Kind benefactor donates Victorian editions of University publication previously thought to be lost

Going back to the days when the University was the Chester Diocesan Training College in the Victorian era, its students produced a magazine called The Collegian, which first appeared in 1886. The 1886 and 1887 issues were long considered to be lost, until bookseller Dr Chris Robinson, of Creaking Shelves Books, came into possession of them. He has kindly donated them to the University archive.

Intriguingly, the early issues of the magazine appeared in handwritten, rather than print format. Print historian Dr Lisa Peters commented that manuscript periodicals were unusual in late Victorian times, as printing was widespread. Not only would there have been many printers in Chester who could have typeset and printed a magazine, but many institutions had their own simple hand-operated printing press which would allow them to print notices, advertising and small magazines.

Therefore, its manuscript format suggests that the student editors did not have sufficient money to print The Collegian at the start.

Appearing fortnightly, as students and former students subscribed to the magazine, the editors were able to purchase a basic printing machine called a typograph to produce the issues for 1887 along with a specially printed cover printed by Chester printers Phillipson & Golder. The cover shows the College buildings on Cheyney Road, a list of teachers, the names of the captains of the cricket and football clubs, and, at the top, the College’s motto of ‘On! Chester On!’ The covers appear to have been purchased a batch as the date on each is handwritten, rather than set in type.

The magazine contained College news, football reports, letters to the editor, reports of church services, poetry, plus a note from the editor, Fred Proctor, offering hour-long shorthand lessons in his room on Thursday afternoons.

Professor Graeme White, Emeritus Professor of Local History at the University, said: “This is an important discovery which fills a gap in our archives.

“In 1886 a new Principal was trying to modernise the College by encouraging a more relaxed approach to student life. The production of an in-house magazine was part of the process and it is wonderful to have the very earliest issues which were thought to be lost.”

The Collegian changed its name to The Cestrian in 2006 to acknowledge Chester becoming a University. Little could the editor have imagined back in February 1887 when he wrote: “The history of this paper is very brief, dating only from the spring of last year, but as things are progressing, there is no reason why we should not expect to have a ‘jubilee’ of The Collegian,” that his magazine would still be appearing in 2025, nearly 140 years continually in print. 

Main image: The front cover of an 1887 edition of The Collegian.

Image 2: The front cover of The Collegian alongside a handwritten page from the edition, describing concerts and an injury-marred cricket season.