Meeting on 02 July 2019 – ‘Madame’s Girls’
There were plenty of pictures of jolly hockey sticks and girls in gymnasiums in gymslips at our July meeting when Lesley Tipler presented “Madame’s Girls” –The Pioneering Institution On Your Doorstep.
This ‘Madame’ was an extraordinary character – unconventional, fearless and entrepreneurial. Martina Bergman was born in Sweden in 1849. Aged 30 she enrolled onto a two year gymnastics course which followed the Ling System of exercises designed to enhance health and fitness. After graduating she moved to London and very quickly became The Superintendent of Physical Education in Schools for Girls, covering 300 schools and overseeing the health and welfare training of 1000 teachers. In 1885 she set up the first physical education college in England at 2 Broadhurst Gardens, Hampstead to train others to work in schools, attracting fee paying upper middle class women. A year later in 1886 she acquired her title of Madame when she married Dr. Edvin Per Wilhelm Osterberg, a professor at The University of Uppsala. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder - he remained in Sweden. By 1895 the premises in Hampstead had become too small.
By chance a house called Kingsfield and estate of 14 acres including a lodge, coach house and farm buildings, owned by a stockbroker called Edward Satlerthwaite, was put up for sale. This became The Bergman-Osterberg Physical Training College (later known as Dartford College of Physical Education) and is now the Dartford Campus of North Kent College in Oakfield Lane, Wilmington. Netball was invented at this pioneering college and it had its own cycling track. We viewed photographs of the gymnasium equipment in the ballroom complete with chandeliers, students learning archery, lacrosse, Swedish drill, fencing, dancing, hockey, cricket and learning to swim in The Darent. A timetable from 1911 includes students rolling the pitches before breakfast and classes in physiology and anatomy. On graduation students received a certificate and a silver and agate Arts and Crafts style brooch incorporating the initials MBO – now highly collectable. Madame Osterberg died of cancer on 29 July 1915. A trust to govern the college had been set up and in 1919 the course was extended to include specialisms in medical massage. In WW2 the college site was requisitioned and used for munitions work and to accommodate American forces. Three hotels in Newquay were acquired for the students during this time.
We were shown photographs of several of Madame’s Girls who went on to found their own colleges both in Britain and worldwide. Lesley fondly remembers her student days in the 1970’s. Now retired she regularly helps with the preservation of The Osterberg Collection, kept at North Kent College. Several of our members recalled visiting the college as children for swimming lessons and to attend clinics to help with their physical development run by tutors and students.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser
There were plenty of pictures of jolly hockey sticks and girls in gymnasiums in gymslips at our July meeting when Lesley Tipler presented “Madame’s Girls” –The Pioneering Institution On Your Doorstep.
This ‘Madame’ was an extraordinary character – unconventional, fearless and entrepreneurial. Martina Bergman was born in Sweden in 1849. Aged 30 she enrolled onto a two year gymnastics course which followed the Ling System of exercises designed to enhance health and fitness. After graduating she moved to London and very quickly became The Superintendent of Physical Education in Schools for Girls, covering 300 schools and overseeing the health and welfare training of 1000 teachers. In 1885 she set up the first physical education college in England at 2 Broadhurst Gardens, Hampstead to train others to work in schools, attracting fee paying upper middle class women. A year later in 1886 she acquired her title of Madame when she married Dr. Edvin Per Wilhelm Osterberg, a professor at The University of Uppsala. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder - he remained in Sweden. By 1895 the premises in Hampstead had become too small.
By chance a house called Kingsfield and estate of 14 acres including a lodge, coach house and farm buildings, owned by a stockbroker called Edward Satlerthwaite, was put up for sale. This became The Bergman-Osterberg Physical Training College (later known as Dartford College of Physical Education) and is now the Dartford Campus of North Kent College in Oakfield Lane, Wilmington. Netball was invented at this pioneering college and it had its own cycling track. We viewed photographs of the gymnasium equipment in the ballroom complete with chandeliers, students learning archery, lacrosse, Swedish drill, fencing, dancing, hockey, cricket and learning to swim in The Darent. A timetable from 1911 includes students rolling the pitches before breakfast and classes in physiology and anatomy. On graduation students received a certificate and a silver and agate Arts and Crafts style brooch incorporating the initials MBO – now highly collectable. Madame Osterberg died of cancer on 29 July 1915. A trust to govern the college had been set up and in 1919 the course was extended to include specialisms in medical massage. In WW2 the college site was requisitioned and used for munitions work and to accommodate American forces. Three hotels in Newquay were acquired for the students during this time.
We were shown photographs of several of Madame’s Girls who went on to found their own colleges both in Britain and worldwide. Lesley fondly remembers her student days in the 1970’s. Now retired she regularly helps with the preservation of The Osterberg Collection, kept at North Kent College. Several of our members recalled visiting the college as children for swimming lessons and to attend clinics to help with their physical development run by tutors and students.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser