CASTERTON SCHOOL ARCHIVES

Kendal Record Office has kindly offered a new home to part of the Casterton School Archive. Much of the Sedbergh School Archive material is held at the record office and staff have extended their offer of storage and access for this fascinating collection from Casterton School.

The seven boxes of material include photographs, school magazines and building plans. Some of the more unusual items include from the school reports of Mollie Fielding from the 1920s, school rule and clothing lists from the early 19th Century and several catechism booklets and religious texts from a similar date.

Casterton School began as the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge in 1823. Founded by the Reverend Carus Wilson the school initially provided education for the daughters of ill-paid clergymen. Charlotte Bronte attended the school with four of her sisters within the first few years of its foundation. 

At the Casterton Old Girls’ Association meeting earlier this year it was agreed that the school archives should be accessible to not only the Old Girls but also a wider public including primary school children due to the information held about the local area.

The Casterton School Archive collection was looked after by Dorothy Vernon for many years and tribute was paid to her careful work preserving the collection and her assistance over many years helping those who wished to access the material.

It is likely to be several months before the collection is fully catalogued and available to the public. Kendal Record Office staff are pleased to have had offers from several members of Casterton Old Girls’ Association to help label and identify records so that they are easily accessible to researchers, COGA members or local schools.