Records of the Lamb Guildhouse Association

The documents record the educational and social activities of the Lamb Guildhouse from the late 1930s to the late 1980s. Several of the record series are incomplete i.e. the minutes of the Guildhouse (DEM/2/1) and the series of circulars (DEM/2/3). The notices and programmes of the Lambs' activities are fullest for the 1950s and 1960s (DEM/2/7). The Lamb's social activities, particularly trips made within Britain and abroad are comprehensively documented in the cuttings books from the late 1960s to the early 1990s (DEM/2/5); earlier foreign trips are recorded in several photo albums (DEM/2/6). The administrative files (DEM/2/8) include material on the merger between the Lamb Guildhouse and the Holly Royde Association, and documents relating to various Guild activities.

The Lamb Guildhouse Association was a private association set up in 1938 to promote adult education through lectures, conferences and field trips. The Association was originally based at Denzell House in Bowdon, Cheshire, which had been donated by Miss Sybil Lamb (The name of the association was a play on her surname). The Association's work was soon curtailed by the outbreak of war, when Denzell House was requisitioned. The Association found other temporary accommodation in Bowdon. In the post-war period, the Lamb Guildhouse became closely associated with Holly Royde College, the Department of Extra-Mural Education's residential college in south Manchester. Holly Royde had been an education centre for the armed services participating in courses run by the Manchester Regional Committee for Adult Education in H.M. Forces (see DEM/3). By 1950, it was being used for civilian adult education and the Lamb Guildhouse, probably its most frequent users, treated it as an unofficial headquarters. A certain number of weekends were given over to the Association each year at Holly Royde. The Lambs (as they were known) also organised a number of foreign study tours in the 1950s and 1960s, including a tour of Sardinia in 1956. In 1967 the LGA merged with the Holly Royde Association to form the Lamb Guild of Holly Royde. For most of its period of existence the Guild enjoyed a membership of over two hundred, who were noted for their loyalty to the association. The Lamb Guild of Holly Royde appears to have come to an end some time in the mid-1990s, probably around the time that Holly Royde was sold off for property development.

The records are arranged into the following series:

• DEM/2/1 Minutes
• DEM/2/2 Rulebooks
• DEM/2/3 Circulars
• DEM/2/4 Promotional literature
• DEM/2/5 Cuttings Books
• DEM/2/6 Photo Albums
• DEM/2/7 Programmes and Notices
• DEM/2/8 Administrative files
• DEM/2/9 Other Documents