Personal Papers of Sheila Nevell

The papers comprise material relating to the Marsden Bay Camps and Girton Guides. The camps were run for three years (1937-39) by a group of Girtonians for the wives of long-term unemployed Durham miners. Cambridge men ran work-camps for the Durham men, but the Girton-run camps were intended to give the women a holiday break. Included are three Marsden Camp 'magazines', one for each year of the Camps' life, as well as 3 group photographs of women on the camp, 1 photo of country dancing and 1 photo of an elderly camp member sitting on steps smoking a clay pipe (the photos are undated). There are also photographs and postcards of a Cambridge student skiing trip to Oberstdorf, Germany, Christmas 1937, and a reunion the following summer. The group, which was probably that which organised the Marsden Camps, stayed at the Peter and Wendy Haus, of which there is a postcard. There are also two album pages with photographs of the Backs and Emily Davies Court, summer 1936 and Girton Guide Club Camp, Easter 1938, as well as a loose photo of Merton House, Grantchester where the 1st Grantchester Guides met in an outhouse 1935-38. With the above is a letter from Sheila Nevell to Patricia Acres with details of the Marsden Camps, 18 November 2003.

Sheila Nevell (known as 'Nev') was born in Catford and educated at the Mary Datchelor School, London. She came to Girton with a College Scholarship to read Mathematics 1935-38 (BA 1938). After obtaining a London Teachers' Diploma in 1939, she went on to teach Maths in London and Sussex, including the Mary Datchelor School 1946-58, Hove County Grammar School 1958-71, and her last appointment, Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Girls' School 1975-82. Sheila Nevell has had a life-long active interest in the Girl Guide movement and in voluntary social work. She was a qualified member of the Guide International Service.

Please cite as Girton College Archive, Cambridge, Personal Papers of Sheila Nevell, GCPP Nevell

The material was given to Alison Duke by Sheila Nevell in 2003 with the possibility that it might be of interest to the Girton Archive. Patricia Acres sent it to the Archive when she found it in Alison Duke's house later in the year.

As at Sep 2008 an online catalogue was available at http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/

Collection Description taken from JANUS in Sep 2008 as part of Genesis 2008 Project

There is also material about the Marsden bay Camps in the papers of Alison Duke (uncatalogued at June 2005).