Charney Hall School, Grange-over-Sands

A Merry Christmas to all who may come across this blog! My painting this year is one perhaps reminiscent of those dense birch and hazel woods around the slopes of Hampsfell that we explored in our youth when at Charney Hall School. 

Lieutenant-Colonel, The Honourable Arthur Adolph Baerlein CBE, Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm. The family of Arthur Adolph Baerlein (b. 27 Nov 1886, d. 27 Jan 1966) (CH 1900-01) were ‘Manchester textile merchants, machine exporters, dealers in cotton and flax waste, shipping agents, converters, spinners and doublers’*. His grandfather Emanuel, originally from Furth, Bavaria had established a yarn merchants and his sons Max and Sigismund joined the business, initially operating from 18 Exchange Street, Salford. Baerleins also supplied their own Lancashire looms to the mills of East Lancashire and Manchester which were manufactured by Atherton Brothers of Preston. Max Baerlein married Emily Cohen from Rusholme in 1876. Their first house was The Limes, Eccles Old Road, Pendleton, Salford, where they started their family, and latterly The Grange in Withington where at one point in 1891 they employed 7 servants*. 1891 England Census In 1877 the Baerleins bought a plot of land at auction

Below are displayed extracts from Charney Hall Notes dated 1914 and 1927. They relate to information about old boys during WW1 (1914-1918).   I have the distinct feeling that this post will be greatly expanded in the near future… Charney Hall Notes 1927 In the 1914 edition the obituary of  Capt. T H Preston  (CH 1890-1894) who was killed in Flanders on 17 November 1914 records that he was the younger brother of Lieut. J S Preston (CH 1889?-1893) who died at Dewetsdorp, South Africa on 27 June 1900. During the years 1891/92 they were in the second set together at Charney Hall only 17 months separated them.  Sadly they died at the ages of 33 and 21 respectively.  James Bond - Ltn Colonel Cuthbert   Euan Charles Rabagliati  MC AFC Légion d’honneur (b. 1 Jan 1892 Bradford - d. 6 Jan 1978 Mouans-Sartous, France). In the 1911 England Census he was recorded as being at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 19 years old, one of the many ‘Gentleman Cadets’. Having received his commission he jo

Louis’s original article in Cumbrian War Memorials provoked much discussion about Charney’s Memorial Hall and the possible whereabouts of the mythical WW1 memorial plaque.  Empathy is the last emotion that is bestowed upon the boys in a preparatory school who are miles away from family and home. We were all too much occupied with the struggle for our own survival! They say that competition is healthy - well we had plenty of that - in the classroom, on the playing fields, in the rifle range and in the school sports at the end of the Summer Term. Our parents saw a summary of the fruits of our labours neatly and concisely set out in our school reports - ‘could do much better’- can’t hit the ball to leg’- ‘doesn’t try hard enough’- ‘appears to be in a dream’- ‘is progressing well’…… what!! I suspect that empathy comes with love, with the responsibility of caring for a pet, with seeing others suffer, with having to deal with life’s experiences including death. Empathy is linked to the compl

 Rev : KS colour photo of Lake District National Park added - Jan 2024   The colour photograph (above) illustrates how close the Lake District was to Grange-over-Sands and Charney Hall. We were indeed fortunate as senior boys to be able to spend time there at the weekends and experience the magnificence of the landscape of one of Britain’s National Parks. At our impressionable age these forays into the unknown would stay with us for the rest of our lives and for some who made the North West their home, regular excursions would become part of the respite from an increasingly hectic life.         If you screw your eyes up really tight, you may be able to make out the former site of Charney Hall in the magical views over Morecambe Bay….😆

Updated : 26 March 2022 Enormous thanks go to John Cranna who sourced this amazing, possibly unique, piece of Charney history, - a parents’ cricket match most probably in the 1930s, taken with a cine camera by Hilda Edmondson.  The boys haven’t changed much, even the cricket colours cap was the same. But the parents are showing their age with a silver fox fur in evidence, and brimmed, cloche style, summer hats, tailored suits and homburgs being de rigueur ! Afternoon tea looks as though it was served on the tennis court which was in close proximity to the school kitchen. I include John Cranna’s informative comments here: The following are some screen shots from the film which set the scene: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16a47vFX8zzjRD_VzSUO3D3OmR1syezJw/view?usp=drivesdk https://www.zamindarfilms.eu/film-previews

The original planning application proposals for Charney Hall School and Headmasters House have now been received from the Cumbrian Archive Centre (Kendal). The plans dated 1888 and  prepared by the architect, Joseph Pattinson of Windermere, detail the original proposals which were later extended in 1903 with the addition of a Ground Floor Kitchen/Larder and First Floor Servants’ Hall/WC. There are some other drawings in the archive relating to more, as yet unidentified, alterations. It is interesting to see how times have changed - today even the provision of a WC must be accompanied by detailed written specifications, a drainage layout, a justification statement and most probably a Health and Safety Plan!  Here a short note in pencil signed by the Grange Local Board Chairman passes the plans! The UK adopted the metric system way back in 1974. Some manufacturers still produce ‘metric goods’ in imperial dimensions! No longer are hand-drawn drawings considered acceptable as a computer ge

Updated 18 Apr 2022 : The major’s dog was of course called ‘Curfew’ and not ‘Monty’! Major Trevor Vigne Rabbidge metamorphosed from the British Army into a master at Charney Hall School in the mid-1950s. It was on the 15th May 1945, at the end of WWII, that he reported to the War Office Casualty Branch in London which signified the end of his service as an infantryman in the York and Lancaster Regiment.  The act of military surrender by Germany occurred on the 8th May 1945, just 7 days earlier. The proud Regiment itself would eventually be voluntarily disbanded in 1968 due to reorganisation within the Army. Born on 29 July 1915 in Ulverston he entered the British Army, perhaps as a career soldier, joining the King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) and by 1934 at the age of 19 he had attained the rank of Lieutenant. At the commencement of WWII he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment. Between 1944-1945 Trevor was promoted to Captain and he was subsequent