 40 years of collected articles and ephemera that formed the backbone of the Operation World information in the pre-internet era. There are several thousand spiral bound volumes covering 45 metres of shelf space with articles pasted into pages, organized in different categories within each country, with four editions per country dating from the 1970s into the early 21st century. The categories include a general information survey, political-economic news and analysis, religion and Christian surveys and information, church and Christian ministry, particularly mission activity, and finally ethnolinguistic people group information. The majority, but certainly not the entirety, is from Global North sources. The content compiled from newspapers, magazines and journals, in-house publications and even missionary prayer letters, is not fully comprehensive.

Rev. H.K. Moulton Papers

Rev. Prof. Dr. Harold Keeling Moulton (1903-1982) was a missionary for the Methodist Missionary Society in South India from 1927. He taught for 5 years at Findley College, Trichinopoly, before becoming Professor of New Testament Studies at United Theological College, Bangalore. He worked on the revision of the Tamil New Testament and the development of liturgy for the Church of South India. In 1957 he returned to England and was a Translation Secretary at the British and Foreign Bible Society. There are 507 archival items, dating from 1939 to 1982, listed in the Rev. H.K. Moulton Papers.

Cecilia Irvine Papers

M.E. Cecilia Irvine (1924-2014) was appointed a PhD Research Fellow in the Dept. of Religious Studies, King’s College, Aberdeen University from 1969-1972, under the supervision of Professor Andrew F. Walls. Her research focussed on the Kimbanguist Church, an independent African Initiated Church founded by Simon Kimbangu in what was then the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Cecilia’s career included years spent as the personal secretary to Dr. James A. Pike, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (New York); Mr. John D. Rockefeller III (New York); and to Bishop Stephen F. Bayne, first Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion (London). She also served as a program assistant to the World Council of Churches (1966-68) and Ecumenical Fellow, Union Theological Seminary (1967-68).

In the course of her work and her research, Cecilia amassed a large number of books relating to the developments within the Anglican Church, the World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Movement and the history of Protestant Missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). The books are catalogued and fully amalgamated into the Andrew F. Walls Centre, however, the archival papers are yet to be sorted and archived. 

Church Missionary Society Archive

The Church Missionary Society (CMS) archive includes letter books, mission books, original (incoming) papers and other records from their overseas missions during the 19th and 20th century. The mission papers are a rich source for Church and mission history. The papers include, for example, the detailed journals and annual letters which the society's missionaries were required to provide as an account of their activities. As the work of the missions embraced not just evangelism but also education, medical work, language study and translations, and development of local agriculture and industry, these detailed records are a valuable resource for study in a wide range of other research interests including anthropology, politics, slavery, geography and travel, and women's studies.

The overseas mission work of the CMS began in Sierra Leone in 1804 but spread rapidly to India, Canada, New Zealand and the area around the Mediterranean. Its main areas of work in Africa have been in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Sudan. The contents of the CMS archive in Special Collections is mainly on West Africa. The list of Church Missionary Society Archive - microfilm contents is available to download.

(Wesleyan) Methodist Missionary Society Archive

The collection records the work of the Methodist Missionary Society (from the Methodist Union of 1932), and the work of the different missionary societies prior to 1932 (including the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, Primitive Methodist Missionary Society and the missionary societies of the churches that formed the United Methodist Church). The main series for the (Wesleyan) Methodist Missionary Society includes material from the home organisation in London, which directed overseas missionary affairs, including committee minutes and papers, candidates' papers (1829-1869) finance papers (1817-1945) Home (1803-1896) and outgoing correspondence (from 1816). However, the bulk of the material comprises Synod minutes and correspondence sent to London from the overseas districts including Europe, North America, West Indies [Caribbean and Americas], West Africa, Central Africa, South Africa, Kenya, Ceylon [Sri Lanka], Southern India, Northern India, Burma [Mynamar], China, and Australasia. There are over 17,000 microfiche in the archive. 

The list of Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society Archive on microfiche is available to download.

John Henry Newman Archive

The diaries, letters and miscellaneous documents from the Cardinal Newman archive held at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, in Birmingham, preserved on 137 reels of microfilm. The John Henry Newman Personal Papers catalogue is available to download.

Upholland Northern Institute Lectures - UNITAPES

Based at the junior seminary of St Joseph's College in Upholland, Lancashire, the Upholland Northern Institute (UNI) was set up to aid adult Christian education and the continuing development of clergy in the North West. Talks organised by UNI were recorded to cassette tapes and sold across the UK, both to priests and lay audiences, to provide material for study or group talks. In 2013 the tapes were digitised and made available online, copies may be downloaded for free.

The Upholland UNITAPE Online Catalogue offers downloads for over 800 recordings of Upholland Northern Institute lectures taped between 1975 and 1988. As a theological resource, these recordings cover a wide spread of topics ranging from scripture to social issues. Speakers include Vincent Nichols, Hugh Lavery, Dympna Magee and Raymond E. Brown.

A PDF version of the Upholland UNITAPE catalogue is available to download. The digital copies of the tapes have also been downloaded onto CD format and housed in Special Collections. They are available to borrow for students, staff and readers with a visitor's card. To apply for visitor access please refer to Visiting the Library.