_ Memories of the Malvern Years
Joseph Coates 1909-1914
On the first floor there was one large airy room, overlooking the garden and neighbouring St. Cuthbert’s School, equipped with desks both with seats and storage space for books. Next door there was a smaller room for younger pupils also overlooking the garden and with a door leading to steps down to the basement. On the right of these two rooms was the dining room which overlooked the playground. Food came up from the kitchens on a lift - one day the cable snapped and a great deal of crockery was smashed.
‘Sir’ had a study just to the right of the front door. In the corner were two very whippy canes named Ben Hadad and Ahasuerus not very often used but on one occasion a boy caught talking after lights was held by Sir’s arm and round the dormitory saying ‘Ooh Sir, ooh Sir!’ Of course two, five or ten minutes in the corner was quite usual for petty crimes.
Sundays: After a wash in cold water in communal basins we had to dress in Eton Jackets - collars, trousers etc. Later we walked in crocodile up the hill to Holy Trinity Church. An enormous brass lectern seemed to dominate the church. In 1912 there was the memorial service for the loss of the Titanic. Beginning and end of term services were held in the Priory, Great Malvern, attended by many schools in the area. In the afternoon there were walks up the North End Hill and Beacon - still in Eton attire! In the evening the Headmaster would read suitable books and novels in the drawing room - The White Company, Sherlock Holmes, Lorna Doone, Westwood Ho, A Tale of Two Cities, King Soloman’s Mines, The Last Days of Pompei, etc.
Lester Steynor 1911-1916
I first went to Aymestrey in 1911, as a weekly boarder, aged 6 1/2.
"Sir" was a highly respected head. My father considered he was singularly "grown-up" for a schoolmaster. He taught Scripture, and occasionally wielded the cane.
‘Sir’ had a study just to the right of the front door. In the corner were two very whippy canes named Ben Hadad and Ahasuerus not very often used but on one occasion a boy caught talking after lights was held by Sir’s arm and round the dormitory saying ‘Ooh Sir, ooh Sir!’ Of course two, five or ten minutes in the corner was quite usual for petty crimes.
Sundays: After a wash in cold water in communal basins we had to dress in Eton Jackets - collars, trousers etc. Later we walked in crocodile up the hill to Holy Trinity Church. An enormous brass lectern seemed to dominate the church. In 1912 there was the memorial service for the loss of the Titanic. Beginning and end of term services were held in the Priory, Great Malvern, attended by many schools in the area. In the afternoon there were walks up the North End Hill and Beacon - still in Eton attire! In the evening the Headmaster would read suitable books and novels in the drawing room - The White Company, Sherlock Holmes, Lorna Doone, Westwood Ho, A Tale of Two Cities, King Soloman’s Mines, The Last Days of Pompei, etc.
Lester Steynor 1911-1916
I first went to Aymestrey in 1911, as a weekly boarder, aged 6 1/2.
"Sir" was a highly respected head. My father considered he was singularly "grown-up" for a schoolmaster. He taught Scripture, and occasionally wielded the cane.
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To get to our playing field, we crossed the main road (a far less hazardous venture than it would be to-day (1981)), across the Common and found a footpath on its far side. This ran across fields but at one stage there was a hedge on either side with a kissing gate at each end, an unusual feature.
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The carp(entry) shop was alongside the house, originally a coach house and loft above. I still have a small bookshelf and a flat box which I store screws in after 65 years.
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I won a carriage clock in an obstacle race. Being the smallest boy in the school, around 1911, I was allotted the small end of the ladder laid on edge along the ground. I squirmed through the one end, while Basset had the larger end. I also had a head start (perhaps too much), the others being handicapped according to size. After preliminary obstacles, we dived through the ladder, then each opened a cardboard box, tied with string, and had to dress in the clothes inside. With my hat half on, trousers the wrong way round, and only one arm in my jacket sleeves, someone nearby shouted in my ear "Run for it". So, half dressed, I staggered to the finishing post, turning every few steps to see who was my tail. But I just made it, though I always felt the others may have been too severely handicapped.
In a letter to Lester Steynor in 1966 Con Waddington (1913-1919) remembered:
summer picnics on British Camp with piles of delicious Cornish Pastries made by the French cook
smoking wood shavings in home-made pipes we botched together in carpentry
playing football on the common opposite the school
walking in crocodile when it was too wet for games
finding frozen bitter-sweet windfall apples in a hedge
tobogganing on North End Hill and the agony of pins and needles when the blood got flowing again into one's fingers near the radiators in the changing rooms