Theatre history of all-female teaching college on display
- Published
A production of King Lear took place at the college in 1892
The history of theatre and performance at England's first non-denominational teacher training college for women has gone on display.
The exhibition at Edge Hill University showcases material from performances by all-female casts dating back to the 1890s.
Handwritten programmes, photographs and recreations of costumes feature.
"Students lives were very regimented, this was a real release for them," Roy Bayfield, display organiser, said.
"Even through the First World War and the Spanish flu epidemic, they still found time to celebrate the arts," he added.
Productions featured all females casts
Mr Bayfield, who is studying an MA in Nineteenth Century Studies at the university, said: "The principal at the time, Sarah Jane Hale, took a huge interest in it and there were lots of different reasons why it was such a big part of life at Edge Hill.
"Some of it was fundraising to support charities and they also entertained visiting soldiers."
The university's roots date back to 1885 when Edge Hill College opened in Liverpool as a specialist institution with 41 female trainee teachers.
The original institution building in Durning Road, Liverpool was destroyed in a German bombing raid which killed 166 people in November 1940.
A production of Macbeth took place at the college between 1914-16
Now a university and based in Ormskirk, it has about 18,000 students.
"The early years of Edge Hill featured extensive, frequent, and diverse performance work, for a variety of purposes," Arts Centre Manager, Dr Cathy Butterworth, said.
"Now more than 135 years later, theatre and performance remain integral to student life at Edge Hill."
Archivist Dan Copley said there had always been "a rich culture of the arts" at the educational institution.
"These archive materials do a fantastic job of bringing the past to life for a new audience, giving us a real flavour of how creative and inspired students' productions were," he added.
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