Auction
St Elphin's School, sadly, closed down in 2005 with virtually no notice given to pupils, teachers, staff or parents. An auction was held at the school on 16th April, 2005 – Fidler Taylor were the auctioneers handling the sale. We have managed to obtain a 'Sale at Short Notice' brochure of the items in the auction – click here to see the full list. I would like to obtain photographs of the various items if they are tracked down.

Derbyshire Record Office
Derbyshire Record Office, based in Matlock, have quite a large selection of material in their Archives and they have kindly agreed for us to publish a list on this website. Any items not available for public viewing are marked with a 'X'. If you wish to view any of the other items at the Derbyshire Record Office then just contact them here. We have tried to group the items into subjects for easier reference.

St Elphin's Archives
"In my twenty three years with St. Elphin’s, I was the first and last ‘School Archivist’, tracking down valuable documents, housed at first in a small cupboard, later filling Matron’s Laundry, in the attics of ‘Hill View’. We had archive displays on special occasions – they were viewed by the Duchess of Kent on the 150th anniversary. They were used for research and we had visits from archive societies. One researcher, adopted at birth, saw her real mother for the first time on school photos.

On the day the school finished, I was granted permission to remove the archives but was initially prevented from taking them all to the County Records’ Office and some items were sold privately, not at the main school sale. Eventually, I lodged a proportion of my collection in Matlock, preserved as an interesting reflection of the life and history of the school.

In addition, I secured confidential bursar’s records/governors’ minutes, stored in concealed cupboards, now also lodged with the other archives. 

Past pupils occasionally left papers and memorabilia to the school and former colleagues intend to leave their private archives to Derbyshire Records’ Office, as a sure way of saving such invaluable information. Please follow suit with yours.

One never knows what life will hold! Gathering archives, alongside full-time English teaching – and many other roles - was an exhilarating challenge. It has certainly proved worthwhile today."
Ann Hodgson

There are also items in locations other than Derbyshire Record Office. As, and when, these are located we shall add a sub-section to this page. These items may, of course, not be available for viewing but it would be interesting to see what items are still in existence from the school.

X = Not available for public viewing

Anyone wishing to view any of the above items which are available for public consultation, should contact the Derbyshire Record Office.

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