Here we met some of the boys with whom we would be sharing our lives for the foreseeable future.

Following the great fire of 1926, all the rooms high up in the roofspace of School House along with large parts of the rest of the building had to be reconstructed, and I remember remarking to my brother as we entered our dormitory, with Matron looking distinctly like a nurse, that it felt like we were in a tiny hospital ward.

The small, tidy room contained 10 beds in total, 5 on opposite sides of the room, each neatly turned out with what I would learn later were termed hospital corners. Underneath each bed was a wicker basket where personal items could be stored, and which was a no-go area for other boys unless invited.

Wicker storage baskets, very simlar to ours.

There was another room, identical to ours, where the rest of the Prep School boarders slept, and we all ate our meals together at the same dining hall table, pictured on the bottom right below, along with the rest of School House. The heavy wooden tables were scarred with carvings from many decades, and the whole scenario took on a Dickensian look, with all of us coming under scrutiny from a portrait of The Rev Dr Donne peering down from behind the Headmaster's table.

The School Dining Hall in 1952.

Having made introductions to our fellow Prep School boarders, Matron took her leave of us, and went about her other duties. It transpired that there were several other rooms in our immediate vicinity, including one for Stoker's Assistant House Master, who was tasked with supervising us, one each for Matron and her assistant, and finally, rooms for the kitchen staff.

We discovered later that each of the prep dorms had an interconnecting door to that of young maids, who regularly opened them up, clandestinely, in the dead of night, inviting us in to receive sweets and other treats, much to our delight.

During this, our first year at School, we often held pillow fights after lights out, which sometimes resulted in punishment if our supervising Assistant Housemaster heard the racket coming from our dormitory.

Just a short flight of stairs took us down from our bedroom to a corridor leading to the Junior dormitory, situated just beyond Matron's surgery whose windows overlooked the chapel and the grassy quadrangle. 

The Junior dormitory, which resembled an army barracks and ran above the long corridor and classrooms below, held about 20 beds, and a gas light on the wall was still connected to a source of gas. Invariably, after lights out, someone would turn this on and, with a hissing sound, the dorm became filled with an eerie glow as boys in a nightly rotation told a short story before shutting the gas lamp down and calling it a day.

The Senior dormitory reminded me of Park Hall army barracks.

Exiting the Junior dormitory at right angles, it was only a few strides past Stoker Lewis' bedroom down into the Senior dorm which was almost a replica of the Junior dorm and was situated directly above classroom 1VB, and Form 5, now the new library. The gable end of the building overlooked the playground, and at its base gave access to the underground storage area containing all the chairs and other paraphernalia used on Speech Days.

Preparations for Speech Day.

Back in the 1950s the School library was very small and was largely where sixth formers received their tuition, and the photo below shows me and some of my contemporaries working in a relaxed atmosphere as we prepared for our A level examinations..

The School Library in the late fifties.

Taken in Michaelmas term,1960, the first photograph below shows Bruce Morgan in the library with Edward Goff, and in the other Bruce is reading War and Peace.

Edward (left) and Bruce (right).

I have also included two photographs depicting the antiquated classrooms from the same era. A young John Woolrich is pictured studying at his desk in one of the classrooms on the long corridor, and the second one has captured Stoker Lewis teaching Form 3 in a scene looking like something from a Dickensian novel.

John Woolrich at work.

David Lewis holding sway over the Third Form.

My final observation about life in the 1940s,1950s, and the sixties concerns the weather. Whether as a result of climate change or otherwise, winters in those days were invariably colder and lasted longer than they do today and we learned to cope with being herded out of School House and onto the playground like sheep at every opportunity, whatever the weather. 

Almost without exception during winter months of the 1950s we could expect varying degrees of heavy snowfalls which often lay on the School grounds for many weeks, turning the top paddock, in particular, into a winter wonderland for fun and games in the snow. The tobogannists amongst us lost no time in using their ingenuity to produce a variety of sledges, the most popular of which were fashioned from baking trays brought in by day boys.

Tony Hughes, a day boy friend and classmate from a nearby farm, constructed a lethal device from a sheet of corrugated iron, which enabled several boys to come careering down the top paddock together on a white knuckle ride towards the iron railings which ran alongside the dirt track separating the two paddocks. Many efforts to scale this obstacle came to grief in unsuccessful attempts to reach the far end of the bottom paddock, resulting in several hospital visits for minor injuries, and Stoker Lewis, posing for the camera below, tried to get the corrugated iron death trap banned from the top paddock.

Stoker, in more relaxed mode, posing for a wintry picture.

Tree top photograph showing the dirt track separating both padocks.

Bruce Morgan was a keen photographer who made a little extra pocket money from his photographic skills, but in the following picture, taken circa 1960, he is the subject matter, captured with his ever present camera, in company with his friend Edward Goff following a light fall of snow.

Bruce (right) and Edward  relaxing following a light fall of snow.

It would not be long before they themselves became subject to the wrath of Headmaster Major Frankland.

I hope that you have all enjoyed this journey back in time with myself as your tour guide.