External photos 2 2002-2003
The Dell
Images from Sheila Kelsall and Doris Richardson. Thank you.
On my recent visit to our old school I was interested in seeing the alterations previously photographed by Glenn Riley. I drove into the main entrance on Station Road, and upwards into an overspill carpark which was a grassy area at the side of some tennis courts which I decided had been laid over the old kitchen garden, Girls' Arch and Fives Court. Much of my subsequent visit was spent with my eyes closed, working out what used to occupy the area I could see when I opened them!
Standing at the side of my car, I looked around me, and recognised the Head's house, with its surrounding beech hedge. The familiar stone side of the main hall lay unchanged to my left, but beyond the Head's house and down the slope of the Girls' Walk there were several houses which seemed to continue down to the main road and then along it towards the church. There was surprisingly no trace of the Girls' Walk itself.
Seeking the entrance to the building, I approached the Dell. Autumn's untidiness lay all around, with the bonus of a clear view through the bare trees. Another surprise came with the sight of four-feet-high concrete posts and chain-link wire mesh fencing which lined the edge of the path running along the outside of the Domestic Science room and ran along the back of the New Block. The words "ugly" and "not in keeping" sprang to mind. Did the Dell always seem so shallow? In my memory it had a steeper slope and the grass disappeared into dappled, then impenetrable shade. I suppose nearly 50 years - worth of annual leaf-mould had raised the ground level since then! There did not seem to have been any effort made to collect the dead leaves, which along with ivy and other evergreens covered the stone sides of the dell, and camouflaged the sandstone behind. I looked across at the back of the New Block and noticed a twisted, distorted tree trunk clinging to the rocky side and showing clear signs of human misuse. A blue nylon rope hung in tatters from a couple of places on the trunk, and suddenly I wanted to move away from the atmosphere of sadness and violation there. Now, where was that entrance?......
Sheila Kelsall
The School Front
Photo from Sheila Kelsall. Thank you, Sheila.
Last Sunday 30th November a Craft Fair was held at our old School. A corridor parallel to the one in the photo has been created from the vicinity of the Boys' entrance. It extends the corridor running down from the old Needlework room of 1955-62 days, and leads to that "unsympathetic building" (Leighton) which mars the front elevation of the School. I had assumed that the old main entrance near the Head's study had been used for access to the new building - but no, all is undisturbed, as you can see. The gravel and the small set of steps to the left of the main steps are gone, as is the flagpole. I had to take the photo through the glass window of the corridor, but still managed to notice that the destructive ivy had rallied and was on its way back up the wall on the far side. Access was denied to the part of the old building which runs from the boys' entrance along past the Head's study and Prefects' rooms towards the girls' cloakroom, but I did look along there, and noticed that the stone steps of the main staircase are gone, and metal-edged uniformly-sized risers and treads had replaced them.
In every other classroom of the old part of School there were stalls selling a selection of handicrafts. Particularly noticeable were the efforts of the College's Rural Studies Department - holly wreaths, houseplants and succulents for sale lined the whole length of the top corridor, and a group of friendly young people were doing good business taking customers on a tour of the Rural Studies centre. That's a story for next time!
Sheila
