Charney Hall School, Grange-over-Sands

Rodney Baker-Bates (1944-   ) Business Leader https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/gqBb14xlbnUSOb3vFEmBSEIpvSg/appointments Merrick Stuart Baker-Bates C.M.G. (1939-   ) Civil Servant Ref British Diplomats Directory   https://www.suttonbeauty.org.uk/suttonhistory/bakerbates/      This is a reference to an amazing modern history of the Baker Bates family

Robin George Collingwood (1889-19430) : Metaphysics, Philosophy of History, Aesthetics ‘.....in June 1903 when he was 14 and still at Charney Hall....’ ref Teresa Smith, R.G. Collingwood’s Childhood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._G._Collingwood Graeme Garden,  Comedian Abt. 1967 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Garden https://www.facebook.com/Graeme-Garden-8360681554/

Ref: Cartmel Peninsula Local History Society.Mike Hornung.Peninsula Schools.Sept 2015

LMS conveniently forgot about the tidal bore when they commissioned this stunning poster! And that sand.....was it really that colour? https://grangeoversandshistory.weebly.com/history-grange-over-sands.html https://grangeoversandshistory.weebly.com/jetties-and-piers.html A very interesting article perhaps a bit before our time! I didn’t realise that the Bay could generate such large waves!

The Front Elevation abt. 1955. Mr And Mrs Duncan lived in the gable ended lhs portion. It was there that Mr Duncan’s study was located. If you were to be caned or if you were to be given the ‘facts of life’ in your final days at the school it was there that you would receive the news. The school dining room is on the lower rhs. Mr Hirst’s Morris Minor 1000 is parked on lhs. Goodbye’s at Grange station - they didn’t have to do it! Was it intentional or was it just Raymond Hirst’s favourite hymn? Either way whenever William Blake’s Jerusalem is sung it immediately transports me back to the Memorial Hall at Charney on the last day of term! ‘And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountains green: And did the Holy Lamb of God, on England’s pleasant pastures seen’. There must have been a supressed tear in every pupil’s eye, and a strange mixture of joy and a tinge of sadness because whilst we were going home we would miss our friends and, although I suspect no one

Updated Sept 2021 Master Lennox Aitchison shows us how to hit the ball! Lennox Gordon Fraser Aitchison 1925-1966 Lennox Aitchison was a master at Charney in the mid 1950s. He majored in Latin and Cricket! With a nonchalent air and an Oxbridge arrogance (his home was Coupland Castle, Wooler in Northumberland), ‘yes’ and ‘no’ became ‘yop’ and ‘nope’. It was rumoured that he dined and shot with the Cavendishes of Holker Hall at the weekends. We sensed a certain tension between him and Maxwell Duncan.  Needless to say he didn’t stay long!  He was one of the younger masters at Charney being in his late twenties before he deserted us. Whilst the noble language of Latin only inspired the top few scholars - we couldn’t quite understand how an unspoken tongue could be of the slightest use in later life - however ‘Archie’s’ enthusiasm for Life and for Cricket inspired us all. However he didn’t think much of my attempts at the noble art of cricket… He was of course absolutely correct! H

The red line indicates the final boundary of the Charney Hall grounds which, together with the reacquisition of Grove House in 1957 (the original school building), marks the total extent of land and buildings held by the school during its life.

There has been recent debate about the provision of direction signs on some of the Lakeland peaks. This reminded me of a walk we undertook one Sunday with masters Fawcett and Aitchison if I remember correctly....I think that Haigh was the lucky one. Here is my letter to the Times....I don’t think that it made it to ‘Letters to the Editor’!

First published 3/19/19 Post updated 4 March 2023 : Airviews’ photo (in part) added and keyed with major elements of the School Charney Hall Main Building (before the Dining Room Extension), the Memorial Hall, the terraced drive and front lawn (which were out of bounds to boys) Charney Hall Environs This section of Ordnance Survey map shows the school before the Memorial Hall was built. The hall was completed by 1924.  At this point in time Charney Road which runs down the eastern boundary, appears as a track. The woods shown as 552/553 were subsequently cleared and the whole field graded in two sections to form 2 football pitches. The Lodge, built in 1928, between the School House and Grove House, was an annex but was also reserved as a sanatorium in the event of an epidemic. The Lodge looking very much neglected To the north east of the main site, Grove House, the original school purchased by George and Matilda Podmore, was re-acquired by the School sometime after 1958.     Grov

Aerial photo abt 1960s? with Maxwell Duncan’s well known script The Cricket Field Extract off postcard A Charney Hall postcard pre 1914   Charney Hall, the Monkeypuzzle Tree,  the Drive and Memorial Hall on the rhs         The School from Yewbarrow Charney Hall Notes June 1930 Charney Hall Original South Elevation  with Porch and Balcony added Charney Hall Memorial Hall

(Updated May 2019) (Updated June 2020) - the App has been updated - at last I have been able to resize the text!! Well someone had to do it....the task has fallen on little old dyslexic me!   First my apologies for the slack setup of the blog - I am a newbie but at least the initial traumas of inputting information that I first experienced have now virtually disappeared due to the updating and debugging of the software. 😷 Having come across David Clapp’s post ‘The First 50 Years of Charney Hall School’ ** and Louis’s research into Cumbrian War Memorials *** which prompted many posts from former pupils, I thought that it would be useful to create a working blog where people could leave their thoughts/photos about Charney.  Maybe one day Charney Hall will become a curiosity and someone will produce a comprehensive record! Either way I think that Charney heritage is worth saving...they don’t make schools like that anymore! I’ve been advised that a blog is the best way to do this, s