Charney Hall School, Grange-over-Sands

As I lent backwards, launching myself with my head tilted back into the clear filtered sea water, a calm voice urged me to raise my legs and arch my back….but to no avail! My attempt to float once more ended in abject failure as my feet sank deeper and deeper into the depths of Grange Lido swimming pool.   Grange Lido in its heyday The bronzed be-Speedoed pool attendant who helped many boys to swim for the first time was our 21 year old swimming instructor. Fresh out of National Service he kept a professional eye on us as the fortunate majority crawled, breaststroked and backstroked up and down between the painted lane lines in the pool. Standing bolt upright on the pool side he looked to us like Charles Atlas, the American body builder, the inventor of Dynamic-Tension who once promised to turn a 97 pound weakling into Adonis.  Charles Atlas He gave me words of encouragement as he described to the small group of non-swimmers the intricacies of the breaststroke. We stood, waist...

Another red herring! You may have noticed that I have referred to ‘spotting’ when commenting on some photographs.   Spotting refers to the elimination of the black and white blemishes found on photographic prints. They are the result of air bubbles (and in the case of black spots perhaps undeveloped areas) adhering to the acetate negative film during the development process. The more white spots, the less care has been taken when inverting the processing tank during film development! White spots seen on the photographic print are of course black on the negative! Invariably (Sods Law) they seem to always occur on or around eyes, noses, lips, profiles - in fact anywhere that you least want to see them. Occurring in large numbers they can ruin the 3D effect of a good photograph. Worse still they can render a bad photograph completely useless. So it is for this reason that I spend hours of my time, whilst watching TV,    eliminating as many as I deem to be detrimental to the ...

A little bit of a red herring but a short post about what was going on along the coast at Barrow-in-Furness around the time of the construction of Charney Hall main building, the majority of which remained virtually unchanged until its demolition in 1973. Interpretation panels at The Dock Museum, Barrow-in-Furness At the turn of the century Barrow’s ship building was in its prime. It was industrial production on a massive scale - work for men not boys!  Launched in 1899 ‘Vengeance’ was the first battleship to be built for the Royal Navy in Barrow. Every part of the vessel, including the fitting out and armament was carried out in the town.  Every schoolboy must have been aware of the existence of one of the country’s largest shipbuilding yards as it was front page news.  Apologies for the reflections and the feet! ‘The vessel, which was christened by Mrs Vickers, left the … in magnificent style to the strains of Rule Britannia’ An interesting twist in the tail relates to ...

Post updated 3 March 2023 Airviews enlarged photograph keyed, CH Classroom abt.1953 keyed A visit to Barrow Archive Centre, Cumbria County Council has yielded 4 files of photographs. There are many that have already featured in previous posts but I thought that it would be best to post them together, as found, in collections as well. I have included in this post re-photographed/enlarged sections of some of the photographic prints to provide better detail. I have ‘spotted’ and improved the photographs wherever possible. Many thanks to the Barrow Archive Centre, Cumbria County Council, who are credited with the following photographs.  File Ref : BDS/16/2/1-10 and BDS/16/3/1-30 Aerial Photograph by Airviews Ltd Keyed  Enlargement Enlargement The School Main Building (1888-1889) Featuring the new Dining Room extension (1947 ) 1929 Views over the Bay Arnside Knott and Holme Island The lower Football Field where inter-school matches were played The Grounds Featuring the Monkey Puzzl...