PETT End of Year Newsletter
Welcome to 2009!
We
thought you might like to have some news about what has been
happening at Barns Centre over the past eighteen months or so. As the
word spreads, the facilities here are enjoyed by many more people,
visitors, researchers, friends and groups.
In
the summer of 2007 the place was buzzing with a large group of young
children from the Czech Republic who had come to the UK for a
language-learning holiday.
Later
that year, a family made homeless by the terrible flooding in
Tewkesbury took refuge in the self-contained flat in Barns House for
7 or 8 weeks.
This
spring a group of people again came to stay for the Cheltenham Gold
Cup week. They travelled to and from the Race Course on the GWR steam
railway which runs from Toddington to Cheltenham, with glasses of
champagne provided as part of the package!
Other
visiting groups have included a men’s group from Nottingham, an
international team of missionaries, the British School of Shiatsu-Do,
a Buddhist retreat and courses in Yoga and Tai Chi. The local Quakers
had an Away Day here, and we provided a meeting place for the College
of Sound Healing, the Christadelphians, and the Independent
Practitioners Network to name but a few. This does not include the
various professional groups and conferences that have met here over
the year, mentioned later.
One
or two Research Students have become almost part of the place over
the year. Elaine Boyling, doing a PhD at the University of
Birmingham, is helping to write the history of a Quaker community,
inspired by an article by David Wills. Jonathan Toms is a Wellcome
Institute Fellow and post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for
the History of Medicine at the University of Warwick. He is currently
researching aspects of mid-twentieth century British psychiatric
social work and therapeutic communities. Teri Chettiar, a researcher
from Canada who arrived here in September, is gathering material for
a PhD to do with the influence of pioneering therapeutic communities
in Britain after World War II on NHS psychiatric practice.
Roger
continues to keep the buildings and grounds in good shape, planting
new trees and shrubs and keeping an eye on crucial areas like drains.
We now have a splendid new toilet off the main meeting room, and new
carpeting in the entrance hall. Sheila’s oversight of the
increasingly acclaimed cooking makes an enormous contribution to what
the Barns Centre has to offer.
Other
Trust Developments
One
of the major developments of the past two years has been the
inception of the IHWTE - to give it is full title, "The
Institute for the History and Work of Therapeutic Environments is a
designated research and study centre of the University of Birmingham
in partnership with the Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive,
Research and Study Centre, and based at the Planned Environment
Therapy Trust, Church Lane, Toddington, Cheltenham, Glos. GL54 5DQ."
Next
year, 2009, is the 20th
anniversary of the Archive and Study Centre. Indeed, we have already
passed the anniversary of the conversations between John Cross and
Robert Laslett which led to its foundation. Everyone knows the
importance: once there is a place where the memory of a field or
community can be held, its landscape is changed forever, and it can
never entirely disappear. 2009 offers us a chance to reflect on the
developments we have seen since 1989; the role of this strange and
unexpected thing in them; and to dream of the changes which it can
help to make possible over the next twenty years.
In
conjunction with the Mulberry Bush, we have instigated a series of
Therapeutic Child Care Workshops at the Centre, the first three of
which have been very successful. PETT is also associated with the
University of Reading’s Continuing Professional Development
workshops, five in 2009 to be held at the University, entitled
“Developing
Therapeutic Practice in Relationship Work”.
Elaine
Boyling's ongoing PhD research, and now a bequest from the family of
the late Dr. Richard Crocket which will enable us to launch a second
PhD on Dr Crocket, the Ingrebourne Centre therapeutic community, and
his times; the listing of the Harold Bridger archives, and the taking
of a first for her thesis based on material in them by Ravinder Kaur
of the Medical School at Birmingham; events held at the Barns Centre
included a major conference at the end of 2007 ("If it works…"),
a significant seminar by IHWTE Fellow Andrea Wheeler "Sustainability
and Therapeutic Environments", and the foundation and inaugural
conference of the Child Care History Network, now also based at PETT;
seven papers on therapeutic communities presented at the Oral History
Society's Annual two-day Conference in Birmingham in July; an active
IHWTE Fellowship programme; a new research grant on Northfield
Experiment pioneer John Rickman. More – much more - in the offing.
Meanwhile,
our friends from the Wennington School Old Scholars Association have
spent another Archive Weekend with us, adding to our resources while
working on their records. The Caldecott Association have had one as
well. There have been 59 archive and library accessions, and the oral
history programme has continued to grow. We hosted the Oral History
Society Regional Network's Annual Event, with oral history projects
coming from Bristol to Warwickshire to take part. Visitors from as
far away as New Zealand and Japan, and as close as Belgium and
Ireland. Queries by email, letter and phone. In short, it's business
as usual: Exciting times!
Joining
our Trustees (Cynthia Cross, Chairman, John Cross, Alan Fox, Jeremy
Harvey, Bob Hinshelwood, Kevin Healy, Rosemary Lilley, Linnet McMahon
and Rich Rollinson) we have recently been pleased to recruit John
Moorhouse and John Whitwell.
Every
good wish for Christmas and the New Year from the Barns Centre Team
John
Cross, Craig Fees, Helen Frye, Sheila Graham, Roger Jackson, Jo
Jansen, Maureen Ward and Morgan Woodland
