Reference number
  • MULBERRY
Level of description
  • Collection
Date(s)
  • 1948-2019
Extent and medium
  • Approx 200 boxes
Category
  • School
Scope and content
  • ┆Papers of the Mulberry Bush Organisation including the Mulberry Bush School, Mulberry Bush Outreach, Mulberry Bush Learning and Research, and the Mulberry Bush Third Space (which from 2019 incorporated the Planned Environment Therapy Archives and National Childcare Library). This includes  * Children's files  * Observation logbooks and diaries * Committee papers and minutes  * Marketing material  * Staff records  * Administrative records,  * Reports and inspections.  * Photographs, videos, and art.
History
  • Mulberry Bush School was founded in 1948 by self-taught psychologist Barbara Dockar-Drysdale with the backing of the Ministry of Education and the Home Office. The first pupils had started to arrive in 1947 but the school offically opened with the purchase of a farmhouse called Longworth House in Standlake, Oxfordshire. The residential school aimed to take difficult and challenging children passed on by Local Authorities. The school quickly grew from 13 children in 1948 to 30 children in 1949. Dockar-Drysdale and her husband were co-principals until 1962. In 2008, Mulberry Bush School expanded to become the Mulberry Bush Organisation. The Mulberry Bush is a not-for-profit charity with a mission to provide services to meet the needs of emotionally troubled and traumatised children, young people, their families and communities. As of 2018, it includes Mulberry Bush School, Learning and Research Centre, and Mulberry Bush Third Space.
Name of creator(s)
  • Mulberry Bush Organisation
Access status
  • MIXED
Language
  • ENG
Archival history
  • Transferred by the Mulberry Bush School to the Planned Environment Therapy Trust between 1998 and 2019. Ownership transferred to the Mulberry Bush Organisation when the Trust folded in 2018.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
  • Mulberry Bush Organisation