A Glasgow Caledonian University 20th Anniversary Celebration: The Dough School in the 1950s and 1960s Wednesday 10 April 2013, 2.00pm to 4.00pm The Saltire Centre, Glasgow Caledonian University Presented by the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare The Dough School in the 1950s and 1960s 1 The Dough School in the 1950s and 1960s A Glasgow Caledonian University 20th Anniversary Celebration: The Dough School in the 1950s and 1960s In 2012 we began to examine the history of recollections noted down by attendees at the Domestic Science. We’d also like to thank the the Glasgow and West of Scotland College July coffee afternoon. alumni office which has generously facilitated of Domestic Science, known locally, and by this event, and our colleagues Carol Barry many of its alumni, as the ‘Dough School’. Taken alongside materials from the Institutional (Programme Leader for the current BA/BA This institution had its roots in the Glasgow Archive, these new interviews provide us for (Hons) Fashion Business Programme) and Dr School of Cookery, founded in 1875, and took the first time with an insider’s account of what Jennie Jackson (Lecturer in Human Nutrition its name following a merger with the West End life was like for the students of the Dough and Dietetics) for their assistance with today’s School of Cookery in 1908. In 1975, the College School in the 1950s and 1960s. Interviewees events. We are very grateful to Lindsey Becket adopted the name of Queen’s College, and in recalled the demanding, wide-ranging nature at DARO for allowing us to reproduce part 1993 it merged with Glasgow Polytechnic to of the courses they studied and the strict of an interview that she did with Phyllida form Glasgow Caledonian University. discipline of the College. However, they also Law, Scottish Actress, author and mother of brought to light memories of friendship, Emma and Sophie Thompson, who was also We focused on the experiences of women who mishaps - and rule bending! In an era when an ex-student of the Dough School. The full had studied at the Dough School in the 1950s women’s work within the home was prized, the interview can be read in the April 2013 edition and 1960s. Following a coffee afternoon with courses offered by the Dough School enabled of the Alumni Magazine. Funding from the alumni from this era in July 2012, we carried many women to apply scientific knowledge Wellcome Trust and DARO has supported this out a series of oral history interviews with relating to diet and nutrition to everyday life in event. Above all, we would like to thank all the former students, in which our respondents a wide range of careers. alumni who attended the coffee afternoon last reflected on their decision to study at the July, who generously contributed their time to College; their experiences while students of the We would like to warmly thank the University’s tell us about their experiences, who brought Dough School, and their subsequent careers. archivist Carole McCallum for her assistance, in items they had made as students, or who These interviews, which will be added to the knowledge and enthusiasm for the project. have previously contributed to the archival Glasgow Caledonian University Institutional Carole is the co-author (alongside Willie collections. Without you, there would be no Archive, form the basis of this leaflet and Thompson) of Glasgow Caledonian University: exhibition! the accompanying exhibition, ‘A Glasgow Its Origins and Evolution, and we recommend Caledonian University 20th Anniversary this richly detailed account if you would Dr Vicky Long and Rhona Blincow, Centre for Celebration: The Dough School in the 1950s like to know more about the history of the the Social History of Health and Healthcare, and 1960s’. We have also drawn upon Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Glasgow Caledonian University, April 2013. ‘ It was very special. If you’d said ‘Dough School’ to half of Scotland, they knew what you were talking about.’ Anna Johnstone Brighter futures begin with GCU 2 The Dough School in the 1950s and 1960s ‘ It was thought that you would have this career until you got married.’ Jessie Vivers Introduction infant mortality rate. The establishment of the would have this career until you got married.’ In the second half of the nineteenth century, Glasgow School of Cookery and the rival West ‘Somebody actually said to my father, “Why Glasgow faced a number of health problems. A End School of Cookery was in part a response are you bothering educating a girl? She’ll get rapidly growing population led to overcrowding to the poor health of many of the city’s married”’, recalled Ann Marshall. ‘Fortunately’, in inner-city areas which, combined with inhabitants, for both schools envisaged that she observed, ‘I had enlightened parents!’ inadequate sanitation, fuelled outbreaks of they could improve the city’s health records epidemic disease and led to a heightened by educating working-class women about Studying at the Dough School diet and nutrition. Both institutions rapidly Our interviewees’ experience of the Dough expanded their functions to include the training School typically commenced with an of domestic science teachers. In 1919, the interview for their course. Many recalled College moved to new premises on Park Drive. being interviewed by Miss Gibson, Principal In the interwar years it provided certificate of the College between 1947 and 1962, whom and diploma courses for women aspiring to Margaret Howie remembered as ‘very gentile’. become housekeepers, domestic science Their motivations for applying to the College teachers, laundresses, domestic servants, were mixed. Susan Duffy explained that ‘to dieticians, cooks and dressmakers. go into a career such as teaching and to go to Dough School had quite a high status...I Following the cessation of the Second World was living Mum’s dream!’ A number of our War, reconstruction policies sought to respondents, like Duffy, commented on the tackle housing shortages and slum housing College’s prestigious reputation, noting that it conditions, and to redress Glasgow’s poor was viewed almost as a finishing school. For health record. In the aftermath of the War, some, studying at the College was a stepping women’s domestic roles as housewife stone to their desired career or a compromise: and mother were idealised. Their working Anna Johnstone, for example, wanted to be careers received less attention, as it was a dietician, while Jessie Vivers had hoped to often assumed that women would leave the become a PE teacher. workforce for good when they married. Jessie Miss Gibson Vivers recalled, ‘It was thought that you However, the personal factor was also ‘ Somebody actually said to my father, Why are you bothering educating a girl? She’ll get married, Fortunately, I had enlightened parents!’ Ann Marshall 3 The Dough School in the 1950s and 1960s ‘ We were called by our surnames.’ Sheila Dunbar had Anna Johnstone’s mother and aunts. the College’s courses and the emphasis upon Other interviewees were urged to go by perfection provided a training which equipped family members who had wanted to study them for life. Fiona Weir, Catherine Taylor and at the Dough School, but had not had the Jan Douglas believed that the course imparted opportunity. ‘My mother had a frustrated ‘great transferable skills which we have all ambition to go to Dough School’, Sheila used in our careers’. ‘Dough School gave us Dunbar explained, ‘so she brainwashed me into great standards’, they concluded. Rigorous thinking it was a good idea!’ scientific content was embedded within many of the College’s courses. Susan Duffy explained In this era, the College’s teaching provision how she ‘developed a love of science from focussed on courses in domestic science, the course. We had a super science teacher, needlework, institutional management and Miss King…and she really introduced (me) dietetics. In the mid-1950s, students could to science, to chemistry, biology, anatomy, study cookery, laundry work, housewifery, physiology…and I absolutely adored these needlework and science in relation to subjects.’ However, the education provided domestic science for the three year Diploma to students was frequently practical and I course, or needlework, dressmaking and applied: Jean Macfarlane and Alice MacMillan tailoring, millinery and crafts, textiles, art remembered studying home plumbing and the and embroidery for Diploma II. The four year efficiency of a kettle during their course, and Diploma III course combined aspects of achieving the Electricity for Women Certificate. Diplomas I and II. In 1961, a new three-year Students also received practical experience of College Prospectus 1949-1950 diploma course in institutional management household management by making beds and was added to the curriculum, and over the cleaning toilets in the student hostel (this latter significant. A number of interviewees were course of the 1960s the certificate courses task, unsurprisingly, was not a popular chore!). inspired to apply because family members offered by the College were removed from the Learning was equally rigorous on the Diploma or teachers had studied there before them. curriculum. II course, where graduates recalled having Jan Winch’s mother and grandmother to collect a specified number of garments in had both studied at the Dough School, as Many graduates believed that the breadth of different colours and fabrics for their laundry ‘ My mother had a frustrated ambition to go to Dough School, so she brainwashed me into thinking it was a good idea!’ Sheila Dunbar Brighter futures begin with GCU 4 The Dough School in the 1950s and 1960s ‘ We had a super science teacher, Miss King…and she really introduced (me) to science, to chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology…and I absolutely adored these subjects.’ Susan Duffy classes which had to be ‘displayed artistically’ while Jean Macfarlane and Alice McMillan learning the copious notes on cookery theory after rinsing in seven basins of water in which described the experience as an ‘extension and nutrition theory’.