Chronicles from the Archive 

Last month I was contacted by an OS whose father took part in the 400^th anniversary celebration walk up Winder. The special day saw hundreds of boys and staff summit the fell. A pupil recorded the poignant occasion in a contemporary Sedberghian Magazine report: 

 A bare hill-top with mists sweeping over it. A crowd of school boys in shorts and shirts, dimly discernible through the mists as one approached. A master bids them remember the founder of the School and those who have gone before them. A couple of hymns are sung and the blessing of God invoked. Then there is complete silence, while the mists grow thicker and we realise our unity with each other, with our predecessors, and with those who are to come after us.   

Unlike today’s walks that are captured on social media and viewed across the globe, no photographs were taken of the occasion, making the vivid description all the more valuable. The only other primary source record of the walk stands in pride of place on the side of the Memorial Lodge, now Speckled Hen Nursery, next to the School gates. Every boy and master who climbed Winder on 25^th July 1925 signed their own name on a sheet of heavy card that was framed and mounted on the walls of the lodge. The inscription ‘signed on Winder’ makes clear that this was a considered move, planned in advance to create a permanent record of that special day in the moment, as the boys themselves reached the top of the fell. 

As the School and the OS community plan the celebrations for our 500^th year it is vital to think both of how we will celebrate this momentous anniversary, and of how we will capture the excitement, energy, comradeship and pathos of our celebrations with those who come after us. The archive collection is the gift of those Sedberghians who walked before us. We must always consider our legacy. 

Katy de la Rivière

Archivist