The Medical Room (circ 1920)

From the establishment of Bedford Physical Training College in 1903 through to 1945, students followed a curriculum geared to the needs of the gymnastics and games mistress that included the study of Massage and Remedial Gymnastics.  Students were entered for the examinations of the Chartered Society of Masseurs and Medical Gymnastics, a forerunner of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.  Following qualification, students were eligible (if they so wished) to practice therapeutic massage under the direction of a Registered Medical Practitioner rather than pursue a career in physical education.

The photograph shows the Medical Room where students practised treatments on voluntary patients drawn from the local community.  It is in a building that was the original College Gymnasium, which accounts for the presence of climbing bars on the walls and ropes hanging from the ceiling.  A new gymnasium was built in 1913-14 and the Medical Room became permanently established after this date.  

This photograph was taken sometime between 1914 and 1919 by P.A. Buchanan &Company from Croydon in Surrey.  Buchanan specialised in photographing schools, colleges and other institutions and turning the images into individual postcards and souvenir booklets.  We know that this particular photograph was part of a booklet originally containing 12 images showing the interior of several College rooms and buildings and was donated to the Archive by Ruth Montgomery of Set XIX (1920-1923).

It is interesting to note from studying photographs of the Medical Room taken in the 1920s through to the 1940s that its appearance hardly changed, even the ropes remained in place!

From BPEA HRef 7/1

BPEA HRef 7/1

Bedford Physical Training College Timetable 1910

This is the earliest surviving timetable and dates from 1910. It is interesting to see how busy their days were with very early starts at 08:30am. Actually, we know from an oral history interview with a student who attended the College in 1913 that the working day started at 7:15am in the Gymnasium with students practising the strength of the vocal commands. Morning lessons were on anatomy, physiology and gymnastics and games were mainly during the afternoons with hockey, lacrosse and netball in the winter or cricket and tennis in the summer. Swimming, fencing and dance were also part of the curriculum. Physiotherapy was an important element of the syllabus and included hands-on practicals with members of the public in the Gymnasium which was converted into a temporary medical room.  

Aside from extending the course of study from two to three years in 1917, the curriculum remained relatively unchanged until the late-1940s.  Thereafter, change becomes evident as educational institutions respond to government initiatives in the 1940s, 1960s and 1970s to reorganise and improve teacher training.

Timetables, syllabuses, regulations and examination schemes held in the Bedford Physical Education Archive are an informative source for the study of curriculum development in physical education studies in the twentieth century.

Timetable, 1910-1912
Ref. BPEA CURR 3/1

Untitled hand-painted programme: Cicely Read 1922

This hand-drawn and painted programme was created in 1922 by one of the college’s teaching staff, Cicely Read. Miss Read had been a student of the college herself and returned as a teacher in 1918; her name can be seen on the bottom left of the programme cover. Although the title remains a mystery we do know that it represented one of the ‘Entertainments’ that were an extracurricular part of college life throughout the 1920s and 30s, and the programmes were produced and decorated by hand.

‘Entertainments’ were not for public performances but were laid on either for Old Students during Holiday Week or (in the case of this programme) as light-hearted fun for the college. The college curriculum did not include Drama as a taught subject until the 1950s; indeed the students followed a rigorous timetable which left little time for leisure activities. We can surmise from the attention to detail present in the hand-drawn programmes that the students embraced the opportunity to perform these entertainments.

Reviewing the types of plays that were performed gives us an idea of the trends in popular entertainment of the time. Performances varied between recreations of existing plays and re-telling of traditional popular tales, to self-penned pieces, often parodying life in the college and serving as an insight into the characters and events of the day.

Untitled programme (1922)
Ref: BPEA  SOC 3/1/1

Volleyball trophy, 1981

This very distinctive wooden trophy of a dice mounted on a plinth, was won at the Hajraa Tournament in Holland.  The Hajraa tournament is an outdoor volleyball tournament played on grass, which was first held in 1979.  It has since become one of the largest outdoor volleyball tournaments in Europe, with 400 teams of different nationalities playing on more than 100 grounds.The tournament covers all abilities from recreational to premier league and is for men, women and mixed teams.  

This award is from 1981, when the tournament was about 80 teams and it is for 2nd place in women's 3rd class section.  In the same year, the Bedford Physical Education ladies' Volleyball team also won the Midlands Colleges Tournament and came second in the Ladies National League Division II. 

This trophy forms part of a collection of sporting trophies in the Bedford Physical Education archive and can be found in the archive at HRef 6/5/11. The trophies form an insight into the variety of sports played at the Bedford Physical Training College, with distinctions won in synchronized swimming, volleyball, hockey, water sports and cricket.

Trophy from the Hajraa Tournament - 2nd place in women's