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Goodbye to all that...

You are entering a construction site.

This is a project to explore the creation of an award-winning, internationally recognised "national treasure" - a specialised Archive and Study Centre established in 1989 by a small English charity; given into the care of a larger charity at the end of 2018; closed by that charity in late 2025, the collections dispersed and disposed of over the course of the first half of 2026.

It is primarily about what is involved in creating something which is realistically impossible, but thrives - how does that happen? - how do we create? But it begins back in the Fall of 2025, when there seemed a glimmer of possibility that if the Trustees of the larger charity and people in the wider world understood what it was that was being lost, there might be a reprieve, there might be a re-thinking. It then pivoted on the realities that that was not going to happen, to ask why. It is pivoting again to build an account - to do an accounting - of what it was that was created, as the larger charity and the world move on, and begin the process of forgetting.

Art work by Enla Fees This greeted visitors to the Archive and Study Centre website from its launch in 1997

The Author

Introduction to a Foreword (2026/03/15)

Foreword, February 27, 2026

PREFACE

Acknowledgements

Some notes and conventions

PART I: WHAT HAS BEEN LOST

I.1: A BEGINNING: Goodbye to all that

I.2: WHAT HAS BEEN LOST?

1. AN ECOSYSTEM

2. A SPECIALIST RESEARCH AND REFERENCE LIBRARY

1. Research Library: Acquisitions Policy (1999)
2. Building a Library: Every book that comes into the Library....comes with a story (2004)
3. Cascade of People: "In a Healthy Ecosystem, the Library Builds Itself"
4. Through the core sample, down the rabbit hole: two techniques for discovering the magic of an internationally used, unique research library
5. Short notes:
- People: Who is Bill Garner?
- People: Roland Meighan
- Seeking the Source (Personal Blog from 2011)
- "When I come in to work that night, I am stunned..."

3. MATHOM HOUSE: A STOREHOUSE OF PHYSICAL CULTURE, STORY AND MEMORY

1. A listing of objects, largely from memory (in progress)

2. A Brief Guide to the User's Room (c. 2004)

3. Case Study: "Course members were clear that they would like these symbolic reminders of their Therapeutic Child Care course to go to The Planned Environment Therapy Trust": The University of Reading Therapeutic Childcare Tea Chest

4. A TRADITION OF RESEARCHERS AND RESEARCH, WITH SPECIALIST ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE AND SUPPORT

5. A TOOL TO DEFEND, GROUND, EVIDENCE, SUPPORT, AND PROMOTE THE WORK, THE WORKERS, AND THOSE THEY WORK WITH AND FOR (One of those essential things which is not needed until the wind changes, which it does and which it will)

6. BELONGING

7. BELIEF (Trust, Belief, Hope)

8. POSSIBILTY

9. PROMISE (to the future)

10. The "We"

PART II: THE PLANNED ENVIRONMENT THERAPY TRUST, AND THE PLANNED ENVIRONMENT THERAPY TRUST ARCHIVE AND STUDY CENTRE

II.1: Context - background, history, and surrounding environment

II.2: The basic work of the Archive and Study Centre

Core functions

1. Archives

2. Oral History/Oral Archiving

3. Research Library

4. Museum

5. Information and Support Services

6. Everything Else

Core tasks

Welcoming, encouraging, developing and supporting users, researchers and research

Engagement: Active participation in the fields and communities the Archive intersected with

Community-building/ building mutual familiarity/ communication

Exploring, Accepting, Discovering, Demonstrating the possible

II.3: Everything Else

EVENTS and ACTIVITIES

- Archive Weekends (2004-2018)

1. "everybody was part of the experience" : The Performance Weekend 5th/6th March 2011 (Peter Still, Red Hill School)

- Seminars, conferences, workshops

5. "Wind Down the Week" Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy Event (2007)

- Common Roots

9. "Archives of Change, Archives for Change", May 2-3, 2019: Residential workshop funded by British Academy/Leverhulme Grant
A parting gift to the Mulberry Bush Organisation.
1. Note to accompany "Archives of Change, Archives for Change" (2019)

- Projects

- "Celebrating Memory: An oral history of the Society of Archivists and its Members"

7. "Therapeutic Living With Other People's Children: An oral history of residential therapeutic child care c. 1930-c. 1980" (2010-2011)

1. Handout at the Archives and Records Association Conference 2016: A quick guide to the 'Therapeutic Living' project

2 "Overview" to "Therapeutic Living With Other People's Children": statement of fundamental principles.

- The Oxford Project

- The Governors of HMP Grendon Project

COMMUNICATION

1. Newsletters

1. The Joint Newsletter (2001-2004) or, to give it its full, unrestrained title: The Joint Newsletter of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust, the Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities, and the Association of Therapeutic Communities, with the Community of Communities

1. A complete list of issues, with links to download (read, explore, enjoy)

Comes the Internet: Websites and Email Discussion Groups

Archive and Study Centre, Association of Therapeutic Communities, Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities, Cassel Hospital, Planned Environment Therapy Trust, Wennington School, Dennie Briggs: Living Archive, Caldecott Community, Therapeutic Community Open Forum/RadioTC International (2005-2018), Oxford Project, Society of Archivists Film and Sound Group

INSTITUTIONAL INVOLVEMENTS

Association of Therapeutic Communities

3. Association of Therapeutic Communities Administration (2002-2011/2012)

6. Institute for the History and Work of Therapeutic Environments (IHWTE) (est. 2007)

Child Care History Network (CCHN)

Society of Archivists Film and Sound Group

Oral History Society Regional Network

INFLUENCES

8. Solihull Alternative Provision Multi-Academy Trust