FDA-A.2072-2020
Parts
Object number
FDA-A.2072-2020
Object type
Identification
Title
Single School Desk
Title Type
assigned by cataloguer
Description
Oak school desk, first quarter 20th century, the rectangular sloping top with one inkwell, with a groove for writing implements, solid trestle supports, with a flat stretcher and platform feet; feet cut and bench now missing; rear stretcher with manufacturer's label
Comments
Papworth Industries was the manufacturing arm of Papworth Village Settlement, a Cambridgeshire colony for sufferers of tuberculosis founded in 1916. During the First World War, the Welsh physician Dr Pendrill Varrier-Jones (1883-1941), was appointed temporary county tuberculosis officer for Cambridgeshire. He set about establishing a self-supporting colony where TB sufferers could learn to live with their disease under medical supervision and do a level of work that did not worsen their condition, and be paid for doing so. It was established in February 1916 at a house in Bourn as the Cambridgeshire Tuberculosis Colony with six patients and soon won official backing. The colony was able to acquire Papworth Hall at Papworth Everard, and moved there in February 1918. There were facilities for five separate industries: a carpentry and cabinet-making workshop, a boot-repair shop, a poultry farm, a fruit farm and a piggery. Patients whose health was improving were assigned paid work under medical supervision and the goods manufactured were sold at commercial rates on the open market. In 1919 further industrial facilities were added, among them: a printing shop, a bookbindery, and a trunk-making workshop.
Description
Dimensions
height (actual size): 800mm
width (actual size): 690mm
depth (actual size): 450mm
width (actual size): 690mm
depth (actual size): 450mm
Inscription
Rear stretcher with manufacturer's label: 'By Appointment'; with the Prince of Wales's Feathers and: ‘PAPWORTH INDUSTRIES CAMBRIDGE'
Material
oak
Physical description
Oak school desk; the rectangular sloping top with one inkwell, with a groove for writing implements, on solid trestle supports, with a flat stretcher and platform feet; feet cut and bench now missing; rear stretcher with manufacturer's label
Production
Date
1920-1940
