Archives

Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) cares for and makes available in perpetuity the unique and distinctive collections of the Liverpool Hope University (LHU), and aims to enable the widest possible use of its collections by students, staff, and the wider scholarly community. 

How do I access the archives?

Email specialcollections@hope.ac.uk to make an appointment to visit the Archives & Special Collections Reading Room, and provide the following information:

• a brief description of the research you're undertaking
• a favourable date(s) most convenient for a visit, and an estimate of the time needed e.g. number of hours, half a day, or several concurrent days
• if known, please also indicate the name of the archive, the box number, or the reference number of the item(s) you wish to view.

Information on the catalogued collections are available from the Library catalogue, OneSearch. For those collections that are not yet catalogued, there are finding aids available to help identify material in the archives. If you identify a particular area of interest but are unsure what to do next, email specialcollections@hope.ac.uk.

I'm having trouble finding what I'm looking for?

Descriptions of our archives are available on the Archives Hub, along with 2 million descriptions from over 350 institutions. Search by institution, subject or creator to discover unique sources for your research, both physical and digital.

What do I need to bring?

You may be asked to bring the following:

• a photographic form of ID e.g. a passport, student ID
• a letter of recommendation from the university you attend (the Special Collections Librarian will advise you if this is needed before your visit) 

How to find us

Archives & Special Collections is located in:

The Sheppard-Worlock Library
Hope Park
Liverpool Hope University
Hope Park
L16 9JD

No. 34 on the Map of Hope Park Campus.

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

S. Katharine's College Archive contents list

Historical background

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 ended abruptly 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.

Sisters of Notre Dame Our Lady's Training College

Our Lady's Training College Archive, Mount Pleasant contents list

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. The amalgamation and federation papers and some property and finance records, are yet to be processed and catalogued.

Historical background

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). 

Christ's College

Sadly, very few archival materials relating to Christ's College were retained during after the federation and the few material we do hold in the archives is uncatalogued. Please email the Special Collections Librarian, Karen Backhouse or specialcollections@hope.ac.uk for information.

1980s Militant Liverpool Newspaper Archive

1980s Militant Liverpool Newspaper Archive

Newspaper reports of the militant faction of the Labour Party under Derek Hatton, Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council, were collected during the 1980s to form this unique archive, donated in 2020 by an Alumni member of one of Hope's founding colleges, Sisters of Notre Dame Our Lady's Training College. The donor, the former Head Teacher at Walton St Mary’s Primary School and remained there for 23 years, hoped the archive would serve as a stark reminder of the financial hardships, lack of resources, and threats of closures schools in Liverpool suffered under the militant leadership. Contemporary discussion on the historical political situation in Liverpool during the 1980s, can often be too easily excused or palliated, but this primary resource provides a snap-shot of what was happening at the time.

The value of this archive lies, not in the individual newspaper articles it contains that could be located in the Newspaper Archive from which it was published, but in the juxtaposition of the material and the personal reasons behind the decision to collect it.

Baker Library Vatican II Council Archive

Baker Library Vatican II Archive contents list.

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. 

Archbishop Stuart Blanch Archive

Archbishop Stuart Blanch Archive contents list.

Liverpool 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.

The Archbishop Blanch Memorial Lecture takes place here at Liverpool Hope University in association with the Diocese of Liverpool.

Josephine Butler

Josephine Butler was a feminist and social reformer in the nineteenth century. This collection is small, containing only 29 items of mainly duplicated works from the more substantive collection held at the University of Liverpool. 

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) – Formby

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament in the United Kingdom and also campaigns non-violently for a global weapons ban. CND began in November 1957 and since then has been at the forefront of the British peace movement. 

The Formby CND was a well-organised and committed group of campaigners, fund-raisers, publicists and activists. The archive was collected by former Secretary and Chair during the 1980s and early 1990s. Formby CND were involved with Merseyside CND in the Snowball Campaign. Snowball was a non-violent direct-action campaign against military bases and establishments in the 1980s. It was a national campaign to cut the wire openly at nuclear bases around the country in order to fight for the legal case against nuclear weapons in the courts. The archive contains, minutes of meetings, newspaper cuttings and a substantial number of legal papers as members usually defended themselves in court. The archive is currently uncatalogued although work has started on sorting and listing content.

Catholic Truth Society Pamphlets

see Talbot Library

Dr Lois Loudon papers

Lois Loudon Papers

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 Loudon (1938-2015), a prominent figure in Education and Church Schools in the North West. She was an historian of education, education advisor, lecturer, and author who specialised in studying the relationship between the Church and faith schools, with particular emphasis on the National Society and Methodism, and was largely active in the Lancaster and Blackburn area. 

The 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. A significant aspect of Loudon’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. Her book collection is fully catalogued.

Rev H.K. Moulton Papers

Rev H.K. Moulton Papers contents list.

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. The archive contains 507 items, dating from 1939 to 1982.

Nugent Archive

Nugent Archive contents list.

Collection focus

The Nugent Archive was deposited with Liverpool Hope in 2013 by the registered charity Nugent, formerly Nugent Care, the origins of which date back to the pioneering work of Father James Nugent (1822-1905) in relation to child welfare, relief from poverty and social reform. The institutional records relating to the children’s homes affiliated with the Archdiocese of Liverpool and information related to family history are held by Liverpool Central Library and Archives. It was felt that the personal correspondence and the more ephemeral items would be better placed at Liverpool Hope University, to support education in the history of child welfare in Liverpool. There is a useful YouTube video available to watch on Father Nugent and the archive materials held at Liverpool Hope University. 

The Nugent Archive falls into two halves; firstly, the letters of Father Nugent written during his time as Chaplain of Walton Gaol and as co-founder of the Liverpool Catholic Children’s Protection Society. And secondly, and by far the largest part of the archive, the correspondence of Father Bennett covering subjects such as child welfare, juvenile delinquency, child psychology, and the end of child emigration to Canada in the 20th century. The archive contains some 26 books and over 270 items in total, including the addition of any academic research undertaken using the archive. 

Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade (WEC) International Research Collection

Collection focus

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.

Historical background

In 1964, missionary Patrick Johnstone was working with Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade International (WEC), a Christian mission agency. 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.

The first globally-focused edition, Operation World, was published in 1974. It has been translated into several languages: German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Indonesian, and into Italian. The cumulative number of copies printed in all languages exceeds 2 million. Jason Mandryk, Director, Editor Operation World (6th-7th editions) describes Operation World as ‘the definitive prayer guide to every nation’ and the recipient of the ECPA Gold Medallion Award for Excellence in Evangelical Christian Literature.

To view the microfiche/film collections please email specialcollections@hope.ac.uk to book an appointment.

There is a YouTube video available to help visitor's Using the Microfiche/film Reader and Scanner.

Church Missionary Society Archive (CMS) (microfilm) (AWC)

Church Missionary Society Archive contents list.

Historical background

The overseas mission work of the Church Missionary Society (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. 

Collection focus

The Church Missionary Society 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.

Personal papers of John Henry Newman (microfilm)

John Henry Newman Personal Papers contents list.

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

Upholland Northern Institute Lectures [UNITAPES] (CD)

Upholland Unitape Online Catalogue

Historical background

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.

Collection focus

In 2013 the tapes were digitised and copies may be downloaded for free from the Archdiocese of Liverpool’s website. There are over 800 recordings of UNI 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 from the UNITAPE website. The digital copies have also been downloaded onto CD format and are housed in A&SC and are available to borrow for students, staff and readers with a visitors card.

(Wesleyan) Methodist Missionary Society archive (microfiche) (AWC)

Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society Archive contents list.

Historical background

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).

Collection focus

The main series 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 [Myanmar], China, and Australasia. There are over 17,000 microfiche in the archive.