Archives

Did you know that St Andrew's did not have its English Cathedral houses until 1953? Indeed, we only had three houses to begin with - Canterbury, Salisbury and York -  and slowly picked up more as we expanded. We often assume that aspects of our School which exist in 2025, have always been there. This is not always the case.  

Details about the School and the record of when things changed (or indeed stayed the same), are why archives are important. Archives are the memory centre of any institution, no matter its age or size. Every institution needs to know what it has done in the past, and why it was done. 

Archival collections, like that owned by our School, are essential for schools to understand themselves and their history in order to be accountable for what they have done and will do. While archives store material from the past, authentic archives are also focused on the future. We do not just store memory, but also control how they are brought forward into the present day. 

Despite this, no archival records come about by themselves. They are organised and processed through the tireless efforts of archivists and related staff everywhere. We cannot do the work we do without the generous donations of community members, especially the Old Andreans who have passed through these doors for more than 140 years.