We have a large quantity of Archive material
Peter Woodman has built a storage facility in his garden
to store this material

Inside of Storage Facility
Click for larger picture
The room contains numerous documents and other items. The facility can be viewed by arrangement with Peter.

The catalogue of archive documents can be viewed by clicking on this link

The Old Philologian archive is contained in 13 boxes, now stored in one of my garden sheds. Each item is numbered and at present there are 977 items listed in an Index. The Index is kept up to date as and when additional items are added to the Archive. For example, Item 977 was donated on Sunday September 1st 2024, during the Old Philologian Reunion and barbeque at Forest Green. Coming from the estate of the late Rory Hands, it consists of hand-written records of the Debating Society from between 1922 and 1928. The earliest of those debates were presided over by the former headmaster G.S.Penney, who was tried for murdering his daughter in 1923, found guilty but insane and sent to Broadmoor. Additionally, there is a school form register covering the 1944 and 1945 terms in which the names of Vic Harding and Gerald Margolis are recorded.

Since I took over as Archivist and collected the archived material from Brian Saperia in July 2022, I have constructed a timber framework to support the archive boxes. There have been several new items donated and it includes a blazer and caps from a deceased member of the Old Philologian Cricket Club.

The oldest item is a hand-written ledger, listing the names of pupils from 1828. There are many photographs, including some taken while the school was evacuated to Redruth in 1939. The oldest photographs are of school masters in the late 1870s. The include Abbott, Houseman and Moore, after whom three of the five School House were named. If any Old Philologian would like to view the Archive in Bishopstone, near Seaford, East Sussex, that can be arranged by contacting Peter Woodman at petshel@talktalk.net.