Streets Called Haileybury 2

Haileybury Road, Liverpool L25, links with Charterhouse Road, and Stonyhurst Road. Rodean Close and Denstone Close are turnings off.

Nantucket Shenanigans

Jack Thomas (Staff 1954) - Writes to tell me about his latest venture.

I have just published a book which I hope might interest you and which you might feel inclined to buy. It is called Nantucket Shenanigans.  14 chapters and 204 pages long, it tells the story of two teenagers who have never been abroad before but have the holiday of a lifetime on the magic island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts.  

Their American aunt Pamela watches in horror as Tom and Annie get into all sorts of scrapes.  Their adventures include a clash with the police, getting themselves shipwrecked, learning about the mysteries of baseball, becoming stranded all night on a remote part of the island and discovering the beauty of the island and its history as well as just having fun with their aunt and her dog, Boone.

But in the last two chapters everything that that has gone before pales into insignificance as Tom and Annie face bravely up to a terrifying ordeal.

But this novel is not just a teenage romantic adventure story, although I feel confident that teenagers would enjoy it.  Adults would assuredly find this book fascinating as it explores the cultural, linguistic and historical differences between the U.S.A. and the U.K. You would also get a guided tour of the beauty, history and glory of Nantucket Island.

To buy my book all you have to do is go onto the internet, type lulu.com; when it comes up, go to Books, type in the word Nantucket.  Choose the copy with a picture of a girl on the beach and press Buy!

The book costs £10 plus £2.99  postage making a grand total for a jolly good read of £12.99.

Jack also says that you can review the book having read it on the same website. 

Battle of Britain 2

On July 26 1930 JWC More (Th 24) passed out of Cranwell with, among others, Douglas Bader.  He died in 1944 as a Japanese Prisoner of War on a transport and is commemorated on column 431 of the Singapore Memorial. Fighting in France in 1940 he shared in shooting down a Heinkel 111. During the Battle of Britain he was in Leigh Mallory's 12 Group, Commanding 73 Squadron engaged in night fighting.

In Random Recollections RL Ashcroft states that More made the "pioneer deck landing (on the Courageous)." This cannot mean the first ever landing by an aircraft onto a ship. It may mean that More was involved in the trials in 1939 in which Spitfires without arrestor hooks were landed on HMS Courageous. This proved that it would be possible for the Fleet Air Arm to be equipped with better aircraft. The narrow undercarriage of the Spitfire made landing and take off especially difficult unless perfectly executed (operationally there were problems as they could not be lowered to the hangars of many of the carriers because of the wingspan). Nevertheless the experiments led to the development of the Seafire, the naval variant of the Spitfire.

The courage involved in landing a Spitfire with its narrow undercarriage and with no arrestor hook onto a moving ship is not to be underestimated.

Lift Up your Hearts

The inscription round the dome of Hall comes from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 

Then Mr. Honest called for his friends, and said unto them, I die, but shall make no will. As for my honesty, it shall go with me; let him that comes after be told of this. When the day that he was to be gone was come, he addressed himself to go over the river. Now the river at that time over-flowed its banks in some places; but Mr. Honest, in his lifetime, had spoken to one Good-conscience to meet him there, the which he also did, and lent him his hand, and so helped him over. The last words of Mr. Honest were, Grace reigns! So he left the world.

After this it was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant-for-truth was taken with a summons by the same post as the other, and had this for a token that the summons was true, "That his pitcher was broken at the fountain." When he understood it, he called for his friends, and told them of it. Then said he, I am going to my Father’s; and though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles who will now be my rewarder. When the day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the river-side, into which as he went, he said, "Death, where is thy sting?" And as he went down deeper, he said, "Grave, where is thy victory?" So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.

The Evolution of Dormitories 4

The movement over the last twenty years has been to smaller and smaller dormitories for younger pupils and to bed sits for the more senior. The pattern has been to have a 'dormitory' for Removes and Middles and study bedrooms for Vths and above. When the school became co-educational the new Bartle Frere and Edmonstone were set up in this way. Colvin and Melvill meanwhile were equipped with single rooms throughout. Hailey has a dormitory (the old Upper) but the Lower was divided into rooms for four girls each. This is similar to what was done in Allenby when the conversion was made. That pattern has recently been replicated in Trevelyan and Thomason where the Removes and Middles live and work in rooms of four. (Four is a pastorally good number as it reduces the chances of a two on one division happening in a room.)

Meanwhile the new Lower School boys' accommodation in Highfield is in Dormitories of eight.  The Lower School girls' dormitory is in Alban's and while it has great character it is not as swish as the boys' rooms.

Many of the boys' houses have clever bunks in a "T" shape where the top bunk is at right angles to the bottom one and supported at either end by wardrobes.

Quitchells Ditch

Haileybury is increasingly full of cars these days and the increased traffic has led to the appearance of speed bumps and a rule that those walking along College Road behind the kitchens to and from Highfield should cross one of the bridges and walk along the path near the eves of the wood. The bridges cross the Quitchells Ditch, which runs down from Highfield all the way along the edge of the XX Acre. It is a boundary marker and is about 360 years old. 

Molly Matthews in Haileybury Since Roman Times says the ditch was dug by Colonel Lawrence, nephew of Oliver Cromwell, who was Lord of the Manor of Goldington. Lawrence was a friend of Milton's, and the latter came out to see him in his country estate and wrote a sonnet about it. Matthews suggests the scene of Milton and Lawrence walking along the side of what is now Twenty Acre. Anyway, Lawrence had the ditch dug along the boundary, already ancient between the Manor of Goldington and Hailey Bushes, the part of the Manor of Hailey on which the College now stands. 


The boundary was also marked by a line of pollarded oaks of which, according to Matthews the Quitchell's Oak on the corner by the sports centre car park is the last remaining, though the fine tree next to it is also great and possibly ancient. Pollarding, cutting back the branches of the young tree, made the trunk grow thicker to prolong the life of the tree. The Quitchells Oak was probably planted in the 13th Century, not so long after the time of Robin Hood. 


The Ditch is now a bit up in the air as when the cricket pitches were leveled it was left rather high and dry. 


Today, both manors are owned by the College and Matthews says 'The Bursar presiding in his office over problems concerned with the Heath is the lineal descendent of Ralph de Limesi and Geoffrey de Bec, or to go one step further back, of the unnamed Bailiff who managed Great Amwell for Earl Harold and Ulwin, the Thane of Hailey.'

Uganda

John Jameson Willis (M 1887.1) was one of five boys who entered Haileybury that term who became clergymen. One was Bernard Attlee (L), brother of the future prime minister. Willis became Bishop of Uganda, where of course the work of the Haileybury Youth Trust goes on today. I have posted about the HYT before, but here is a video they have made of their work.

Bishop Willis, by the way, was heavily involved in a church controversy which saw him accused of heresy. More about that on another occasion, but for now here is the video.