In this section
Archive
In this section
The King Henry VIII School Jeff Vent Memorial Archive
The School Archive is, in a sense, as old as the school because it contains documents and artefacts dating back to its foundation in 1545. It has, however, only recently found a home following the death in 2010 of former teacher, Jeff Vent MBE, and his bequest to the school which enabled its construction.
Some of our artefacts have their own mythology, for example a priceless cricket stump found down the back of a chair in the staff room and the survival of only four pages of a 15th Century book following a 19th Century book sale. The collection includes minutes of governors’ meetings, the Headmaster’s wartime correspondence, bits of school uniform, oil paintings, misericords, pupil records, school magazines and thousands of photographs.
In its digital manifestation, we aim to make our most popular artefacts more widely available. A dedicated team of retired staff have been working for several years now to catalogue the contents of the Archive and, as suitable material becomes available, it will be scanned and added to this page.
Please do not hesitate to contact the School Archivist if you would like to arrange to inspect an artefact, or if you have any queries regarding the history of the school.
Helen Cooper
School Librarian & Archivist
hcooper@bkhs.org.uk
