Archive showcase competition information

WIN £200 for you and £100 for your school or college.

Individual prizes for adult entries.

The Archive

We’ve collected over 135 years of the history of Edge Hill into a unique archive that traces our roots from 1885 up to 2022. The range of materials is huge, including registration cards, copies of the College Magazine, photographs and friendship books. These offer us glimpses of how students lived, worked and played in the past as well as what they did after graduating.

Our archive also holds material donated to the archive, such as a First World War diary by a local man.

What to do

Using our archive, we’d like you to create an original piece of writing or artwork.

There are cash prizes for you and, if you are a student, your school or college. Winning work will be included in the showcase!

So all you have to do is create an original piece of writing or artwork based on or inspired by material held in the Edge Hill University archive. It could be anything from an historical essay, a poem or short story (500 words max), to a drawing, painting or digital artwork, as long as it is inspired by something in the Edge Hill University Online Archive Showcase. We have digitalised material from our archive on this showcase to make it accessible to you online – ehu.ac.uk/archiveshowcase.

Visit the showcase to see a range of archival material as well as examples of academic and student work that has already used the archive. Don’t worry if what you are thinking of doing is very different or much shorter. Your creative work could vary from an artwork, a 50-word poem or a 500-word essay. In order to help you out within the materials we have included tips about the kind of things you could do!

There will be one winner and two runners-up as well as 15 commendations selected in each category (see below for further details) 14-16 years old – years 10 and 11), 16-17 years old (years 12 and 13), and 18 years and over. Only one submission per person.

How to enter

To enter attach your creation to an email in pdf format and email it to: [email protected] with Think Creative Archive as the subject line.

Make sure you include your name, age, school year (just add ‘adult’ if 18 or over) and a contact email address.

The closing date for entries is: 16 December 2022 at 5.00pm. We must receive your entry by then.

Winners will be informed of the results by 5pm on 17 February 2023

Please don’t post your work to us, we’re only accepting email entries and we are unable to return any work sent in by post.

We will not be returning your work as standard but if you would like us to return it tell us in your email and we will make all efforts to do so.

If you are taking a photo of your work to email to us, please make sure it is a good quality image.

If you are under 18 ask permission from a parent or guardian before entering.

You will not receive promotional material from Edge Hill University as a result of your submission but we may email you once to ask if you would like to receive such material in future.

The Prizes!

There will be one winner and two runners-up as well as 15 commendations selected in each category (14-16 years old (years 10 and 11), 16-17 years old (years 12 and 13), and 18 years and over. So prizes will be awarded as follows:

Ages 14-16 years old (years 10 and 11)

1^st prize £200 for you and £100 for your school or college

2^nd prize £130 for you and £70 for your school or college

3^rd prize £60 for you and £40 for your school or college

+ 15 commendations of £10 each

Ages 16-17 years old (years 12 and 13)

1^st prize £200 for you and £100 for your school or college

2^nd prize £130 for you and £70 for your school or college

3^rd prize £60 for you and £40 for your school or college

+ 15 commendations of £10 each

Adult (18 years and above)

1^st prize £200, 2^nd prize £130, 3^rd prize £60

+ 15 commendations of £10 each

For major awards we will contact you and ask in which retail vouchers you would like your prize. Commendations will be awarded in the form of a generic retail voucher.

If you are 16 or 17 years old and not in school or college please just state that and in your submission email and we will include you in the competition in that age group.

If you are a winner or runner-up we will email you and invite you on to campus to visit the archive and for a small presentation.

Submissions will be judged by a team of academics and library professionals at Edge Hill University. Immediate family members of this team are ineligible to submit.

Only one submission per person allowed.

This competition is run by Research Catalyst, with support from the Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE) and the Institute for Social Responsibility (ISR) at Edge Hill University.