The Journal of The Old Chelmsfordians Association.
Memorial Sports Field, Lawford Lane, Roxwell Road, Chelmsford, Essex. CM1 2NS
Phone: 01245 420442 : Website:
Secretary and Newsletter Editor: George Heseltine : 01245 265962 :
HOW MANY OCs DOES IT TAKE?
To a) Change a light bulb and……………………………. b) Fix a broken goalpost?
Maybe too many but fortunately our willing volunteers on Fridays and Saturdays can turn their hands to most things to keep the clubhouse in good order and our ground up to scratch to enable our social gatherings and our various sports to take place.
We would be a much poorer place without them so ‘Thank You’ one and all.
The Olympic Ideal Originated in Chelmsford?
We were delighted, following our article about the Blue Plaque having been erected in memory of Joseph Strutt, to have received a copy of the February 2013 ‘Coates’ Cuttings’, the journal of the ChelmerCanal Trust with this further information. We were all the more delighted that Dudley Courtman (1945-1952) who brought this to our attention and who had been Strutt House captain in his time and Brin Pirathapan(2006-2013), the then current Strutt House captain had both been in attendance at it’s unveiling
“We have all just shared a spectacular lifetime’s experience: the Olympic Games. Noneof us would have realised that the original idea had its roots in the writings andresearches of an Essex boy. In 1801 Joseph Strutt wrote “The Sports and Pastimes ofthe People of England”. Its 400 pages and 140 engravings described sports andpastimes in all of their different guises: leisure time activities, hunting, archery,hawking, games, gymnastics, dancing, music, festivals like Christmas and Easter,customs such as “mumming”, “the Boy Bishop” and “the Lord of Misrule”. It was awork of great erudition and has proved to be a priceless historical document.This publication was thought to have persuaded Dr William Penny Brookes to found the Much Wenlock Games, Shropshire, in 1850. These games were subsequently visitedby Pierre de Coubertin who was so impressed that he founded the Olympic Games inParis in 1896. Coubertin immortalised the spirit of the games with his mantra: “Theimportant thing is not to win but to take part... the essential thing is not to haveconquered but to have fought well”.Joseph Strutt was a member of the county’s nineteenth century milling family – therewere many Strutt millers and mills on Essex rivers. Chelmsford had Moulsham,Bishops and Springfield (where Joseph was born in 1702) and there were others at Ulting, Wickham Bishops and Colchester. Milling was the county’s first major industryand the Strutt family was an integral part of the local economy. It is worthremembering though that the Strutt family was one of the major objectors to theconstruction of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation.On November 18th, 2012 a small band of local historians, together with Chelmsford’s Mayor, Charles Kingsley, and local councillor Nicolette Chambers, assembled on thepavement outside the formerSpringfield mill house next to theformer mill in Victoria Road. They were there to unveil a blue plaque tohonour the contribution that JosephStrutt had made to the nation’s heritage.Whereas most of the Strutt offspringhad followed the family millingtradition, Joseph Strutt eschewed it infavour of more cerebral pathways: hebecame accomplished as an engraver,antiquarian, artist and author.Joseph was educated at Chelmsford’s KingEdwardVIGrammar School which cantake some pride in his achievements. One of the four school houses is named after him.The school was represented at the ceremony by the current Strutt house captain: BrinParathapan who was joined by a former Strutt house captain, Dudley Courtman.
Charles Kingsley said: “It is important to record and mark our heritage in the blue plaque scheme. Those honoured in this way are chosen carefully and only 17 have beenunveiled since 1986. Joseph Strutt is a worthy recipient and we are grateful for thework of the Galleywood Historical Group for much of their research.” (It was theGalleywood Group that sponsored the plaque) Strutt died in 1802 and was buried in St Andrews church in Holborn. With thebuilding of the Holborn Viaduct in ManorPark his remains were removed and now lieclose to Stratford Olympic Parkas if he was destined to be reunited with what couldhave been the outcome of his inspirational book”.
KEGS SCHOOL NEWS
Another former KEGs pupil recently making the news isGrayson Perry, CBE, thought to bethe onlyold boy ever to be invited to present the Reith Lecture which was recently broadcast over four weeks on BBC’s Radio 4. Now 53 he attended the School during the 1970s and is known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. He went on to win the Turner Art Prize in 2003 and I recall Helen Wiltshire, head of Art, writing with the School’s congratulations on his achievement (although he had had nothing to do with the School or OCs since leaving KEGs). This proved well founded as he did subsequently return to the School in May 2012 to spend a most enjoyable and enlightening day with some of the pupils to whom, just as in his Reith lectures, he spoke about how he views Art and thecreative process, and what he considersto be the value of Art in today's society.He was, it was reported, as engaging as he always is indiscussion, with a romp through his life,thoughts and achievements delighting his audience.
THE HEADMASTER WRITES
As Christmas approaches, we are looking forward to the annual carol service at Chelmsford Cathedral and our Prize Giving event on the penultimate day of term. We'll round off the term with the traditional rendition of 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful'. Events such as these and the Remembrance Assembly in November alongside all the run-of-the-mill KEGS quirks such as gowns and 'banging the book' in assembly are traditional aspects of KEGS life that continue to play a crucial role. They keep us focused on what matters when all around us seems to be chaotic and in constant flux.
At the same time, we do aim to move with the times. Our DigIT Festival in November was a resounding success with nearly 800 visitors touring the school to engage with exhibitors to share their enthusiasm for technology and programming. We had support from all the local universities and big companies including e2v and BAE Systems alongside a range of smaller scale companies and Chelmsford City Council. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and we're planning to run the event again in November 2014. Our goal is to create a strong association between KEGS and the City of Chelmsford as a hub of technological innovation. DigIT 2013 was a good start.
If you've visited recently you will see that the construction of the new art block is well under-way. The steel frame is complete and it is possible to get a sense of the space we'll have. In other aspects of school life, we're developing more international school links with new partners in India and Russia to join our links with schools in China, Kenya, France and Germany. This year we are aiming to gain re-accreditation under the British Council International Schools Award scheme. Just today, I was impressed to see Year 8 students engaged in a Model United Nations activity, debating serious global issues in a very serious manner.
Thank you to all OCs members who attended the Winter Orchestral Concert. I hope to see you at the Spring Concert next term. Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Tom Sherrington
SCHOOL NEWSPAPERS IN THE 1950s
PaulHerrington(1951-1958) has written “I have followed the Newsletter Issues from No. 250 onwards with particular interest, mainly because of my involvement with The Edwardian, and I have been trying to complete the attached short piece for some weeks. It is the nearest I can come to (i) answering Frank Easton's plea in No. 254 (p. 4) about WWN and The Torch; and (ii) attempting to compile some sort of definitive history of those two periods of school newspapers in the 1950s: 1954-55 and 1958-59.As you will see from my text, the OCA newsletter has put me back in touch with a number of people who were good friends, and I do appreciate the extraordinary job of work you do in managing all this”.
“Recent reminiscences in your readable POSTBAG section showed how one enquiry trail invariably raises another – in this case Gareth Gunning’s memories of the Corps of Drums leading, with the aid of Mick Burr, to questions about the school newspapers of the early and late 1950s, which in turn prompted contributions from Martin Rogers and Brian Saunders – and then email contact between Gareth, Martin and Brian, and myself, after a complete gap (for me at least) of 55 years.
Of those of us who contributed to The Edwardian (Nos. 1-6 every three or four weeks during 1958 and Nos. 7-11 every couple of months over 1958-59; did it then fizzle out?), it is interesting to see that only Martin Rogers proceeded to earn at least some of his bread by joining the Fourth Estate. There’s no evidence to hand that Norman Fowler (The Times) and Simon Heffer (The Daily Telegraph) had cut their teeth on schoolboy journalism, and my own meagre post-KEGS efforts in the Essex Chronicle and the student papers at Nottingham and Southampton led only to script-writing and acting in the satire boom of the early to mid-1960s, before I got a real job in academia.
Where the name Norm Fowler did crop up, regularly, was in the Westfield Weekly News, mainly in reports of the often acrimonious debates held by the Fleur de Lys society. WWN began life in February 1954, being sold each Friday in term-time. It was edited by J.M.Ayres, a boarder, which probably explained the late Thursday 8pm ‘Stop Press’ deadline. Reporters initially were “R D Stewart, P J Baldwin & M J Margerison”, with Keith Crook joining them later on, and there was an exceptional cartoonist (see below). Four foolscap stencils were cut orthogonally, the results being duplicated onto both sides of two foolscap sheets of paper, which were then folded in half to generate eight small pages. All done in a legible hand (no typing at all) and sold for ‘Three Halfpence’, save for economy and the odd bumper editions (eg Xmas 1954, for which the circulation was reported as 278!). It really was weekly – my run for 1954-55 covers nos. 7-19 (Nov. 5 to Feb.18), which I will gladly pass over to the newspaper archivist.
The variety of the WWN content was impressive. For example, No. 7 was headlined with BOYS ABANDONED IN CAMBRIDGE AFTER TRIP. The six left behind “included both the Head Boy and the Second Boy” and they had to return by taxi, after “Mr Fanshawe and Mr Stedman…having waited for a quarter of an hour, decided to leave, “to teach them some manners””, as NHF told the reporter. Amazingly, “their claim for £5 expenses was granted”.
The following week the front page scoop was CYCLE DAMAGE: NO MORE CYCLING TO NEWFIELDS, almost as arresting as page 2’s PROBABLENEW SKETCH FOR VI FORM DINNER (only probable, note). A week later news still seemed desperately short – we were treated to STRUTT WIN SENIOR FOOTBALL – AND SINGING TOO! Late November, however, gave us the headline highlight of the term, of almost Murdochian proportions: HEAD BOY’S SENSATIONAL SPEECH AT GIDEON’S [sic] CEREMONY. Exhorts boys to become “men of the bible”. The irony, made clear in the story, was that Head boy “Mr M R C Cocks” was an acknowledged agnostic. The chortling in the 6th form could allegedly be heard in Broomfield.
Looking back at those thirteen issues – and the WWN’s own satirical take on itself, in the form of the one-off Proletarian Times, dated December 17, 1984 – the effort put in and the quality of the finished product were extraordinary. But for me the outstanding section overall was the regular half-page cartoon by ‘Dubois’ (Terry Wood, of course). Rodney Jackson, NHF, Waxy Wheatley, Dick Stedman et al. (yes, even the J. B. Hilton eyebrows!) were all there – caricatured regularly and perfectly. One highlight was Dubois’s take on the 1st XI’s infamous 10-0 defeat by Grays in the 1954-55 season. A hapless Norm Fowler is portrayed with ten balls nestling in the back of the net, and an inscription reading: ‘Norm deciding that perhaps he’s not a natural goalkeeper after all’.
WWN was essentially a literary endeavour. It had, of course, Westfields, and therefore VI Arts and prefectorial power, stamped all over it. It was thus the paper of the establishment, geared more to gown than town. So it was no surprise that when a competitor from the Science side emerged in November 1954, it looked more a magazine than a newspaper. If WWN was The Times, then the new kid on the block – The Torch - was the Sun of the world we inhabited. .
Initially, this fortnightly 14-page magazine-style product was modestly produced “by the form for the form” [Lower VI Science]; it was edited by John Branson, with R. Grover as sub-editor, combining comprehensive notes about school societies and limited sports reporting with tv, radio and film news, a Beginners’ Crossword and even short stories. There were some typing problems with No. 1, which WWN predictably proceeded to savage on its front page – e.g. “…it has been described as a large-sized edition of the second-form magazine, The Chimp” and “…[our] Mr Sorrell discovered no less than 228 mistakes in this first edition…”.
No. 3, however, marked a big change – The Torch became a 4-page (1.5d.) or 6-page (2d.) foolscap newspaper, with a clear bias towards science (e.g.’s: Science Master’s Visit to Marconi Research Laboratories/World Science News/ Moon Rockets?/Underground Gas Store on Tees Side/Visit to Ladybower Dam/The problem of the Extra Cell). No. 4 then signalled an all-out war with the WWN, with FALSE ALLEGATIONS (the banner headline) being rebutted in detail, followed by this note: ‘Dear WWN, Before you go to press in future, make sure that you are printing THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH! (which should be every printer’s aim!)’ A week later, as the autumn term was ending, the seasonal spirit took over in No. 5 with MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR READERS. And that is where my Torch collection ends – were there any further issues?
Fast forward now, to early 1958, and your correspondent had just failed Cambridge entrance cataclysmically in his fourth year – yes, fourth! – in the 6th form, and accepted a Nottingham place instead. What to do with myself for the next eight months, with KEGS by now flowing through every vein in my body? Answers: try teaching Maths to 3A, organise the School Fete, play and watch as much cricket as possible, try O levels in Economics & British Constitution through private study, and re-start a school newspaper. Of these, Maths lessons were a disaster (no training, and I knew Malcolm Pannell too well). I do apologise to him now, but I partly repaid the debt in August 1964 when I held my end up for a couple of hours while he got a brilliant 108 not out in the annual Bank Holiday fixture against Stock [OC’s 204 - 9 dec., Stock 152 all out – Essex Weekly News report]. The fete was good – weather brilliant and a profit of £200 (£3500 in today’s money). The two O Levels? I scraped through. The cricket was also good, both at New Writtle Street and in the school 2nd XI, but more especially opening the batting with Bruce Choppin for the Wayfarers (whatever happened to that club?).
That takes us to The Edwardian, the obvious title for a new school newspaper. Others must judge the standard we reached, but Gareth Gunning, Brian Goodey, Bob Slater, Sam Saunders and I knew there was space for a journal of record other than The Chelmsfordian. We also tried to alter the balance towards town and away from gown, deciding on 6 foolscap pages on a Thursday, every few weeks. Like WWN, we printed late; I had an arrangement with NHF and Doris Moth that I could go into and virtually take over the School Office at 5.30 pm on a Wednesday evening, and usually finished the duplicating and the stapling between 11 pm and 1 am.
The town/gown shift was manifest in various “exclusive” statements we managed to obtain or provoke from people outside the school. With our first headline on 6th February 1958 – OUR INFLUENCE IS ALREADY FELT – we modestly took full responsibility for getting the Broomfield Road widening under way through a letter to the Town Clerk, after long delays and much chaos at the front of the school. For No. 2 we gave the full details of the Queen’s upcoming drive past the school, while in No. 3 we broke a story which was to get national coverage – the imminent visit to the school, on the day after publication, of George King, the “only man in Britain to have visited Mars” (invited by Mr Hodgson on behalf of the Scientific Society). The Sunday People hadfound out about the visit, and asked to sit in on the lecture, but the Head wisely turned them down. I was offered a bribe, but ditto. Friday was cadet day, of course, with the usual kit and boot inspection as you entered the school gates, and the talk had a huge attendance but passed off without incident. Two days later, however, The People reported in some detail how military personnel had been sent out to guard the front of the school and to keep their reporters and cameraman out.