Traditionally Untraditional - St Cuthbert's Society 1888-2003

We’ve always been untraditional. It’s an old tradition.

When Cuthbert’s students strung a banner across the Bailey last year proclaiming the “Traditionally Untraditional” nature of the Society, nearly everyone was convinced that the sentiment was spot on. Yet few would have realised just how long this had been so. For Cuthbert’s has merited the description ever since it was founded. The evidence is crammed into a new book---an account of the Society’s fortunes over 115 years by the late Bernard Robertson, twice Principal of the Society (1999-2001) and (2002-03). The book’s title is, not surprisingly, ‘Traditionally Untraditional’ and sub-titled ‘St Cuthbert’s Society 1988-2003.’ It has just been published by St. Cuthbert’s Association (of former members). It is the first broad review of the Society in the 35 years since Henry Tudor’s centenary history.

Bernard Robertson was Cuthbert’s through and through---as undergraduate, boat club coach, tutor, development officer and Vice-Principal before serving two terms as Principal. He paints a vivid picture of the Society’s hand-to-mouth existence from 1888 right through to the 1950s.

The Society was set up by a group of ‘Unattached’ students, allowed by the University to attend lectures and take exams but were not members of the two recognised institutions, University College and Hatfield Hall. So Cuth’s was not created by the University----who also had very little to do with the refounding of the organisation after the dormant years of the Second Word War. A group of returning ex-servicemen revived and ran it. The University was still referring to Cuthbert’s as the Unattached in 1951 when providing the Society with its first real premises at 12, South Bailey. Cuthbert’s long-standing antipathy to collegiate status was hardly surprising.

By the 1960s, “winds of change” had begun to blow down the Bailey as Cuthbert’s took in ever increasing numbers of students, including women from 1969, and made unceasing and desperate efforts to house them through a growing property portfolio. Despite shoestring budgets, the dedication of successive Principals and a loyal and enthusiastic staff kept things going through the 1970s and 1980s.

Despite St Cuthbert’s growing role in helping the University to expand its numbers, successive Principals had to fight rear-guard actions as changes in the University’s management and funding arrangements threatened to close down the Society---and spread existing members around the colleges! It was not until the late 1990s that the University tacitly accepted that its largest institution was here to stay.

From 1989, Bernard Robertson was at the centre of St. Cuthbert’s affairs. As deputy to Sam Stoker, as Principal and as administrator to his successor Dave Robson, Bernard initiated, developed or presided over measures to improve pastoral and welfare services; enhance student participation in Society affairs; minimise budget deficits; increase accommodation spaces and improve standards; and meet University changes in its management structures and governance requirements. In tandem, Bernard and his colleagues pressed for a major residential building, recognising that piecemeal property additions could not solve an accommodation problem which was rapidly becoming insoluble.

Throughout its first 115 years, collegiate status had not seemed relevant or attractive to an organisation which was the natural home for mature students and those living at home. Once Parsons Field House became habitable, greatly increased income from student fees and University management changes set Cuthbert’s on course to become a full college of Durham University. Messrs, Stoker, Robertson and Robson laid the foundations of the modern-day St Cuthbert’s.

After Bernard died in 2017, former President ‘Mark’ Rowland edited his drafts and introduced extensive photographic content and members’ recollections. He has added supplementary material from Cuthbert’s stalwarts ---on members killed in the Great War, on undergraduate life in the 1950s, on the atmosphere prevailing in the swinging sixties, and on combatting successive accommodation crises.

The JCR website boasts a complementary view of an Untraditional Society, proclaiming “Once Cuth’s, forever Cuth’s.” Bernard Robertson would have approved.

‘Traditionally Untraditional’ is priced at £13 plus £2.70 for post and packing. To purchase a copy, please follow the instructions on this form: https://forms.gle/EBxfTQDg5oEfu2f4A