Saturday 22 November 2008

Stouts Hill Magazine

Paddy Scott-Clark, Julian Williams, and Jeremy Cape have kindly sent me some old issues of the Stouts Hill Magazine to scan, and I've now scanned all of them. In addition, John Morris has (even more kindly!) scanned eight magazines himself, and sent me the files.

As a result, all magazines from 1959 to 1977 are available for downloading here, with the exception of the 1965 issue, which I'd particularly like to get hold of (does anyone have it?).

The 1966 issue has 8 pages missing and 8 pages duplicated: evidently someone in 1966 made a mistake in assembling it. I've scanned only one copy of each duplicated page.

Technical note: I scan the magazines at 600 dpi and 16-bit greyscale, and archive the scans in TIFF files; but those files are large, so the files I upload to the Web are reduced to 150 dpi and 8-bit greyscale, slightly cropped, and subjected to JPEG compression. John Morris scanned his magazines at 300 dpi, 8-bit greyscale, JPEG.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well i for one hope you manage to scan and put those magazines up on site. I wait with interest.
RE.Kimmons...

Anonymous said...

the magazine brought back some memories for me. The king and i, i remember being one of the children. Was it really that long ago.
RE.Kimmons.

Anonymous said...

I've just had a good long look at the magazine you've copied. I don't remember it in my time, or it was very much simpler. I'm surpised that among all the things that I and my parents seem to mhave kept from my time at the school that thjere was not a single magazine among them. May be that was why Jim Bruce produced "Colditz Calling" later.
Anyway there are a few extra details in the magazine regarding boys' names which I will add to the lists I am compliling.

Robert Darell said...

I think the reunion idea is excellent and I will definitely attend. Myself and three brothers, Charles, Richard and James all attended Stouts hill. I was there from 1974 until it closed in March 1979, which meant I missed out playing for the cricket 1st XL in my last summer term. I always look back at my time there as my best school experience. I think life was easier at the the school in my time compared to when my eldest brother was there.

Jonathan said...

Hello Robert, thanks for your comments. I think your brother Charles is probably a year younger than me. Remember to send e-mail to Alan or to me, so that we can get in touch with you later.

Anonymous said...

Further to my previous comment:
My mother died since I made it and while tidying up her house I found the missing Stouts Hill Magazines. There were 11 years' worth hidden between some hardboard panelling and a chimney breast up in the loft space. They cover 1967-1977 excluding 1970. This includes some of the years JP has already scanned, but I will try and scan what I can and get them to him for him to put on the blog for others to enjoy looking at.
John

Jonathan said...

Thanks, John! If you can manage it, those magazines will be a useful resource.

I think they have two main uses: the stuff written by the boys themselves can be quite funny (especially if you find something you wrote yourself), and they're a great source of historical information about the school, the staff, and the boys: giving names, dates, and other information. I'm getting into the habit of referring to them frequently when adding captions to photos or exchanging messages with other veterans.