Contents of the School Resource Pack

There are two contents lists in the box. One is an undated handwritten list, on foolscap paper, presumably written by John Figg. The other is a properly printed flyer advertising the final version of the school resource, which “is a development of the pack produced by the Centre in 1972 under the guidance of teachers, […] which has been on trial and in use in schools”.

John Figg’s handwritten contents sheet


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Missing items and my editorial comments are denoted between square brackets in the transcript below. Each item has a tick against it on the right-hand side of the sheet, except for item 8. John Figg's punctuation is shown.

Exeter Cathedral Study Unit.

Contents.

1. Teacher’s Handbook containing:-

[The teacher’s handbook and all the items listed are missing. There is a probable equivalent of the ‘Books for Further Reading’, in the form of a bound booklet called ‘Reference Books’].

Check list of Items in Unit
Details of Information Cards.
" " Cathedral Documents
" " Tape Recordings
" " Slides.
" " Supplementary Slides.
Index
Books for Further Reading

2. 34 Information Cards – Details in teacher’s handbook Page 4.

3. 35 [35 crossed out] 14 Facsimile Documents + 3 Booklets “Notes and Transcripts of Documents” [with written above this] “  “ [Details in teacher’s handbook] Page 5.

[All the documents are present, but there are only 2 booklets in the box. Their title is also different from the contents list: ‘Exeter Cathedral Documents. Notes and Transcripts.’]

4. 1 x Brass Rubbing (The Langton Brass)

5. 1 x Folder containing 3 reproductions of newspaper accounts of bombing.

6. 3 x Booklets – “The bombing of Exeter”. [missing from the box]

7. 1 x Architectural Plan of Cathedral.

8. 1 x Pad of 40 plans for pupil use. [and written on the right-hand side of the page instead of the usual tick is] 27 -13 [with 13 in a circle] [22 plans are currently present in the box]

9. 3 x Pupil’s Index of Tape Contents.

10. 1 x Copy of Cathedral Services for a week.

11. Slide Catalogue (each slide 10p in colour). [3 copies present in the box]

12. Tape 1. Talks with Cathedral Staff.

13. Tape 2. Cathedral Choir.

14. Tape 3. Marriage and Baptism.

15. Booklet – The Testament Sculptures [missing]

16. 8 x Preliminary work sheets. (student-made) [missing]

The contents according to the Flyer

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The list is not numbered. I have placed corresponding numbers from John Figg’s handwritten list in square brackets at the beginning of appropriate items.

[1]

1 teacher’s handbook

[2]

34 illustrated information cards

[3]

14 facsimile documents dating from 1069

[4]

1 full-size brass rubbing printed on tough paper

[5]

1 folder of press cuttings about 1942 bombing

[6]

3 booklets – “The Bombing of Exeter” – 25 pages

[7]

1 architectural plan of Cathedral

[8]

1 pad of 40 floor plans for pupil use

[9]

3 copies on card of 5 page index to materials

[12, 13, 14]

3 cassettes recorded with interviews etc

 

Included with the pack are full details of over 100 slides produced by the Centre which may be used with the pack.

The actual contents of the box differ from the contents listed on the flyer and from those in John Figg’s handwritten list. There are both missing and extra items in the box compared to those listed in the two sets of contents. Hence perhaps this box was John’s own ‘working’ version – hence the comment of ‘own copy’ on the cover, and that this box was based in the St Luke’s Resource Centre (the rubber stamp on the front of the box lid) and not, as printed on the sides and ends of the box lid, at the Regional Resources Centre of the University of Exeter.

It is uncertain how the handwritten list of contents fits in with the history of the resource pack. Items 15 and 16 seem later additions from the style, details and colour of the writing, compared to the rest of the list. Perhaps the list in the form of items 1 to 14 was a draft contents for early version(s) of the resource, or a record of the resource as trialled in the schools. Proposing item 15 as a planned later addition to the pack is supported by it not being mentioned in the flyer and it may refer to a booklet published in 1974 (see below), which would be two years after the initial pack was developed. Hence item 16, the student-made worksheets, could likewise be a planned future inclusion.

Comments about the items

Numbers in square brackets refer to John Figg’s handwritten contents list.

[7] 1 x Architectural Plan of Cathedral

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I remember these A3 plans being for sale in the Cathedral Shop in the 1970s and 1980s.

[9] 3 x Pupil’s Index of Tape Contents

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This is more accurately described by the flyer, as:

3 copies on card of 5 page index to materials

Even then, the “5 page” is misleading as the only way five can be reached is to count the front cover and to regard the inner folded, portrait-format index as two pages and the rear of the document as two pages rather than as two columns, which is what the rear is in reality.

The document is not just the tape contents (as in Figg’s handwritten contents), but is an index to the entire resource pack (as listed in the flyer’s contents).


The 1969 son et lumière material in the Cathedral Archive.

The material on Tape 3 is as listed in Figg’s handwritten contents: Marriage and Baptism. The Pupil Index says that Tape 3 has extracts from the soundtrack of a ‘son et lumiere’ [sic] on side one (Exeter had a son et lumière in 1969). The tape in the box does not have this. Instead, side one is the Marriage and Baptism services, which the Pupil Index says are on side two of this tape. Side two of the tape in the box is blank.

[10] 1 x Copy of Cathedral Services for a week

Service list April 30th - May 7th 1972 (click for link to pdf version)

Printed service lists used to be professionally printed in Exeter. Their format changed over time and many exist in the Cathedral Archive. They were placed on noticeboards in the Cathedral Close, the Cathedral and at intervals on top of the stalls in the Quire, including at each of the residentiary canons’ stalls. They became simpler from the 1980s, being typed and photocopied ‘in house’ to reduce printing costs. The arrival of word processing in the 1980s and then computer desktop publishing led to a steady improvement in design and quality.

[15] Booklet – The Testament Sculptures [missing]

These sculptures were placed in the niches of the Chapter House as a consequence of restoration work in 1969. They were produced between 1969 and 1974 by Kenneth Carter (1928–2007), principal lecturer in sculpture at Exeter College of Art. It was decided to remove the sculptures after renovations of the Chapter House, 2023-2024. After appropriate consultations, they were removed in June 2025 and given to Exeter College, where they will be put on display in a purpose-designed area (the situation as of July 2025).

Front cover

Page 1

Page 17

The booklet referred to may be the 16-page one produced and published by the Dean and Chapter in 1974, The Testament Sculptures (click on images above for larger versions).

Refs:

Additional item in neither contents list

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One additional item in the box is not mentioned in any of the contents lists and this is a large, A3 printed poster entitled ‘The Medieval Mason’. The remains of Sellotape in its corners show that it was displayed somewhere. It is not known why it is present in the box; it is not mentioned in any of the other documents in the box.

Cathedral Photocopies list and Notes

Included in the box are an undated handwritten page entitled ‘Cathedral Photocopies’ and two handwritten pages of what seem to be notes of items or historical events etc. Their significance is uncertain. Perhaps they were a record of possible items to be included in the resource or working notes. The actual photocopies are not present in the box.

Cathedral Photocopies list (click on image to see larger version)

 

Notes - one (click on image to see larger version)

 

Notes - two (click on image to see larger version)