Thursday 1 November 2007

Front of school

This is the only photo I've come across so far showing a part of the school that doesn't exist any more: the gym/chapel on the right and the cuboid block on the left, with classrooms on the ground floor and New dorm above.

Bell door and gym

The bell above the door was the main school bell but I don't remember exactly on which occasions it was rung. Entering through the door, I remember a long corridor running up to the tuck shop at the far end, with classrooms on the right and then a dining room further on. I don't remember what was on the left, apart from the entrance to the large changing room with communal shower. I have a feeling there were some offices on the left near the entrance.

It would be quite interesting to get hold of a complete floor plan of the school as it used to be.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The school stopped using the door in the photograph, as it caused terrific draughts, but iut had some way of being undone for use as an emergency exit.
The bell was moved to the door where the new wing was connected to the short passageway to two classsroms (in my time 4A and 5B) The bell was rung for chapel and between each lesson. The duty master used to send a boy out of which ever class he was in to ring it when it was time.
In the long corridor there was the staff room on the left down a couple of steps, then nothing, then the changingrooms, beyond whichj were the doorless bogs. Up a step then the dining room on the right was Tavern and the room on the left was where the washing up was done and the crockery stored etc, next to that and up some steps was the pantry where the bread, jam, and the buns for "milk & buns" etc were kept, off which was a small dining room used by the kitchen staff. At the end to the right of the Tuckshop was the kitchen, then a stone set of steps leading up to the higher level.

Julian Williams 1962 - 1968 said...

We used to escape down that fire escape for midnight swims!

Anonymous said...

I recall one of the cooks living in a caravan parked at the far end of the gym/chapel, and that it caught fire and burned out one night, causing great excitement. I would guess it was towards the end of my time at school, possibly early 1964.