Records of The Mount School, York

Records of The Mount School, including school regulation books, 1940-1947; minute book of York Girls School, 1784-1814; minute book of York Quarterly Meeting Girls’ School, later The Mount, 1830-1939; lists of school committee members, c.1880s, 1900-1901; school prospectuses, c.1784-1951; annual school reports, 1891-1956; school diaries and record books, 1881-1967; external inspections and reports on the school, c.1813-1953; financial records, including general ledgers, 1837-1949, pupils’ ledgers, 1831-1975, payment ledgers, 1930-1953, disbursement books, 1953-1958, cash books, 1849-1977, staff salary and pension records, 1906-1939, papers relating to scholarships and bursaries, including those funded by individuals, 1857-1991, papers relating to the Mount School Training Fund for Teachers, 1884-1939, papers relating to various school appeals, c.1856-1990, papers relating to school fees, c.1897-c.1990; estate records, including plans, 1889-1986, papers relating to the building of Centenary Hall, 1928-1934, the maintenance of property and utilities, 1903-1938, and related correspondence, 1914-1994; teaching records, including syllabus registers, 1901-1954, school timetable register, 1901-1921, subject registers, 1905-1944, reading records, 1934-1949, exam papers, 1857, 1909-1956, textbooks, 1865-1912; staff records, including headmistresses’ papers, 1807-2000, staff registers, 1926-1976, staff journal, 1836, correspondence and related papers, 1789, 1902-1987, and papers relating to the teacher training department, including prospectuses, c.1880-c.1900, lists of trainee teachers and posts held, 1880-1902, 1920-1930, and annual reports of The Association for Promoting the Training of Women Teachers, 1883-1932; pupil records, including admission registers, 1831-1943, annual lists of pupils, 1784-1944, bedroom registers, 1908-1974, class lists, 1902-1929, record cards, 1945-1961, exercise books, 1810-1959, sketchbooks and loose artwork, 1842-c.1972, exam papers, results, and awards, 1878-1956, leavers’ files, 1931-1958, head girl’s handbook, 1939-1941, papers relating to school societies, 1842-1989, programmes for plays, musical concerts and other entertainments, 1898-c.1956, Mount School song book, 1927, papers relating to school commemorative celebrations, including the School Jubilee, 1881, the School Centenary, 1931, the move to the Mount, 1957, school magazines, 1887-1967; pupils’ personal diaries, 1799-1949, scrap books and reminiscences, 1906-1914, and related correspondence, 1790-1958; photographs, 1827-2000.
Records of the Mount Junior School, including arrangement books, n.d., minute books, 1931-1936, prospectuses, c.1905-c.1930, staff recollections, 20th century, pupil admissions registers, 1901-1936, exercise books, c.1915, and The Mount Junior School Magazine, 1934-1937.
Records of the Mount Old Scholar Association, including annual reports, 1891-1991, registers of old scholars, 1931; old scholars’ magazines, 1887-1942, recollections, 1854-1969, centenary scrap book, 1981, and associated correspondence, 1968-2002.
Early Quaker material, primarily correspondence and journal extracts, 1658-1876; papers relating to prominent Quaker individuals, including Sarah Grubb and Lindley Murray, c.1786-1948; papers on the York meeting houses, 1925, 1981; poetic address to ‘those who compose the Tower Street School at York,’ 1810.
Additional uncatalogued material, including Mount School Remembrance Book, 1927-1929, and Nature Notebook, 1926-1927.

The origins of The Mount School can be traced back to 1785 when Esther Tuke, the wife of William Tuke, the founder of The Retreat, opened a Quaker girls’ school on Trinity Lane, Bishophill, York. Esther died in 1794 but in 1796 the school moved to a larger site on Tower Street, eventually closing in 1814 after a series of financial difficulties.
On 21 March 1831 another Quaker girls’ boarding school, the York Quarterly Meeting Girls' School, was opened in Castlegate. It shared a governing committee with the Quaker boarding school for boys in Lawrence Street, the predecessor to Bootham School. Initially the school was closed to non-Quakers and pupils not resident in Yorkshire, but by 1855 admissions were open to all and by 1865 the school had 42 pupils and 6 teachers. From c.1912 admissions were also opened to non-Quakers.
In 1856 the school relocated to Dalton Terrace on the Mount, opening a separate Junior School between 1901 and 1936. From 1836 the school had had its own department for teacher training and this department was expanded at Dalton Terrace, with additional scholarships and grants offered to trainees.
From 1914 the school began purchasing surrounding land and property for playing fields and additional staff and pupil accommodation. In 1931 the school celebrated its centenary with the opening of Centenary Hall and in 1955 a new science wing was added.
Today the Mount School is a Quaker-run, independent secondary school for girls with a separate Junior School named in honour of the first superintendent at its present site in 1857, Rachel Tregelles.

Records are open to the public, subject to the overriding provisions of relevant legislation, including data protection laws. 24 hours' notice is required to access photographic material.

The archive was first deposited at the Borthwick Institute by The Mount School in 1993. Further additions were made the archive by the school and by private individuals in 1994, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.

The origins of The Mount School can be traced back to 1785 when Esther Tuke, the wife of William Tuke, the founder of The Retreat, opened a Quaker girls’ school on Trinity Lane, Bishophill, York. Esther died in 1794 but in 1796 the school moved to a larger site on Tower Street, eventually closing in 1814 after a series of financial difficulties.
On 21 March 1831 another Quaker girls’ boarding school, the York Quarterly Meeting Girls' School, was opened in Castlegate. It shared a governing committee with the Quaker boarding school for boys in Lawrence Street, the predecessor to Bootham School. Initially the school was closed to non-Quakers and pupils not resident in Yorkshire, but by 1855 admissions were open to all and by 1865 the school had 42 pupils and 6 teachers. From c.1912 admissions were also opened to non-Quakers.
In 1856 the school relocated to Dalton Terrace on the Mount, opening a separate Junior School between 1901 and 1936. From 1836 the school had had its own department for teacher training and this department was expanded at Dalton Terrace, with additional scholarships and grants offered to trainees.
From 1914 the school began purchasing surrounding land and property for playing fields and additional staff and pupil accommodation. In 1931 the school celebrated its centenary with the opening of Centenary Hall and in 1955 a new science wing was added.
Today the Mount School is a Quaker-run, independent secondary school for girls with a separate Junior School named in honour of the first superintendent at its present site in 1857, Rachel Tregelles.

A typescript finding aid, to file level, is available for consultation in the searchroom of the Borthwick Institute. This includes all material received up to and including 2014. Later material has not yet been catalogued, please contact the Borthwick Institute for more information.

Original catalogue by Diane Hodgson. Created 29.05.15. Updated 27.07.16 to add 2016 uncatalogued accession to scope and content.

A reprographics service is available to researchers subject to the access restrictions outlined above. Copying will not be undertaken if there is any risk of damage to the document. Copies are supplied in accordance with the Borthwick Institute for Archives' terms and conditions for the supply of copies, and under provisions of any relevant copyright legislation. Permission to reproduce images of documents in the custody of the Borthwick Institute must be sought.

Further accruals are expected.

The Tuke Family Collection (Reference: TUKE) and the letters of Helen Grace Harvey and Margaret Harvey of Leeds (Reference: HARVEY) while they were pupils of The Mount School, York, c.1897-1899, are also deposited at the Borthwick Institute with some personal papers of former student Noni Jabavu (GB 193 SA/7).

Published

GB 193