LYDNEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL REMEMBERED.
I confess I had never heard of Lydney until I saw the advertisement for an English post at the Grammar School in the T.E.S. in 1957. As I drove into the town for interview, my first impressions of the place were that it was small, dull, grey and extremely quiet. My impressions of the school were similar; the buildings looked decidedly temporary, I forget how I found my way in, but I know I had considerable difficulty in discovering the school office and the Headmaster's rather forbidding study.
All this is not to say that I was put off. I prefer small places to large; the proximity of the countryside means more to me than the bright lights; and in any case first impressions can be misleading. I soon found that L.G.S. contained a wealth of character - and the Staff Room a wealth of characters - which belied completely the dull grey exterior of those shack-like buildings.
How can I convey an adequate impression of so colourful a Staff? There was Mr. Rowley, denouncing politics in favour of poetry in a broad north country accent, as he stroked his beard with one hand and grasped nervously at a cigarette with the other. There was Mr. Stokes, dazzling competent at the"Times" crossword puzzle and equally dazzling as a raconteur. ‘Dit' Thomas, inseparable from his nickname (I'm sure that new pupils think it's a rare sort of title like Dr. or Canon!), spoke a language that was new to me until my ear grew accustomed to the speech of the natives! Mr. Winspear quietly concealed undreamed-of skills as mechanic, bell-ringer, mathematician, racing-driver - and no doubt others - beneath the mere bread-and-butter occupation of teaching Latin. Mr. Barlow, highly organised teacher of many subjects, but then principally of P.E., Geography, Chemistry and R. E., besides being camp expert, seemed so much a pillar of the community that I felt sure the school would fall apart if he ever had to be away. Mr. Laycock, devoted to History but also to his pupils, and another north countryman, was kindness itself beneath an exterior that sometimes seemed as rugged as his native moors. Mr. Pitt, who disappeared occasionally to become Commander Pitt, took over, during my time at the school as Senior Master from Mr. Hotchkiss. And so one could go on . . . But the most striking thing was that, minor disagreements apart, all these varied elements - Welsh fervour, Yorkshire grit, west-country blandness - blended with remarkable amity.
Friendliness was also the keynote of the nature of the pupils, though this
was not immediately apparent in lessons. Most children of today are reluctant,
after a certain age, to show any keenness for work, by Lydney children seemed
unusually reticent. As a newcomer to the district I found this trait somewhat
disconcerting; either my questions in lessons would be met with complete silence
or some pupil who betrayed himself by his speech as an alien would answer them
all! In this respect Swanage children are the same. In face there is a saying
going round my present school that the best way to get silence in a lesson
is to ask a question! However, with both groups I have found that the difficulty
dissolves once a working relationship has been established - but it takes time
and hard work to establish. Outside the classroom the children can be charming,
and the atmosphere at L.G.S. was relaxed and informal without being disorganised.
Several acquaintanceships formed at school continued after I had left. A telegram
received on my wedding day was signed by a number of nick-names; and one correspondence
continues to this day. Some readers will remember Rosemary Herd, whose father
was in the R.A.E.C. at Beachley. The family migrated to New Zealand, where
Mr. Herd is now a schoolmaster in holy orders. Rosemary married a prosperous
sheep-farmer and, as well as being the proud mother of two children, still
finds time to send us the occasional air-letter and a calendar every Christmas.
Academic standards at L.G.S. were good. For a small country town, it probably
had more that its fair share of university entrants and the exam. results in
general compared favourably with the national average. In this respect it is
similar to my present school - another small grammar school serving a wide
area. At Swanage, however, we have not the advantage of a Technical Department,
though this deficiency will be remedied when we move in 1974. We then combine
with three Secondary Modern Schools to form one very large Comprehensive School
at Wareham, ten miles away. The advent of the Technical Block was one of the
notable changes that took place during my stay at Lydney. It started under
a Mr. Stapleton who came to us from Nottingham, but he was one of the few people
who did not find Lydney congenial. The Department was then taken over with
cheerful efficiency by Mr. Reg. Jones. From this time of, strange machinery
roared in the workshop, weird diagrams appeared in the drawing office, and
foreign words like "scruff" and "sprocket" were bandied
about the Staff Room. It all remained a closed book to me.
Another change was the appearance of a very modern thing called a Lecture Room,
which actually had tiered seats so that everyone could see the board or screen.
It came towards the end of my time ad Lydney and I can remember using it only
once - for a talk by a visiting expert on National Savings.
Earlier than this a more far-reaching change had occurred: the School had always
had a connection with Berkeley and Sharpness. I never quite knew why, but some
children preferred to cross the River Severn to do their schooling on the northern
bank. Then one foggy night, as Winnie-the-Pooh, would san,"something
Oo occurred". A ship ran into one of the piers of the railway bridge
and, quite literally, severed our connection with the other side. Except for
a few"survivors" who finished their Fifth or Sixth form careers
with us, the rest of the ‘transflumenites' were transferred to
a perfectly adequate school on their native shore. We missed the ‘leavening' of
non-Forest children, but it seemed a much more sensible arrangement. At any
rate the Authorities seemed to welcome the opportunity to close the line, on
which the fifty-odd (?) pupils had been the main - and perhaps rather lively
- customers.
Out of school, social and leisure activities were limited (most of one's
friends tended to be colleagues), but we provided our own entertainment as best
we could: tennis on the school field in the summer; badminton in the gym. in
the winter. (I remember with some sadness the unfailingly cheerful company of
Mr. Geoff Davies, who died suddenly in 1967 after I had left). Mrs. Dora Winspear
must also be sorely missed. Then there were woodwork lessons in the winter evenings
from a long-suffering Mr. Gordon Jones, who put up with my in expertise with
unfailing patience even after a day's hard teaching (My feet are killing
me!"); and school plays, the many long practices for which I found a relaxation
as well as work. Visits to the outside world were essential (as they are here)
and among these I recall with pleasure several trips to Stratford for Shakespeare
plays, and to Cheltenham or the Colston Hall, Bristol, for concerts of music.
From one of these I returned the proud possessor of a programme signed by the
conductor, James Loughran, who was related to one of the boys.
Above all, perhaps, I value the opportunities the Forest of Dean afforded for
my pet hobby of bird-watching. (Laughter from school children at this point!)
Bruce Campbell (who will be known to watchers of T.V. Natural History programmes
and is the author of "Finding Nests" among other bird books) was
then engaged on a Nest Box scheme for Pied Flycatchers at Nagshead. This was
highly successful and as I had a small finger in the pie, he sent me a signed
copy of the relevant paper when it was published. It was a great boost to my
ego when I found a Willow Warbler's nest that he had not noticed! Many
are the memories of pleasant surprises these hours of watching afforded: a fox-cub
quite unaware of my presence, the rare Red-backed Shrike; Woodcocks ‘roding';
a totally unexpected pair of Crossbills; my first Dipper - a bird that had eluded
me for years; and a pair of Sparrow Hawks at their nest, to which I was directed
by a boy at the school.
With all this to look back on, it is not surprising that I think of my days at
Lydney with very great pleasure. With excellent ‘digs' and surrounded
by friends; with scope for hobbies; with a small niche in the local church, which
welcomed me when I fled from the impossible restrictions of Exclusive Brethrenism
in which I had been brought up; with sound and kindly guidance from my Head of
Department, to whom I owe much in my ‘seven-year apprenticeship' -
and what more could one desire? Ah! Marriage and promotion! These two things
came together (but in that order of importance!) In 1964, to jerk me out of this
comfortable niche. Nevertheless it is understandable that I view with much sadness
the passing of Lydney Grammar School and the retirement of its unfailingly kind
Headmaster. My best wishes go with Mr. Beeley, and with the School into the pupal
stage of its metamorphosis. May it find the process both painless and beneficial
and may it emerge as the ‘perfect insect' we should all like to see.
Peter Lawrence.
(Mr. P. D. Lawrence is now Senior Master and Head of English at Swanage
Grammar School).
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