As part of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Internal Comms asked the University’s Archivist, Marion McClintock, to look back across seven decades of service from Lancaster University.

During last week’s Jubilee celebrations, the University has been marking acts of service undertaken by our campus community.

Three special ‘time for a brew’ interviews highlighted the individual efforts of Dr Maria Rodriguez-Yborra, Faris Ali, and Gay Bentinck. Meanwhile, the University’s Archivist, Marion McClintock, looked back in the archives and found examples of collective acts of service from our University across the last seven decades.

The paragraphs below, contributed by Marion, take you on a whistle-stop tour of Lancaster University’s positive impact on our local and national communities, featuring Romans, Ruskin, and regeneration…

1960s: The stimulus of the new university

When HM Government was considering where to locate the seventh and last of the new ‘plate glass’ universities, the support and resources invested by Lancaster City Council and Lancashire County Council were important factors in the decision. In addition, the absence of any higher education institutions between Liverpool and Glasgow, and the socio-economic drivers for a new university in the North West, strengthened the proposal. The beneficial impact of the new university was immediate. The arrival of students and staff contributed to the local economy. Creating and opening the new university had a multiplier effect on economic growth and employment, and there were also positive cultural and social effects in the city and across the region.

1970s: Business advice services

The University, with its early decision to make business and management subjects a major area of institutional growth, was keen to assist the attraction of new businesses to Lancaster and the region, as well as to support those already located in the city and its environs. A scheme entitled Enterprise Lancaster marked a close partnership between the Town Hall and the University, including the coming of Hornsea Pottery and John F. Millard Limited. As University departments left St Leonard’s House for Bailrigg, units were made available on a seed-bed basis to small firms, while a Local Authorities (Small Projects) Research Fund gave grants for a range of projects, including the control of odours from animal by-product processing, the planning of nursing services in Westmorland, and an investigation into the future of Morecambe as a seaside resort.

1980s: Archaeological discovery and learning

The University’s involvement in local archaeology began with modest excavations on Castle Hill in 1972 and the discovery of a Roman bath house - part of the Roman fort that lies beneath the Castle and Priory. As a result of collaboration with Dorothy Charlesworth, influential Inspector of Ancient Monuments, significant public funding was obtained for the Cumbria and Lancashire Archaeological Unit, latterly the LU Archaeological Unit. Excavations and surveys took place across the region, involving volunteers, schools and many local societies, and greatly increasing the historical knowledge and understanding of sites from the Neolithic to the early modern period across the North West.

1990s: The arts, with special reference to the Ruskin Library

The University led the way on theatre, music and the creative arts from its opening years, bringing international levels of performers and artists to Lancaster and the region, including LU Concerts, the Peter Scott Gallery, and the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts. A particularly significant project saw the re-housing of the Whitehouse Collection of the works of John Ruskin (1819-1900) and his circle at Lancaster, close to Brantwood on Lake Coniston, Ruskin’s home for the last 30 years of his life. The Ruskin Library, designed by Richard MacCormac to meet the needs of the collection, includes exhibition and study space. Its formal opening in 1998 brought a national treasure within reach of the locality.

2000s: Environmental research and development

Very early in the University’s development, four modestly sized plots were laid out and plants grown there under different (and hostile) conditions. From this evolved the glass domes of the Biological Sciences Field Station, and the beginnings of important research on many aspects of the environment and the issues confronting mankind, drawing on the expertise of both natural and social sciences. In 2004 the Lancaster Environment Centre was opened, also incorporating the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. The span of LEC research is huge. Examples of its benefits to local agriculture include work on hydrology, land planning, river run-off and pollution, while flood management is of particular significance for urban remedial strategies in Carlisle, Kendal and Lancaster.

2010s: Local economic regeneration

Economic regeneration as a guiding principle for the decision to locate a university at Lancaster continues to be an important theme for research and teaching. From within the Lancaster Leadership Centre of the Management School there developed the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development that in turn launched the Leading Enterprise and Development (LEAD) initiative, to support the small and medium enterprises that are a dominant feature of the North-West economy. This work led to the formation of the Centre for Family Business, Entrepreneurship and Innovation that studies the dynamics of family entrepreneurial businesses, including capability development decision-making and the transfer of businesses between generations that are essential for these enterprises to survive and thrive. The centre has made the difference between success and failure for numerous North-West family businesses.

2020s: Contributions to contemporary medical needs

The founding Vice-Chancellor put great effort into plans for a medical school at Lancaster. Initiatives such as the Lancashire and Cumbria Medical Research Foundation laid research foundations that contributed to bringing the study of medicine to Lancaster early in the new millennium, with the Centre for Medical Education evolving into the Department of Medicine. Subsequent investment by the University and multiple external agencies in the Health and Innovation Campus enabled the University to provide a vaccination centre for local residents at a critical moment in the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, continuing research on Covid-related topics includes improved diagnostic testing kits that deliver results in minutes rather than days, and work on palliative care for longer-term Covid-related conditions.

If you’ve enjoyed reading about these events in Lancaster University’s history, you can find out more at lancaster.ac.uk/about-us/our-history