The School campus then bore little resemblance to how it looks today, but the small School House complex was the kernel from which the School grew to its current level of more than thirty buildings.

However, this development might never have taken place at all if the disastrous fire, which took place in School House just over 100 years ago in 1926, had grown into a wider conflagration. As it was, the upper reaches of the building were ravaged by fire and the roof collapsed. I will cover this in more detail at another time, but suffice to say the damage to School House was considerable and school life was severely disrupted for more than a term as repair work and refurbishment took place.

Fortunately there was no loss of life, and Headmaster R Williamson, who had only arrived at Oswestry in 1920 to try and revive the fortunes of a school falling on hard times with barely forty pupils, was out of the building at the time. 

Eventually boarders returned to School House and following its refurbishment life resumed as before, but with modernised improvements. The layout of the building which greeted my brother and I in 1952 cannot have been too different from how it was post refurbishments of 1926, and I have made a rough sketch of the ground floor rooms as they were in 1952. I will also include photographs of the new dormitories which were on the first loor, the dining room and library which were at ground level.

The ground floor layout in 1952.

Nowadays, I believe the School provides education and a wide range of facilities for around 500 boys and girls, whereas when we arrived the School was composed entirely of boys, numbering approximately 170, as the establishment only became co-educational in 1972. 

School House, viewed from the playground in 1952.

The above photograph was taken from beneath a row of magnificent conker trees (sadly, long since cut down), which can be seen from the opposing aspect in the next picture during Speech Weekend prize giving in the late 1950s as Headmaster Frankland commands centre stage.

Viewpoint on the grassy quadrangle from behind the Headmaster.

Apart from the outpost of Holbache House, the former cottage hospital, purchased in 1947 and situated just a short walk away in town, the School campus contained fewer than 10 buildings most of which were in close proximity to School House itself. 

Holbache House was purchased in 1947 to cater for the expansion of pupil numbers and it would eventually house up to 40 boarders, but the original intake was a batch of 18 boys. The first Housemaster was Mr Winn who was also our Science Master, and part of his domain was the laboratory where he taught the sciences. He took us all by surprise one day during a biology lesson by asking for a volunteer to produce a sample of sperm in order to make a slide for his microscope!

The Smale Laboratory and Prep Department.

Experiments in progress supervised by 'Daddy' Winn.

One of the lecture rooms.

The Preparatory Department, also known as the long green hut, lay just beyond the laboratory close to the row of horse chestnut trees, and it was our place of learning for the first 12 months at Oswestry School before moving over to the Upper School. The School grass tennis courts were situated between it and the laboratory, but I do not recall using them much as a junior. 

The chapel, situated just yards from School House, was a very important part of school life, and was in use every day. It still had its original organ which required pumping up during use, and the School organist dragooned boys into sitting alongside it in order to perform this necessary function.

I remember that one year on 1 April, a boy, who will remain nameless, deliberately stopped pumping with the inevitable consequences and the organ groaned to a halt like a dying duck in a thunderstorm much to the amusement of us all apart from Headmaster Williamson who took a dim view of this obvious prank. The boy in question pleaded in his defence that he had fallen asleep due to fatigue and he was let off with a caution.

The chapel as it was in my day, seen from the Headmaster's lawn.

The Fives Court, tuck shop, and the outdoor toilets, minor buildings on the complex, were clustered together adjacent to the bike shed barely yards away from the bottom paddock, as pictured below. I should add, in the interest of clarity, that in 1952 the Memorial Hall and additional classrooms behind the laboratory had yet to be built.

Side view of School House and its satellite facilities, as seen from the bottom paddock circa 1956.

Eric Lloyd, one of my contemporaries, who left Oswestry at the end of Michaelmas term 1960, sent me a batch of interesting photographs including the one below which captures some sort of action near the tuck shop against a backdrop of the outside toilets which were demolished during the insurrection against authority in July, 1961.

The tuck shop with a backdrop of the outside toilets.

The open air pool, which was fed by a stream of icily cold water running from St Oswald's well, only saw action during the summer term and the following photographs convey a sense of just how cold the water was as rows of onlookers consider whether to bite the bullet and take the plunge.

My brother, Bernard, wearing flippers, prepares to take a dip.

Choppy waters in the pool.

The School barn, which housed two cows alongside the orchard/kitchen gardens, could be found at the end of the dirt track separating both paddocks and are pictured to the extreme left in a photograph I took with a bakelite Brownie 127 from the uppermost branches of a tree at the top of the hill. I have also included a picture of Mr Williamson's general factotum, Tom Little, returning from his daily delivery of milk to the kitchens.

Tree top view of both paddocks.

Tom Little, heading back along the dirt track to the barn.

I know that the Maes-y-Llan looks very different today, but in 1952 it was all plain grass, cow pats delivered by roving cattle which had to be kept off the cricket square by a barbed wire fence, and the ever present cricket pavilion. The next photograph sees me posing at the crease for the camera against a backdrop of cattle at rest and cricket headquarters, which housed the honours board for both cricket and football. 

Unashamedly posing for the camera.

In those days there was no car park on the Maes-y-Llan and the photograph below shows several Old Oswestrians, in company with Roger Morgan who had recently been made Head Boy, walking across what used to be the fifth game pitch to watch an inter-school football match in late 1960.

(L-R) Roger Morgan, D Pickup, JB 'Grevo' Greves, Jimmy Sharples, Bernard Pickup.

Me, David Pickup, as I am today - in casual mode.