Best wishes of the season to anyone who may happen to look in at this time! You'll probably remember the Christmas feasts at Stouts Hill.
Alan Davis recently pointed me to a short article about Stouts Hill by Stephen Fry, in which he repeats some of his memories already mentioned in Moab is my washpot.
Alan Davis has pointed out that March 2009 will be the 30th anniversary of the closure of the school, so it seems an appropriate time to hold a reunion of ex-pupils and staff. He's visited Stouts Hill (now a holiday resort) and found that we could have the use of part of the building for such a reunion.
Alan lives near Stouts Hill and seems willing to take responsibility for organizing the event, so three cheers for Alan! He's already sent out a message about it through Friends Reunited.
If you're interested, please contact Alan directly so that he can add you to his list. If you don't have his address, you can find mine here. You can add comments to this topic if you want to join in a public discussion; remember to add your name, unless you want to remain anonymous.
For Stouts Hill's own Web site, see the link 'Stouts Hill now' on the right-hand side of the page.
Newsflash, 2 Nov: Alan tells me that so far 21 ex-pupils have expressed interest in the reunion, including himself and me, and not including family members who may wish to come along too.
Newsflash, 27 Nov: Alan tells me that Stouts Hill is willing to let us use three rooms (main hall, drawing room, Blue dining room) for a fee of £50, to cover any cleaning up that may need to be done after the visit. The cost of a buffet lunch will be estimated in the near future. If a large number of people turn up, there are concerns about car parking and the fact that there is only one 'public' toilet in the main building. As an alternative, Miles Wachter (Stouts Hill ex-pupil and ex-master) may be able to offer lunch at Beaudesert Park School, where he's now deputy headmaster. Regarding a date, Alan is now considering a Sunday in July or August, but he's still welcoming your opinions on this subject.
Newsflash, 2 Dec: Please read Alan's recent comments about eating arrangements (among the comments on this topic). As one alternative, he's found a pleasant pub at Nympsfield (a short distance from Uley) that can accommodate about 60 people. He'd like your opinions.
11 Dec: As Alan is now a Contributor to this blog, I'm hope we'll see further news on this subject directly from him.
21 Dec: Alan tells me that "feedback on the reunion has come in at... absolute zero! What to do? There are only six possible dates, so I think that by new year if I still haven't got any feedback, I will approach Stouts Hill and ask which is the best date out of those for them and go with that." Seems a reasonable plan to me.
The normal way that a blog works is that the blog owner starts each new thread with an initial post, and the general public can then comment on it. I proposed initially that anyone who wanted a new thread on a particular subject could put a comment about it in the new thread suggestions thread, but few people have taken me up on that.
I've now noticed, rather belatedly, that I can invite particular people to become Contributors to the blog, in which case they can start their own threads. If you're interested in doing so, let me know, preferably by e-mail, because I'll need your e-mail address in order to issue the formal invitation. My address is here.
In order to be a Contributor, you need to register as a Blogger user, which is quick, easy, and free. You may also need to learn a little about how Blogger works; I haven't found it difficult myself.
As an alternative, you are of course free to start your own blogs. As this is my blog, I retain a certain amount of editorial control over it (I can delete stuff, etc.).
I've already added Alan Davis as a Contributor, because he's in charge of the Reunion and will probably have things to say about it.
I thought of setting a Fiendishly Difficult Exam for prospective Contributors, but gave up the idea on realizing that I'd probably fail it myself. I have fond memories, though, of the Assassins' School final exam as described in Terry Pratchett's Pyramids.
I can make a start on this from various sources of information.
Quinn, Iqbal, Povey, Annandale, and Ireland can be seen in the group below:
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.
Julian has suggested putting together a list of our bunch, who travelled through the school together and left in 1967 or 1968. I can start threads for other years as demand arises.
Here's a photo of some of us; date uncertain, probably 1965.
R. Jackson (1960-65) and R. Coley (1961-66) have also been nominated for this list, but their dates at the school suggest that they were older than the rest of the group.
Stephen Fry mentions being introduced to poetry by an English master called Chris Coley. I never met Mr Coley, who apparently replaced Mr Birchall soon after I left the school in 1967.
David Woods was known as Peck, Pecker, or Pecker Bird — because of Woody Woodpecker, of course, not because of any personal characteristics.
According to the 1957 Stouts Hill Magazine, he joined the school in 1954.
According to the 1967 Stouts Hill Magazine, he was a pupil at the school in 1938–41, so he must have been born in about 1928. He went to teach elsewhere in 1967.
He was a keen, active man who taught Latin to the younger boys, invented educational games to be played in class, and organized voluntary sports out of class.
Jonathan Marler remembers that he taught Greek as well as Latin.
He was interested in photography, and developed and printed photos himself in a darkroom at the school.
I must admit I had a brief urge to caption the above photo “Pecker has only got one ball”; surely I can't be entering my second childhood already?
I must admit I'd almost forgotten Michael Quick, who I think taught the younger boys. He was known as Inky, perhaps because of the Parker Quink fountain pen ink that I think was in common use at the time.
The 1966 Stouts Hill Magazine reveals that he taught at the school for five years, from 1961 to 1966; so he was no longer there in my final year. The 1967 Magazine reports that he was enjoying teaching older boys at Dover Grammar School.
Sue (Susan) was the third of the Angus daughters, and a pupil at the school from 1945 to 1952. She married Mr Cromie in 1960, and they had a son named Andrew. During my time, they lived in the Cottage, on the school grounds, part of which was a small dormitory with bunk beds. I slept in that dormitory for one or two terms, I think.
John Morris remembers that Sue taught him to dance the Charleston for Salad Days.
The Cromies still live in Uley.
