CHARNEY HALL Reminiscences 2

Updated Sept 2021

Updated July 2023

Being sent away to boarding school was a baptism of fire. For the majority of new boys who were usually no more than 8 years old, it was most probably their first experience of being separated from their parents and it could prove traumatic. The first two weeks were the worst when feeling homesick and losing sleep could lead to emotional upset which in turn could be manifested in a physical form: crying, wetting the bed, irregular bowel movements...... A watchful eye was kept on all new boys by Matron who was well briefed at spotting any potential problems. Even Barbara Duncan, the headmaster’s wife was known to occasionally show compassion and reveal the maternal side of her character.*

However after parents had said their goodbyes, depositing your trunk packed full of crisply ironed school clothes, neatly labelled by your Mum, the school timetable took over and life followed a predetermined set pattern - meals, lessons, sport, homework and bed.

Rules and regulations had to be obeyed, were clearly set out by the masters and staff alike and it soon became evident that if you didn’t conform there might not be a second chance. Cane was king and we all knew that it would hurt.

Maxwell Duncan, who was a formidable man, would patrol the corridors after ‘lights out’ in the dormitories. We learnt to differentiate between his footsteps and those of Matron or Messrs Fawcett & McCullagh. We could see the shadow of his feet in the illuminated slit beneath the door. The dormitory door might open in a split second and the lights switched on. Woe betide the pupil who was caught talking, was not in bed, even if he were using the old pull and chain toilet across the corridor.....the best tactic was to play dead, eyes screwed shut and pretend to be asleep!

Each dormitory was provided with a ‘jerry’ or chamber pot which was positioned in the centre of the dormitory. We were forbidden to go to the toilet after ‘lights out’ under pain of death. Thus on Sunday morning when I think we were given an extra half hour in bed, the pot was always brimming full! I would never admit that we did this on purpose but we often wondered how the cleaner ever emptied it!

The school handbell announced the progression of the day - rise and shine, various meals, lessons and breaks throughout the day.

There was little ‘free time’ allocated for the development of personal interests. Time that was set aside from lessons or sport was structured and overseen by the masters. Escaping from the school grounds by the foolhardy was never considered or if it ever was, the thought was immediately dispelled by the vision of Maxwell Duncan, cane in hand. Grange town was out of bounds except when out on walks or visiting the open air swimming pool under the supervision of a master.

On walks out of the school grounds we were instructed to walk ‘two by two’ in ‘crocodile’ fashion. Always neatly dressed, with caps on, we would raise them in turn as we snaked around the older ladies of the town. From the back the effect looked a bit like a Mexican wave!

The routes varied : Grange Promenade including the Duck Pond and Ornamental Gardens,Yewbarrow Wood and the ‘Face’, Yewbarrow Wood and up to the ‘Tanks’ and newt ponds at the base of the fell, Hampsfell and the Hospice. We were usually given time off around the Hospice where we could view the Lake District peaks and dream, then explore the limestone pavements and chase White, Meadow Brown, Orange Tip and Blue butterflies. To see a Highbrown Fritillary flitting past at speed was a privilege. To catch one was a different matter!

Last but not least were the unforgettable Sunday walks in the Lake District for selected senior pupils.

A boarding school never felt like home. It was a harsh, puritanical environment, hierarchical, sometimes intimidating and having its own set of distinctive smells: the classroom, the gym, the dining room, the carpentry shed, the shooting range, even the bathroom with its hair shampoo made out of the boiled-down leftovers of carbolic soap!

There really was nobody to turn to for emotional or physical support - you were truly on your own, probably miles away from any family. The strict discipline maintained order and provided a framework for work,sport and sleep. The imposed use of the surname as a means of addressing one another reinforced the formality of school life and further reminded us that we were not at home.

Young boys are young boys and whilst age gave one advantage in the pecking order, there was often peer rivalry and derision which at its worst would today be termed ‘bullying’. However in general each individual’s skills, whether it be prowess on the playing field, being consistently top of the class, a scholar, or just being a nice guy had a levelling effect and we all seemed to rub along together just fine. There were of course the exceptions....some boys would excel at everything! School colours at football, colours at cricket, top marks in most subjects, leading eventually to a scholarship to one of the top public schools. But that too had its reward for all of us - a day out at Tarn Hows in the Lake District!

We all looked forward to Sunday lunch because after the meal we were issued with a week’s supply of assorted sweets - 7 in total - one for each day of the week! I think that most boys had eaten their allocation by the time they had finished writing the obligatory letter home or if they had been saved for the Sunday film, before that had even finished!

To this day I have never quite worked out how my dentist, upon my return home in the holidays, could always find an occlusal cavity in one of my teeth to fill with amalgam, when my intake of sugar was severely limited for 6 months of the year. In retrospect I suspect that the basis of dentists’ remuneration which was fully sanctioned by the government of the day, did more harm to my teeth than any sweet.....!

Films Remembered: Genevieve, The Third Man (and the unforgettable Harry Lime theme), The Lavender Hill Mob, The Cruel Sea, The Titfield Thunderbolt, The Dambusters, The Cockleshell Heroes, The Colditz Story.

Because sweets were in such meagre supply the object was always to make them last as long as possible. The best way was to hold the sweet between tongue and roof of mouth, moving the tongue as little as possible. I think that there were competitions but the only boys who were certain to win were those whose parents had secreted additional supplies in their trunks at the beginning of term or whose stocks were replenished at half-term. One boy’s father (Bernard Swift) had a sweet factory. We could not win!

At half term a bar of Kendal Mint Cake was a popular treat given by departing parents. If you try it today it tastes sickly sweet but then it was a welcome addition to our staple sweet rations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendal_Mint_Cake

Having reached the pinnacle of the prep-school community, we found that being a prefect/senior pupil accorded certain privileges such as the aforementioned Sunday walks in the Lake District and, ridiculous though it might seem, hot buttered toast, grilled on the gas fire in our small room round the corner from the dining room, washed down with a mug of hot chocolate, before retiring upstairs to bed!

We sensed that the masters were more approachable and we were almost, but definitely not quite, on first name terms with them!

Little did we know what was in store for us at public school - the next real-life experience. Well nobody told us! In hindsight our time at Charney would be seen as ‘the best years of our lives’ and the meaning of the word ‘fear’ would have to be redefined.

We would experience a world where, in some cases, even prefects were allowed to cane, where inter-house rivalry was extremely intense, where the word ‘can’t’ did not exist and where it was expected that you would stand on your own two feet from the very first day of the very first term, and take whatever was meted out like a man.

The Duck Pond

Grange-over-Sands’ ornamental gardens and duck pond were well known for their amazing variety of ducks and geese. The local wild-fowling association was once a major force in maintaining the stock and it was they who ensured that the birds were correctly fed. For instance Eider ducks require a special diet to maintain them in peak condition. Unfortunately many of the duck species have been now stolen (July 2018) and now in March 2019 it is not yet known whether they will be replaced by the Council.

It is a sad indictment of our present society that there are people within it who do not appreciate such beauty but will destroy it for their own selfish purposes, at the expense of the townspeople and visitors alike.

https://grangeoversandshistory.weebly.com/ornamental-gardens.html#

Walks in Lakeland

In the summer term, but always subject to a good weather forecast, selected senior boys were taken in masters’ cars to walk in the Lake District - In retrospect a great privilege as the ‘Lakes’ in the 1950s were undeveloped as a tourist destination as we know it today, lacking convenient access to the motorway network, and having only been given National Park status in 1951.

A Half Term Treat on Windermere

Whilst the Lake District had always been sought out by the intelligentsia of the day, the artists, poets and writers, with the construction of the Furness railway wealthy Victorian and Edwardian industrialists began to acquire land and build houses along the shore line of Lake Windermere. The spur to Lakeside from Haverthwaite gave them the opportunity to take advantage of the Lake’s facility and it was said that they would have races up the lake in their steam launches on their way home.The Windermere steam launches were all that remained as tangible evidence of that bygone era on the lake. Exquisitely built out of the finest varnished timbers by the Bowness family run boatyards of Borwicks, Brockbanks and Shepherds, they were fitted with a glazed saloon which made them ideal for the fickle Lakeland weather. Later in the 1950s, having been acquired by the Bowness boating companies, some plied up and down the lake giving visitors views that previously were only available to millionaires. Others were still privately owned and were hidden in the numerous boathouses dotted along the shore of the lake. Maintained in good condition some have lasted well over 100 years.

It was a treat to be a passenger in one. The majority sported a ‘kettle’, a copper cylinder filled with fresh water which was heated by the engine cooling system and provided instant hot water for the obvious reason. Eventually steam gave way to diesel as a means of propulsion and although the kettle still survived, the noise from the engine which was more powerful, reliable and gave an instant response changed the experience forever.

Shamrock’s engine and kettle

Shamrock built by Shepherds Boatyard, Windermere

Some boys may have been aware of the emergence of watersports on Windermere. The classic Windermere yachts had been a part of the lake activities for some time. With their deep iron keels and what seemed to be an over-generous set of sails they never capsized despite their excessive angle of heel and so formed a close-knit pattern of white triangles in the Lakeland scene on many parents’ photographs.

But by 1955 speed over water was now the centre of interest with Donald Campbell setting his first world water speed record of 202.32mph on the 23 July 1955 on Lake Ullswater. Water skiing became popular on Windermere and the favoured speedboat was the Albatross, better still the Albatross Continental which in 1955 was given the Coventry Climax 1097cc, overhead valve, four cylinder engine. Some models reached over 50mph…