Life in Clyde House
1961 - 1965

Clyde was a popular choice of house for us 'Plyms' in the early 1960s, so I was really pleased to be allocated there in 1961. Under Rev Glyn-James, who ran a 'tight' ship, with any major discretions being severely dealt with! As 'juniors', we were very much under the thumb of the house prefects - especially head of house, Cox, but bullying was rare - if there at all - and the junior dorm was generally a happy place. I seem to remember spending many hours in the 'quiet' room. We had supposedly (relatively) comfy chairs - which had to be surrendered to seniors when requested - and the daily papers. Of course, we 'bagged' stories from them if they were at all interesting.

Head of House P W Cox

Clyde House (opened in 1888)

Clyde junior dorm, 1961

Then there was the house library -also in the 'quiet' room. As I was quickly volunteered as 'house librarian' this had a more than usual image in my life. Not that the duties were very arduous - keeping the cupboard tidy, and making sure I knew who had which books. Winter evenings always seemed dark and cold, and the 'quiet room' became a popular haunt as that was where the fire was. Unguarded and accessible to everyone, it was a source of entertainment as well as warmth. On one horrific occasion, someone produced a .22 round (smuggled out of the range next to the dining hall no doubt). This was pushed into a tin of 'Ronuk' and thrown carelessly into the flames. Nothing happened, but we all took cover anyway. Except that is for the young Target who sat un-moved on the 'Dunlopillo' seat. Much shouting ensued, and he was eventually persuaded to move to 'cover' - just as the tin exploded. The khaki stain remained on the ceiling for years afterwards - as did the chip in the wall right behind where Target (well named) had been sitting!

Moving up to the 'Middle' dorm was done with great pride. We were now no longer the bottom of the pecking order. Sadly, I don't remember much of my time in there Mr.& Mrs. Glyn-James and family moved out and went to St. Lawrence's School, Ramsgate, where he became school Chaplain.

Mr. & Mrs. Rodney Chapman, a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, joining our school staff in the Easter Term 1962. Arriving on the hill via one of the largest grammar schools in Ghana, where he was a house-master and in charge of the CCF, besides being Chairman of the Ghana Hockey Association.

Senior Dorm was the ultimate. Real power - and then prefecture - and even head of house! This meant I could sleep in THE spring bed - no more wooden slats, as had been endured for all of the preceding years.

Clyde House prefects: John Bennett, Francis Inman, Michael Allen,
Lloyd Silverthorne, R B H Chapman & Nick Welch.

1950s headphones

It was about this time that during the summer holidays that I made the amazing discovery that dynamic headphones made crude but effective microphones. Two sets of headphones could be wired together to make an effective telephone. So, on returning to school, cheap bell-wire was pushed under stones, trees and into Mr Kingsnorth's lawn, and telephonic communication between the senior dorms of Durham and Clyde were established. A huge - if somewhat useless - thrill. But alas, the scar in the lawn gave us away, the wire was easily traced, and on pain of pain it was removed - to be slung instead through the trees.

Similar wires followed to Sheffield, and an exchange (of sorts) appeared in Clyde common room. Even Norwich (the Old Norwich that is) was reached by 'borrowing' the telegraph poles which carried the normal PO phone wires.

Fine, until one evening during silent Prayers we had a noisy call from one of the other houses. Not a good move! But the phone system stayed, and I even made a small profit by charging 6d a term 'membership' to allow usage. But alas, one stormy night, the wire to Norwich became entangled with the 'real' phone lines and we found ourselves having three-way conversations with paying 'real' phone subscribers. So the novelty wore off, the system fell into disuse and was eventually abandoned. Nowadays, communication is easy and cheap, but THEN it was a thrill just to achieve inter-house speech!

The 'Glory-Hole' was the centre of Clyde's 'underground' movement. We painted it in 'psychedelic' colours (pale lilac if I remember correctly) and put in a false ceiling to help with the acoustics (egg cartons!). In there we kept that icon of the '60s, the Dancette record player. The latest Beatles records blared out. But before the 'Glory Hole' came into being, the Dancette resided in the common room, where we had to make do with endless Buddy Holly.

But the 'Glory Hole' was OUR den. We even formed a 'group' - if you can call one guitar (Boulcott) one bass (me on 'cello) and drums (John Bennett on upturned waste bins) - a 'group'. But it was fun - and made a break from the endless routine.

Then there were the 'Curry' nights. 'Dixie' Dean did a remarkable job in feeding over 200 hungry boys, and probably on a tight budget too. Even more remarkable was that there was always sufficient food, but yet we were always left wanting just a little more.

And so it was that in Clyde the seniors and prefects pooled resources and bought curry. Of course, resources were severely limited. In our house 'bank' we were fortunate indeed if we each had more than a pound or two each at the start of term, so a withdrawal of 6d (2.5p) was a significant amount. Yet we managed, at least two or three times per term (and sometimes more) to purchase pre-packed 'Vesta' curries.

Inter-house competitions really meant something, and for a while, Norwich seemed to hold every sports cup going, whereas we in Clyde had nothing. Then, three of us challenged Durham for the 'chess cup'. Not a sport exactly, but when you have NO silverware, even the diminutive chess cup would be a triumph - and it was. I believe we won 2 - 1. What celebrations when we returned 'home' to Clyde - all 30 yards of it!

Chess cup winners. Left to right: Lloyd Silverthorne,  Ron Kirby,  Frank Hilsdon .

After that, the ice was broken and we did rather better, but never so well as to dominate. But Not all doom and Gloom - our shooters where good.

'Shooters' outside Clyde House 1963.
Left to Right: Chris Downing, Russell Boulcott & Dave Taylor.

But the residing memory is of unmitigated routine. Every day had its schedule, except Sunday afternoon - which was 'free time' - not that we were really 'free'. Straying off school grounds was not permitted, but the farm and the Dell were 'in bounds' and the latter at least offered an unsupervised playground which, like the farm, I believe has
now been lost to the school.

Lloyd now runs his own music business, Music Dynamics Ltd. It was Lloyd who provided the sound clip of Teddie Cooper's voice which can be heard on Teddie's page.

Lloyd Silverthorne