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Kingham Hill Schooldays
Design and Maintenance
by
ViewPoint |
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Keeping Alive Our Memories |
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The End of an Era
David Bacon
Bradford House 1972-1978
The end of that and the beginning of this |
David and daughter |
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Two things made me finally sit down, scratch my head
and write this piece. A former teacher asked me at a reunion
whether or not I had been happy at the school. Secondly,
a school friend said that the experience had not really
made much of an impression on his subsequent life. Not
convinced that I was either happy or unhappy at KHS and
certainly doubtful about my friend's claim, I have attempted
to recall the place and my time there. |
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In 1972 I was a
skinny kid running around a council estate on the industrial
edges of Oxford. I lived on "Smash" and "Curley
Wurleys". My mother had three boys and 8 pounds a week
to live on the social security.
There was no father, or at least one that was around.
It was a stressful and unhappy home. The new prosperity
of the Cowley Car workers passed us by.
A couple of years earlier I had failed the 11 plus and
was attending a secondary modern school. I was bright
enough, liked reading and played an instrument. Not such
an unusual circumstance you might say, but then in 1960's
and early 70's Oxford it was relatively uncommon. |
| It was through a chance circumstance that a youth
worker put my mother in touch with Kingham Hill School
where boys like me with difficult home backgrounds and
no direction might get a chance at a residential boarding
school.
There would be square meals, a strict routine and a
new life. When we had the interview and I was accepted,
I jumped at the opportunity.
And so I entered Bradford
House in Sept 1972 and fell into line with 27 other lads.
It was a big shock to the system and a startling change
of environment.
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We
were kitted out with uniform on the first day. We
had to write home each Sunday when I would mention the
routine, the early start, the hard beds; the house
jobs; morning floor polishing, cleaning windows,
or the plum job with the vacuum. I would write about the
after school clubs, the music room that was open
all hours, the long homework prep every night, the orchestra
and amazing art room.
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| Bradford House was run by a young English teacher, Adrian "Joe" Underwood
who brought ambitious theatre to the school stage and gave
us in Bradford House, the reputation as the "arts house".
Joe left us for promotion in 1975 and so arrived David
Shepherd and his family. We were lucky in that transition.
David Shepherd was another dynamic personality with his
transatlantic, vaguely Jamaican accent and challenging
English classes. It was exciting to be at school, with
plenty to do and many new people to know. |
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The school in the 70's was much the same
place as it had been for many decades. It was still the
Spartan environment that the Founder had created. Everything
was made of stone, leather, canvas, quarry tiles and old
materials. The interiors were beautiful with wooden floors,
high ceilings and open beam woodwork in the dorms. An oil
furnace struggled to heat the large rooms delivering only
a feeble warmth. The wash room and toilet areas in Bradford
were the original 1904 fit out, including free standing
cast iron baths, slate toilet cubicles and freezing, tile
floors.. There was an overpowering stench of polish and
shoes from the "boot room" when you entered the house. |
| It was a puzzling mix with its comprehensive intake,
private school look and grammar school style. There was
still a trace of the original "home for boys" and unhappy
stories of boys without fathers, genteel poverty and loss.
An indication of the tone of the school at that time could
be found in the school rules. Haircuts allowed; short back
and sides, modest length sideboards for 6 th formers and
Chelsea boots (no Cuban heels). Boys wore grey shirts and
drainpipe, wool flannel trousers. This was more the monochrome
world of the early 60's than the Glam rock times in which
we were living. |
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It was all very straight laced. Still, we
tried to bend the rules with little rebellions of our own;
smoking the odd No 6 ciggy and later on starting a homebrew
cottage industry. Avoiding the dreaded barber's shed on
Thursday was another crafty dodge.
We all lived together and the Common room was the heart
of the house. It was a close knit world of friendships,
rivalries, prep, reading, messing about and endless games
of snooker on an ancient table.
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| Most regional British accents could be heard and the
backgrounds of the boys were extraordinarily varied. Armed
forces, clergy children alongside local authority sponsored
boys and a few show biz ones thrown in too. There were
the delicate and the confident, the peacemakers and the
rebels. There were moments that were belly achingly funny
and painfully sad. In the two common rooms we had chipboard
partitioned sections running along the walls: "horse boxes." This
was our tiny personal space, plastered with photos of stars,
pin-ups and heroes cut from the newspaper. Everyone had
a small transistor radio to tune into the chart music that
was our release and link to the world outside. If you wanted
to go, really let go you could always visit the wonderfully
named Jazz cellar " and blast out the latest Who or Deep
Purple album. |
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We rarely left the school itself .There were few incoming
calls. Kingham Hill was a little world in itself, with
its own slang and language. There was nothing apart from
the radio and an occasional hour of TV that could connect
you to the world outside. Everyone had a nick name and
most things had alternative names. It was a bloke-ish world
of sports and study. You had to muck in. House life was
a "Big brother" experience in real life, only it went on
for years. |
| Three
hot meals a day were prepared "army "style by
Reggie Ham and his team. It was classic stodgy English
fare. His puddings and custard were legend as were his
roasts. Garlic and olive oil had never seen that kitchen.
Tea was prepared in huge, battered jugs with milk and
sugar already added. It is difficult to describe just
how hungry we were and the feeding frenzy that started
when Grace had been said. Meals were noisy and quickly
performed.
Life wasn't all
pillow fights and raiding tuck boxes. It could be intense
with so many teenagers in the house. There was a lot
of being told what to do and petty seniority. There
was no privacy at all. Dorms were out of bounds in
the day and life took place in the common rooms. The
banter could sometimes be unkind, over competitive, and
in today's language, politically incorrect. You had to
develop a thick skin or tactics to cover yourself. Sometimes
things got out of hand. "Joe" had seen to it that the
boys, especially the juniors were treated fairly. The
house ran smoothly, all things considered and it helped
that our Housemasters were on the ball. |
Teddie Cooper |
Under the benign leadership of Teddie Cooper
the school ticked along. He was enjoying the last years
of his long Headship at that time. These last years of
his "reign" were as easy going as he was. He loved his
rugby and he loved to tell a humorous story. "Teddie" had,
like most charismatic people, an extraordinary voice. He
knew all the boys and their circumstances and was universally
respected. The staff comprised of long serving teachers.
Who will forget Penguin, Popeye, "Oh no" Donald, Daisy,
Charlie and Gus to name a few? - great characters all.
The school room atmosphere was traditional. Talk and chalk,
lugging around text books and carefully measured margins
penciled out in exercise books. No photocopies were available
then, any duplicate material created on the Banda machines
of the day. The first digital calculators were making their
appearance as we were still learning to use slide rules.
You could still get a whack on the backside for rudeness
and we stood up when the teacher entered the room. |
| The teachers were mostly older
generation men who had grown up during the war and austerity
years. It was a no nonsense regime. In all, Kingham Hill
was a long way from the trendy comprehensives that were
in full swing at the time. |
| And so, 6 years later, I left school with decent A levels
and a University place. Mum was proud and the school had
delivered the academic goods for me. However, I entered
a vastly different world to the one I had been schooled
in. It was 1978, a crunch year with the beginning of the
first long term recession since the War. All those corny
school careers films we sat through, showing serious young
men starting management trainee programs, seemed absurd
and ridiculous. |
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I threw out
my herringbone sports jacket and blended into the art college
scene of the post punk era. After the conformity of Kingham
Hill I needed to let go. I was green and buttoned up. For
some time, it did not make sense what the legacy of the
school was.
But after making your own life you then strike
a deal with the past and recognize its valid place.
Eventually, finding my feet, I became a design and technology
teacher in central London. It was tough work but very
rewarding. Many of the lessons I had learnt at Kingham
came in useful during those years, especially memories
of the styles of my favorite teachers. |
I could recall Teddie Cooper saying; "What
you don't put in, you can't get out!" although he would say
it in Scottish dialect! |
Today, Kingham Hill
School looks exactly the same as it did, even though
the interiors of the houses have altered to a level of
luxury unimaginable years ago. Carpets cover the tiles
that generations of boys so lovingly polished! The school
intake and style has changed. There are day pupils, weekly
boarders, some have cars and there is a bar. The dorms
are now study, relax and sleep areas. The school has
a nationally recognized special learning needs centre.
There are girls houses. All new and welcome changes that
have, no doubt, made the school more relaxed and grown
up.
I have also talked to many old boys over the years
who have reflected warmly about the school. Others
struggle to place their thoughts about their time there.
It remains a powerful memory. After all, we spent much
of our teenage life there. It seems that few Kingham
Hill boys kept up with each other. On Speech Day we said
our goodbyes and jettisoned out into the world. "Go forth young man" Most
people lost touch in their rush, post KHS, to reinvent
themselves. Others didn't enjoy their time at the school
and some didn't click with what was on offer.
A while back, I went up to the school with another old
boy. Driving across that amazing, rolling landscape,
he jokingly commented on how we could never afford to
live in the area where we went to school. And so it dawned
on us how relatively privileged we were to have spent
our teenage years in such a beautiful place.
And so to return to the question, was I happy or not
at KHS and has it affected my life since? The answer
is that there were both happy and unhappy times, experiences
concentrated by the close communal life of the school.
But on balance it was a good time. Of course, the school
has had an effect on my life since. I say to my family
and friends that I went to an unusual school where I
was taught to love the outdoors, learning and art. There
were many things that I experienced there that I would
not have done otherwise. But it was more than simply
a school. It was also my home for 6 years and for the
help I received there I am grateful.
I can even name all our house
members in this photo even today. Well all but bar one.. |
Bradford House
Summer 1974
| 1 |
Tim Bizley |
19 |
Mr David Carpanini |
| 2 |
Graham Butler |
20 |
Mrs. Jane Carpanini |
| 3 |
Keith Sherwood |
21 |
Trevor Mallet |
| 4 |
Mark Johnston- Jones |
22 |
Alan Drewitt |
| 5 |
Graham Parker |
23 |
Chris Baker |
| 6 |
David Bacon |
24 |
Clare Underwood |
| 7 |
John Craig |
25 |
Mr Adrian Underwood |
| 8 |
Craig Nutter |
26 |
Mrs Marion Underwood |
| 9 |
Nick Pritchard |
27 |
Robin Underwood |
| 10 |
Mark Easton |
28 |
Barry Rigby also holding Beccy
Underwood. |
| 11 |
Ian Black |
29 |
John Cooke |
| 12 |
Andrew Montgomerie |
30 |
Mrs Jane Boyd |
| 13 |
Mark Evans & Simon Robinson
Kay (obscured) |
31 |
Mr Robert Boyd |
| 14 |
Mark Bailey |
32 |
Stuart Nutter |
| 15 |
Adam Ellis |
33 |
Perry Boyeson |
| 16 |
Roger Leghorn |
34 |
Tim Rees |
| 17 |
James Halliday |
35 |
Michael Kyte |
| 18 |
Colville Anderson |
36 |
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