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Posted by John Hawley I will ask, but I don't think they were saved. I realised during the tour that some of the Old Boys were not happy to see some of the changes, particularly in the St Nick's Hall. The Hall had certainly been changed, by putting in a floor at first floor level, by the time I semi-retired in August 1997 and think it was done in 1996. I am not optimistic these nine or so years on that I will have much luck. David Dixon is in Essex and I am local, so I will pop in, as I do frequently. I have already enquired about the stained glass shield that was in one of the hall windows and Mr Quillfeldt said that he did not know where it was (he is my main archive source). As you will see from one of my postings, the surprise is that the St Nick's school structure still stands at all, as it was poor construction, logistically unsound (huge swivel windows that ripped blinds and curtains, let in oceans of sunshine + being ready to scalp anyone sitting near them) and prone to movement. Much money has been spent in re-glazing, re-roofing, re-furbing, re-painting, carpeting, re-facing the concrete supports and stopping movement (particularly of the gym). A marvellous job has been done with what was there, but if students could have been moved elsewhere for a while, it would have been cheaper to demolish and start again. The building was never lovely and your distant memories are of the times spent there, perhaps, rather than of the buildings, certainly, and artifacts maybe. School memories are mostly of people and events rather than, as Matthew Arnold puts it in "Culture and Anarchy", "the Machinery". As I said at the Reunion: the JCR was demolished and replaced by a Design and Build type Language Centre and the demountable huts demolished to be replaced by more huts which, I think, now have a nursery in them. The only new spatial incursion above the old playground is the Food Technology blocks behind the old workshops near the dining space. Many of you referred to the loss of the murals in the St Nick's Hall and dining space and one Old Boy wanted to know where the lecterns had gone, as he had spent perhaps 50 hours constructing them. The amazing thing is that the site works as well as it does. There are now some 250 staff, of which about 120 are teachers; the Sixth Form is almost as large as St Nick's and there are 1850 students. Just think, that back in 1955 most of the staff would not have had cars and now everyone does (inc. many of the sixth form). Perhaps you did not spot that the bike sheds are reduced to a rump. That there is so much playing field left shows how large that area was at one time:on that area now resides the new language block, an extended St Mary's hall, a sports hall, the Dobson Building and a new small playground area. This is why such occasions are bitter-sweet and endlessly fascinating. Amazing to think that Dr Watson only missed out on filling you all in with extra details by some eighteen months!
on 15/9/2005, 10:13 am, in reply to "Honour Boards"
82.44.179.122
Steve,
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