The Heritage Builds Bridges Project team based at Brunel University were invited by the Alumni Office to attend the reunion of former students of the Maria Grey and Borough Road Colleges. The event was intended as an introduction to the University’s modernist Uxbridge Campus, which has had £250 million invested in the development of its infrastructure. The former Maria Grey College campus (part of Brunel University from 1995) at Gordon House in Twickenham was closed in August 2005 and the Borough Road College base (also Brunel University from 1995) at Osterley is due for closure at the end of August 2006. The involvement of former students and their part in the University’s continuing success was reiterated throughout the event. Talks from a ‘Class of 1940’ Borough Road man and the Pro-Vice Chancellor Development, a delicious lunch and a variety of beverages all helped the day go with a swing.
The HBB team mounted a display illustrating the Project collections and featuring Maria Grey and Borough Road colleges’ archival material. Of particular interest were the printed copies of class photographs dating from the 1940s to the 1970s, at approximately 1 metre in length. These were distributed around tables to the great delight of those who could spot themselves, friends, former teachers and ‘old flames’! Some attendees had brought archival material with them to donate to Brunel University Archive & Records Centre, and two gentlemen spent a long time with a magnifying glass peering at a class photograph in order to distinguish which year it had been taken. Others were able to put names to faces and all were pleased that the archives of their time at the Colleges were of value to the University and would be accessible for the future through the work of the Project.