Looking back: Ripon College in 1923 #EmbraceEquity

This year to mark International Women’s Day, we’re looking back at what life was like at Ripon College in 1923. In a post-war world, those who studied and worked at Ripon College faced a changing reality. Despite this, life at the College was still restrictive and extremely regimented. However, with 100 years difference between our perspectives and theirs, it can be difficult to access what our students did and how they thought.

After exploring materials held by our university archives, we managed to bridge the distance and see a surprisingly detailed glimpse into our past. Through photographs, meeting notes, correspondence records, alumni magazines, prospectuses and even financial records, Ripon College in 1923 emerged.

Historical context

The year is 1923. It is just five years since the end of World War One, and unbeknownst to the world, only 16 years until the start of World War Two. Women have been granted the right to vote, but only if they are over 35 and meet specific property qualifications. For the students and staff at the College, it’s unlikely many, if any, of the women working or learning there would have been eligible.

In the history books, 1923 is a year of important events with long lasting implications:

• Howard Carter unseals Tutankhamun’s tomb, something which students will have eagerly discussed.
• The future King George VI marries the future Queen Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey, although at the time few would have guessed that Prince Albert, as he was known in 1923, would ever become king.
• The Matrimonial Causes Act finally equalizes divorce between men and women. For the first time, a woman can divorce a man for adultery without having to also prove additional wrongdoing. For the women studying at Ripon College this will have been a momentous shift in the law to equalise their place in future marriages.
• The Liquor Act makes it illegal to sell alcohol to anyone under 18. It was also the first Private Members Bill by a woman to be passed and become an Act of Parliament.
• The first British national championships for women in track and field is held in London.
• In December 1923 a general election takes place. Despite women having gained the right to vote, no student at Ripon will have been old enough, and many of the staff will not have met property qualifications. Those who did qualify also faced a barrage of ‘helpful’ opinions on voting, including a set of things they should consider recently unearthed in The Guardian archives. Every student and employee at St John’s College will have been eligible.

A new start

On 18 September 1923, students arrived in Ripon to begin the new school year. All new students had to be 18 within a month of 1 August 1923 to be admitted. Some exceptions could be made to this rule, but only for exceptional candidates, and only if this exception was authorised by the Board of Education!

Every year, Ripon College received around 700 applications, and around 200 applications for the Hostel. But the College had a yearly intake of just 100 students, and the Hostel of just 15. This meant that the application process for students had to be rigorous. To apply for a place, prospective students had to:

1. Complete an application to study at the College or at the Hostel.
2. Sit an entrance exam in December, and if they passed that, another in May!
3. Provide a reference about their conduct, character, practical skills and their suitability for the role of teacher.
4. Acquire a Board of Education medical certificate which stated they were literally fit to teach.
5. Pay £5 of their fees upon acceptance of their offer. Today that £5 is equivalent to around £387.

In September 1923, staff were told they would need to reduce their intake by 5% for 1924 due to teacher unemployment. This was quite a drop in projected income for the College that they couldn’t avoid and couldn’t really afford. It also meant they would need to reduce their intake even further, rejecting more applicants.

Hostel life

When students applied, they applied to either Ripon College or the Hostel of Ripon College. Today this might seem strange, but at the time, this was due to a very important part of daily life: religion. As Ripon College was a diosecan college, partly funded and overseen by the Church of England, they could only accept students who were practising Church of England worshippers. But this wasn’t just about principles, this was a rule built into the teaching colleges process to more easily discern between state run, university and diocesan training institutions.

Ripon College got around it by having a Hostel with a yearly intake of around 15 students. Opened in 1904, students studied almost the same curriculum with the same tutors, except for the compulsory religious components which were modified and taught in-Hostel. By 1923 this process of separate teaching and examination on religious elements was in the process of being streamlined. This was to save money by not paying an external examiner to mark their papers.

But who applied to live at the Hostel?

With just 31 beds, each year the College could only accept around 15 new students depending on the number they’d accepted the year before. But in 1923, the College were regularly receiving upwards of 200 applications for these few places, showing an increased desire for women to enter employment, and from varying backgrounds.

Students lived with a capable matron and at least a few domestic staff. Like their fellow students, Sundays were dedicated to religion and they were expected to attend a denominational place of worship approved by their parents or guardians.

In the 1920s, common denominations who lived and studied at the Hostel included:

• Presbyterians
• Primitive Methodists
• United Methodists
• Wesleyans
• Baptists

In 1923 there was also a self-identified ‘non-conformist’ starting in the September 1923 intake. Although this phrase may conjure up ideas about rebellious counter-culture today, it is more likely to refer to a form of Protestantism detached from the Church of England.

Life as a student in 1923

For today’s students, life at Ripon College in 1923 would seem restrictive and dull. Students had far fewer personal freedoms and led regimented days with timetabled activity on nearly every day. But at the time, the College was experimenting with allowing students more freedom and space to act independently. This included the new Corridor system.

The 1923 Ripon College Association magazine describes the success of this brand new system. Each student living at the College was allocated a Corridor in line with the location of their room. Named after local abbeys, each corridor had two prefects and students had the opportunity to win honours for their home corridor in a variety of disciplines.

Gaining honours

Students could gain honours for their corridor through:

• Inter-corridor sports events
• Drawing competitions
• Music competitions
• Drama productions
• Keeping their room clean and tidy
• Maintaining a clean and tidy Corridor space

Lurking talent has been ruthlessly dragged from its hiding and given a place in the light.

Ripon College Association Magazine, 1923

As the alumni magazine notes, the variety of ways to gain honours was to include as many students as possible. Each term the Corridor with the most honours was awarded a shield, a highly coveted award. But the physical corridors themselves weren’t new. Instead the original buildings had been renamed with a helpful explainer of new names and their use in the alumni magazine:

• Top College became Byland Corridor
• Lower College became Jervaulx Corridor
• Upper North and Short corridor became Fountains Corridor
• Lower North and East Wing became Bolton Corridor

The fact that the alumni magazine mentions this shows how involved past students were at the college, as many would visit throughout the year. Others would return for the large reunions which were held every few years for the entire alumnae community to re-connect. For example, in 1920 at the first reunion since the end of World War One, the 1920 alumni magazine reports: “There was present a student who entered college in 1864, there were students who entered in every year from 1870 onwards, an unbroken succession of 50 generations of students.”

Inside the classroom

Life started early for students in 1923. Breakfast was served at 8am and followed by a chapel service at 8:40am for those who wished to attend. On Sundays, religious worship was mandatory with students first attending the morning Cathedral service, then another at Holy Trinity before ending with an evening service in the Chapel. Hostel students were also expected to attend a place of worship on Sundays.

On weekdays, students then had morning lessons with an 11am lunch for the students who needed it before a 12:55pm dinner. Tea was served at 4:20pm with a supper at 8:15pm. Records suggest that these timings were adhered to even when out and about on excursions!

Part of their learning also involved school practise. Students needed to complete a minimum of 4 weeks teaching practise to pass their course. In first year, students used the College’s own practising school and the Cathedral Girl’s School. In second year, students went further afield, including York and Scarborough. Students would also visit various schools to see examples of best and worst practise.

A long wait for results

Students studied a range of subjects, but not often to the same level. Students could be put forward for more advanced exams to be awarded a higher lever of certificate. Everyone sat exams in general subjects and professional subjects, but had to pass both elements of their exams to become a Certificated Teacher. The Seniors who sat their final exams in 1923 achieved the following results:

• 10 passed with distinction
• 21 passed the advanced level with credit
• 77 passed the ordinary courses with credit
• Only 5 students failed their general subjects exams and just 1 student failed their professional subject exams
• Only 2 students failed both elements of their exams

These results show that the vast majority of students in 1923 passed their exams with credit, or were able to pass more advanced courses too. But unlike now, the students and College didn’t know this until the October after their exams, by which point many students will have already secured jobs!

Testimonials

Students were equipped with a personalised testimonial written by the principal to secure roles in the interim between taking exams and receiving their results. Like a reference you’d expect from your manager in 2023, each testimonial lists their positive attributes but it’s clear that some students were more highly regarded than others. Whilst some testimonials are succinct, stretching to just a couple of short paragraphs, others run to a whole A4 page detailing their positive attributes and contributions to College life.

But these testimonials read oddly to a modern eye. Although all emphasise the competence of their students (what else could they truly say?) some reveal that specific students will develop into good teachers over time, rather than already being good teachers. Others clearly state that they do well teaching specific demographics (such as the ability to teach in a boy’s school), whilst others fail to mention this information. Much like a reference today, what’s not said is just as important as what is mentioned. There are also frequent phrases which today seem out of place. Many are praised for they ‘loyalty to authority’, a phrase you wouldn’t expect to see in a modern teacher’s reference!

The Uncertificated

For those unlucky enough to be working as a teacher and discover they’d failed part of their exams, they had until January to notify their school and local authority. They could still work as a teacher, but were classed as an ‘Uncertificated Teacher’.

But all hope was not lost. Although they couldn’t resist the exact same exams, if they paid 10 shillings they could sit for a Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers in the summer. Each student who needed to retake exams would be sent an individual, personalised letter by the College detailing which exams they’d need to take. If they then passed their exams they would become a Certificated Teacher, although their teaching might be inspected as part of the process too.

Outside the classroom, literally

Today many prospective students want to know what they can do outside of the classroom. Our Student’s Union hosts several societies and sports clubs which many alumni will remember fondly. In 1923, students were also interested in what their life outside the classroom would look like. The alumni magazine faithfully recounts what was on offer for students, and although they didn’t have a Board Game Society or K-pop Dance club, students had more options than you might think!

Students could play four key sports, both for fun, against other College teams and as inter-corridor challenges:

• Hockey was an important sport for students. Annual Juniors vs Seniors matches were held as well as an inter-Corridor cup. In 1923, The Juniors won their match and Jervaulx won the Corridor cup.
• Netball was also important, especially as it had recently started being taught in schools. In 1923, netball was a very recent addition to both scheduled learning and leisure time. Unlike Hockey, there wasn’t a Corridor cup, but Fountains did win their matches that year!
• In the warmer months, students played tennis on the College’s courts. However in 1923, the magazine notes that many had been postponed because of the heavy rain, including inter-collegiate matches.
• Rounders was also another new innovation at the College. So new that summer Corridor matches hadn’t even happened yet! Originally students had played games of cricket in summer, but these were often very time consuming. Rounders had been trialed and enjoyed due to the shorter games.

Societies and day trips

Students could also join the following societies:

• The newly reformed Archaelogical Society which completed several excursions, including to York.
• The Musical Society which held a concert on 20 March and hosted the inter-Corridor competition on 24 May. Byland won with Rievaulx as runner-up.
• The French Club formed in 1923. Members read and performed French plays, played French language games and also told ghost stories (in French) at Halloween.
• The Peripatetic Society planned and held rambles in good weather. In poorer weather they held various talks about the countryside and nature.
• Seniors could also join the ominous sounding ‘Life Class’. This drawing class focused on life studies to improve students’ artwork.

If playing sports or joining an existing society didn’t appeal, students could also take part in other activities like the annual productions staged by each year group. Students could also plan and host College socials like Miss Mollie Smith and her friends did in 1923. The first social of the year, it included costumed drama, songs, sketches and piano solos in the newly refurbished Art Room. The alumni magazine reports it was enjoyed so much that students insisted it be mentioned in the magazine for prosperity!

The alumni magazine also reports various outings, usually by seniors to local towns and cities over the spring and summer months. Often organised by a society, these included trips to York, Markenfield Hall, Jervaulx Abbey and Richmond.

Fun in the winter months

Every year, students at Ripon College looked forward to a range of annual events. Many were College traditions that were given an annual twist each year.

On the first Saturday of December, the College held Old Students Day. Past students were welcomed back to play hockey against the current student team and enjoy a few other activities, including refreshments with current staff and students. For the first time, a netball match was also held in 1923. The College team won both matches.

At Christmas, students looked forward to end of year lectures on different subjects from staff. Although not quite what students would call fun in 2023, in 1923 these lectures widened students’ cultural understanding. The two lectures held by Canon Garrod (a previous principal) in 1923 titled ‘The Romance of Architecture’ explored Egyptian, Greek and Roman classical architecture before looking at local and regional architecture. Garrod used lantern slides, a way for students to see the fantastic works of ancient architecture he was describing. In a time when travelling abroad was much harder and more expensive, for many students this would have been the only way they could explore different countries.

With a Spring in their step

During Shrovetide (in the week before Lent begins) the College itself staged a dramatic performance for ‘those interested in the College’. Although the alumni magazine of 1923 doesn’t detail who watched the Shrovetide performances, it did say that everyone got involved, including the Principal!

Every year a different production was staged, and in 1923 it was the turn of a romantic comedy called ‘Mice and Men’ by Madeleine Lucette Ryley. No longer a popular play, in 2023 it seems an odd choice for a teacher training college to perform! In the supposed comedy an ageing philosopher adopts a foundling and raises her. He wants to explore if he can raise the perfect wife and plans to marry her once she was old enough. His plan is thwarted, not by the authorities or by moral qualms about marrying his dependant he’d partially raised, but because his nephew wants to marry her too. The philosopher eventually abandons his scheme so his nephew can marry her instead, comforted by the fact he succeeded in raising the perfect wife, just not for himself.

The Brimham Rocks picnic

After Easter students celebrated Ascension Day (40 days after Easter Sunday and the day Jesus ascends to heaven in the Bible) with an annual picnic. Despite recent bad weather, they travelled to Brimham Rocks by char-a-blanc, an early predecessor to the coaches we’re more familiar with in 2023. Usually roofless with only a thin fabric roof which had to be pulled up in bad weather (like a fabric convertible roof), char-a-blancs were a popular option for shorter trips to local destinations.

In 1923 the picnic at Brimham Rocks started well. Students and staff were ferried there in stages as there weren’t enough vehicles for everyone to go at once. Some students took part in guided tours, others guided themselves, but all sat down for a picnic. Unfortunately, the summer weather got worse and the final students waiting their turn to return were caught in a downpour. Like many holidaymakers today, the students of 1923 were not deterred by the rain! The alumni magazine reports they ‘found shelter in sitting room or outhouse or danced outside, regardless of the rain.’

Summer fun

Students also looked forward to two key summer events: the Midsummer Fete and Sports Day. The Midsummer Fete was a themed summer day, organised and held by the Juniors for the Seniors. Every year a different theme was chosen with costumes worn by everyone attending. In 2023, the Fete started with tea on the terrace before moving onto the tennis lawn. Students completed a treasure hunt around the grounds and enjoyed a game of clock-golf run by Principal Smith. Later, a social was held in the common room where the organisers were thanked for all their efforts.

Sports Day was a very different event. On 13 June 1923 the tennis courts were ‘thronged with girls in tunics’ competing against and with one another to win the most awards. Competitions included:

• Obstacle courses
• A dressing race
• Jack and Jill races
• A tug of war between the juniors and seniors. The seniors, unsurprisingly, won.
• A relay race between the juniors and seniors. Again, the seniors won.
• A Corridor race, won by Byland.
• A County race where teams were made of students from the same, or nearby counties. In 1923 the County race was won by a team made of students from Northumberland, Westmoreland and Nottingham.

Staff loyalty was rewarded

Even the most dry sounding documents can suggest something quite interesting. When researching 1923 at Ripon College, we came across a series of reports written by the principal about the Hostel. These are presumably either an account, or the welcome to each committee meeting. Alongside complaints about the building landlord not completing promised repairs, a problem many students today will be all too familiar with, these reports also detail quite an interesting fact: the domestic staff were not overlooked.

Across several reports at the start of the 1920s, Principal Smith motions for an increased wage for the Hostel matron Miss Savatard, despite her often not asking him to do so. In his own words, he claims that ‘only fair that the domestic staff should be considered’ when academic staff had recently received a pay rise. This suggests not just a purported fairness in outlook, but a system that saw worth in the work completed by all.

This thread was continued when in the late 1920s Miss Savatard moved to the College staff. Now a full-time teacher, records show that something must have triggered the flurry of notes, memos and letters sent on her behalf about her pension. Despite working at the Hostel for over 17 years, often in a teaching capacity, the Board of Education claimed that due to part of her job being ‘secretarial’, she was not entitled to a teacher’s pension. Over the course of several letters, memos and meetings, it was argued that her loyalty to the College should not be forgotten, and that her time at the Hostel might instead be seen as qualifying years for the pension.

But it wasn’t just Miss Savatard whose work was valued. In the October 1923 report there was a note about the Hostel cook. After 10 years service, they had left to undergo a ‘serious operation’ and was currently recovering. Smith notes that it felt necessary to thank her for her ‘loyalty’ and so she was gifted £15. In 2023, that £15 is equivalent to around £1160 in terms of spending power: not a bad leaving present!

The dormer window

In October 1922, Smith mentions that over summer they installed a dormer window in one of the small bedrooms at the Hostel. On the face of this, this does not seem unusual, except for the added detail that this was done in a maid’s bedroom as the original skylight leaked in bad weather making it ‘very difficult to keep bedclothes dry’. Smith went so far as to get the go ahead from the finance committee before proceeding, but did not wait for the next hostel committee to ensure it got done in good time.

Although this could merely have been to ensure the work was completed quickly, the added detail about making it difficult to keep her bed dry suggests the speed of the fix was also to improve her living conditions. If he had waited for the next committee, the repair would have been delayed until at least the Christmas holidays when the students returned home.

It is just one small mention, almost a throwaway account in the grand scheme of the rest of the meeting’s wrangling over other matters. But what it does do, is suggest that staff at every level were valued.

---

Equality and equity at a distance

At a distance of 100 years, determining whether our students had equality, equity or the exact opposite can at first seem straight forward. For example, women had gained the right to vote, but not on the same terms as men. It would be another 5 years until voting equality was achieved. Women also faced discrimination at almost level of public life, the repercussions of which are still being felt and mitigated today.

But, Ripon College was an equal opportunity for women to enter the teaching profession, equal to that of its once sister institution in York, St John’s College. It could even be argued that Ripon College at this time provided a chance of equity for its students.

The International Women’s Day website defines equity as ‘[recognising] that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resource and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.’ If the equal outcome in this instance was becoming a qualified teacher, the College helped women from different circumstances, with different abilities, to thrive. The College accounted for differences by:

• The Corridor system supported students to work together by acknowledging the importance of parallel contributions from students. All students had the opportunity to participate, irrespective of sporting ability, musical ability etc.
• Students were encouraged to expand their horizons with societies, trips and optional lectures. For some students, this might have been the first opportunity to truly begin building their cultural capital.
• Students had the chance to network with alumnae from their field during annual Old Students Days and regular reunions. Considering all the alumnae worked, had worked or had experience in the job market students were looking to enter, it’s probable alumnae were able to support students secure their first role.

A selective experience

However, it would be wrong to say that Ripon College provided equitable or even equal opportunities for all women. The College could not run without a team of domestic staff, many of whom will have been women with limited educational or career opportunities. For every Old Students event, hockey match or dance in the rain, there was an underpaid and undervalued member of domestic staff doing the washing.

The College’s application criteria also discounted many candidates who could not supply satisfactory character references due to the inherent privilege in being able to secure a reference from a trusted party. The character reference would also discount those who failed to fit the College’s, or perhaps the Principal’s, standard of womanhood. Likewise, the ability to pay the £5 fee (worth about £387 today) upon accepting their place, and the ability to afford to attend College were also factors that were not mitigated by the College at the time.

The Board of Education’s requirement that students had a medical certificate proving their literal fitness to teach will also have unnecessarily discounted students who today would be accepted onto courses, no questions asked. Moreover, although the Hostel provided space for students who were not part of the Church of England, in the early 1920s we could see no evidence of other religions being accepted to study at the Hostel. Photographic evidence from the early 1920s also shows a perceived lack of racial and cultural diversity at both student and staff level. Whether there was an intentional bias against applications from different demographics, we do not know. But it is a fact that has to be acknowledged.

Equity?

In 1923, our students in Ripon were not equal to their peers at St John’s College. A century later, our students are treated equally, but many women still face discrimination and gender bias throughout their life. Women who do not fit the view of ideal womanhood performed by students and staff in 1923 also experience discrimination because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability. For them, and all women, equality is not good enough. Equity, where an individual’s needs are understood, accommodated and actioned is the only way forward to finish the work started by women long before York St John was founded in 1841.

But that is a subject for the future, when in 2123 the future university considers its past. Now in 2023, York St John has been working towards gender equality for both staff and students for many years. This has included active work to decrease the gender pay gap, the introduction of equitable policies for those experiencing the menopause and ongoing work to make York St John a welcoming environment for all to study and work. There is more information about our policies and ongoing work available on our website.

---

This blog would not have been possible without the help of our fantastic team in the library and archives. You can find out more about their work on their blog.