Charney Hall School, Grange-over-Sands

Many thanks to David Johnson for this latest post   Charney Hall School 1951 Staff: Nurse Goodwin, Messrs Vanderkist, Topham, Barbara Duncan, Maxwell Duncan, Raymond Hirst, Messrs Hopkins, Baker and Assistant Matron   Charney Hall Reflections - David R Johnson  -  1950 -1965 I arrived at CH September 1950, courtesy of my father’s acquaintance with Maxwell Duncan (WMD) at Pembroke College, Oxford, 1928/30. The Isle of Man to Grange-over-Sands (GOS) journey was an adventure – 4 hours boat from Douglas to Liverpool, transfer (sometimes on foot) from the Princess Landing Stage to Lime Street station, and train to Preston, where safety, personified as A.B.K McCullagh ( ABKM) or Philip Fawcett (PF), shepherded  us back to school.     Surprisingly I was not that homesick and usually got quite quickly into the rhythm of CH life, where the regulars, Hoppy, Topham, PF, WMD, ABKM and Raymond Hirst (RH) attempted to mould us callow youths into shape. Mr Fairclough taught music and played the organ

Many thanks for your contribution Chris! I have only just come across this centre for Charney Hall memories and am so happy to find news and reminiscences of people whose company and friendship I enjoyed in 1962/63 when I was a member of staff and i/c first team cricket and football for a year before going to Durham University. I first met John McCullagh when teaching at Dunchurch Winton Hall, a prep school (long since closed) outside Rugby where I taught for a year after leaving Repton. John was on the staff there. This was the start of a friendship that was to last until his death. He was kind and generous with a wicked sense of humour. We kept in touch for many years and he was held in much affection by my family whom he came to know well. At Charney he and I had rooms in the Lodge where it was absolutely freezing and John's warm sitting room was a most welcome haven. It was in his company and under his guidance that I came to know many of the pubs in the area, the foremost of w