The Woodbridgian

The Woodbridgian. 1882 - 2006

School archivist M.A.Weaver claims to be the only living soul on earth who has actually read every magazine published since 1882. Now that’s an awful lot of cricket scores. In 1982 he wrote a feature for that year’s edition, celebrating the centenary of the magazine, which is the School’s greatest archive. Here is that article, with some changes, plus a 1982-2006 update. 'The Woodbridgian' Magazine has been and still is an accurate reflection of the spirit of the School and changing attitudes in education. Read on and you may sense how important it is as a record of Woodbridge School's history.

In April 1882 the first edition of a new school journal, ‘The Woodbridgian,’ was published. Its declared aim "....will be to keep a current record of school events, matches, distinctions and the like; to afford an opportunity for expressing in a proper way the wants and wishes of the school; and above all to foster the feeling of unity and continuity, by keeping up touch with the near and venerable past and the greater, and, as we hope, near future.’

The cover motto was PRO DEO REGE PATRIA, indicating ‘the principles which will regulate our paper.’ The tone and character to be maintained were enshrined in the quotation that opened the first ‘Woodbridgian’ and which you can read above. Why Pro Deo Rege Patria? 1882 - the Zulu War was just over; the first Boer War had been fought; Gladstone was about to invade Egypt; the sense of Empire was growing. These were patriotic days and, of course, as we shall see the School later adopted this motto as its own.

The magazine was founded by the Headmaster’s son, Orby Wood, who put four editions to press before his departure, ‘to tread the higher paths of anatomical science,’ at Edinburgh University. ‘The Woodbridgian’ survived the loss of its founder and not a year passed in its first century when it was not published. It is fortunate that the School possesses a full run of the journal since its inception and it is my dream to put them all on-line for tomorrow's researchers....... one day!

The first news item was an account of a 12 mile paper chase that took 25 ‘hares’ to Ufford and Sutton Heath. Football, it appears, was ‘very slack’ and as we played most teams under their rules rather than our own, results were not good. Ipswich Grammar School beat us 13 - 0. A concert raised £3.10s.3d. for the Cricket Club. A feature article on England in the 1660s was the first in a series on the School’s History. There was a Latin poem, Parcite Athenarum nimio miserescere fleto and a jingoistic ditty,

Woodbridge to the Front!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

I presume that was aimed at the Boers! All this for an annual subscription of 1s.6d for six issues; an extra 3d by post. in 1885, the editors wisely reverted to a termly magazine.

The pattern was established in that first issue - a diet of sports results, including detailed cricket score-cards, a chess puzzle, a feature article usually of an historical nature, a poem in Latin or English and news of academic distinctions and school events. The hand of History master, V.B.Redstone (See also our ‘staff’ page), was evident from the start and for years ‘The Woodbridgian’ was a vehicle for his painstaking research on both the School and the town of Woodbridge. We will never know, of course, what Redstone’s role was in the creation of the magazine in the first place. He came to the School in 1880 and was a young and enthusiastic master here. In 1894 these historical features were published as ‘Bygone Woodbridge,’ one of the great secondary sources of the town’s history. The cricket results are a statistician’s delight. Many notable wins are recorded in detail. Losses were occasionally, very occasionally, played down!

June 14. Against the Fauconberg Grammar School, Beccles, at Woodbridge. Nothing remarkable occurred except that we were beaten.

The struggle to beat Framlingham College at cricket takes on the proportions of a crusade and the magazine had to wait 25 years to record the happy event. June 6 1906. Woodbridge School 114 (J.Shaw 28): Framlingham College 68. What excitement! Sadly, a week later we lost the return match by 104 runs!

An early problem for the journal’s editors was finance and a letter from supporter F.H.Vertue accurately summed up the problem.

I very much regret to learn that 'The Woodbridgian' has not met with the support so sanguinely anticipated.

The editors asked for prompt payment of subs and reminded readers that back numbers of the magazine could still be obtained from the School. The first issue was available as a back number in 1892! (The same applies to the modern OW’s Magazine!) Whoever was buying ‘The Woodbridgian,’ it was not pupils, for two-thirds of the boys refused to subscribe. Our periodical is almost entirely supported by strangers ........ a magazine, once established on a firm footing, will work wonders in a School.

There was an early request for a small boys' page - probably to attract pupil subscriptions. An original (?) poem was published. Spelling as submitted.

A theif at work

A cautious look around he stole

His bags of chink he chunk

And many a wicked smile he smole

And many a wink he wunk.

Hmmmm. On the basis of this masterpiece, the editors abandoned the notion of a small boys' page.

Perhaps the saddest edition of the magazine was that of May 1887. It contained a 12 page obituary to J.S.C.Wood, Orby's brother and the Headmaster’s son. He had entered the School in 1874 and dazzled his fellows in the classroom and on the sports field. In 1877 he left for Cambridge University to continue his academic career with no little success. He was ordained in 1883 and sailed for the mission field in November 1885. Within four weeks of landing on the African mainland he had succumbed to a tropical fever. It was a grievous blow to his family and friends and a tragic waste of a talented individual.

There are frustratingly scant references in the early issues to the physical appearance of the School, the addition of new buildings, the arrival and departure of masters, the classroom situation. In the Summer of 1892 the cricket square was moved from the valley to a large area behind the School. (Now the Buttrums Mill end of the all weather pitch.)

Not only therefore have we room for the pitches, but the out-fielding is all that can be desired ..... It is curious to stand on so good a ground and see no pavilion. The small shed that has been erected will serve admirably for scoring but it is hard to see any other purpose which it can serve.

It was decided that The School XI was so weak that the opening match could not be entrusted to their care and so the Headmaster, Dr. Wood, assembled an experienced XI to play 'The Gentlemen of West Suffolk'.

The ground was decorated with flags; tents were erected for shelter and refreshment; and a band was engaged for each day of the match.

The scores? Gentlemen of West Suffolk 135 and 123. Dr. Woods XI 138. Match drawn.

A feature of the late 19th century journals was a series of articles from OWs relating their experiences in many parts of the World. There is, inevitably, a strong imperial flavour to their contribution - The Tiger Hunt; Notes from Natal and Zululand; Life in Madagascar. How ironic that in 2006 we featured, in the OW Magazine, the efforts of OW, Adam Barlow to save certain tigers from extinction!

Sadly, many other former pupils on foreign and imperial duty appeared only in brief obituaries, having succumbed to enteric fever or riding accidents. The first photograph appeared in 1898 as part of a final tribute to A.H.Turing, killed on the North West Frontier. He was a fine well-built chap. The second photograph is of Revd. P.E.Tuckwell, the Headmaster, who died suddenly while still in office.

The Boer war produced a number of interesting personal accounts of various excitements in South Africa. One does not have to read between the lines to capture the spirit of involvement in and enthusiasm for this last imperial fling. The School turned out as many colonial administrators then as it does business studies and computer graduates today.

  Woodbridgian 1901

At the start of the 20th century the status of ‘The Woodbridgian’ may be judged by the tribute paid to it by the governors. A motion was carried at a meeting in October 1901, That the motto ‘Pro Deo Rege Patria’ which has appeared on ‘The Woodbridgian’ for over 20 years be adopted as the School motto. Patently the tail was wagging the dog!

From 1900, School news loomed larger and Latin poems retreated. There are records of the founding of the Debating Society, The Rifle Club and the School Cadet Corps. Regarding the latter, the journal assured its readers that there is no desire to cultivate a belligerent and aggressive spirit amongst the boys ..... nor any wish to foster a taste for martial processions or a vain delight in the trappings of war. Soon the Drill Ground echoed to the sound of marching feet and the governors provided dummy Lee-Metford Rifles to add greatly to the vraisemblance and enthusiasm of the proceedings. It would not be long before the columns of the school magazine reported the deaths of dozens of these same pupils.

The last Edwardian days, however, saw happier events.

December 1907. It is a great step forward and an honour without precedent in our history that Woodbridge has been granted representation at the Headmaster’s Conference - ‘The Educational House of Lords,’ as it has been called.

The first house matches were played in 1908 as the School increased its numbers to over 130 boys.

Two sets of pies have been played this term and both keenly contested ...... In the result, the Marryott House Team proved altogether too strong.

Within a few years grand trophies were presented to the School for winning house teams. Headmaster, Revd Madeley gave a magnificent bronze crowing-cock trophy for the winners of the football matches. Some years later an enterprising teacher or OW took it home and it must still adorn someone’s mantelpiece!

In 1910 the School subscribed towards the cost of a dog for Scott’s Antarctic Expedition. He was called 'Tom' after the Seckford of the same name. The responsibility placed upon the poor beast by 'The Woodbridgian' editor was substantial.

We shall now be able to feed our enthusiasm with the idea that 'Tom', by his strenuous work at the sleigh, is winning credit for the School all those miles away.

Woodbridgian 1916

The advent of the Great War inevitably brought a change to the cheerful spirit of ‘The Woodbridgian’ and at first there are longs lists of OWs serving with His Majesty’s Forces. Soon would come the shocked recognition of the heavy losses sustained. The printed accounts of experiences on the Western Front echoed the Boer War letters.

No good explaining just where we are billeted; we are just bivouacked in a field, which is awfully nice this weather; have spent ‘night’ in seven different spots during the last fortnight. Never been better in my life than out here.

And again...

The rats and mice worry us more than anything here. I don’t mind bullets; you get used to them but rats make one jump and feel uncomfortable when you hear them under your pillow or just over your head at night, upsetting earth on your face and squeaking.

For the first few months of the War, soldiers were billeted in the School, the playing fields became a vast camp, School House an infirmary and practice trenches were dug. Later, one of the boys’ contributions would be a vast potato patch, planted in an early dig for victory mood. Our thanks to Mr. Barton of Hollesley for the loan of the spades.

The Roll of Honour column in the magazine continued into the 1920s as news came of OWs lost in the conflict. The format and content of the journal survived the War even if the price did not. By 1920 it was 6d per issue. Cricket resumed. Framlingham College 141: Woodbridge School 10. Woodbridge went in again but no one except Butters and Bentham did much. The state of school cricket may be judged by the fact that a Headmaster's XI, comprising six ladies was only narrowly defeated by the First XI !

A link with the first ‘Woodbridgian’ was ended when Vincent Redstone retired, in 1921.

Mr Redstone has been endowed by some kind power with the secret of preserving, through all his years of strenuous work, the sprit of boyhood.

VBR had played a cricket match on his first day at School 41 years earlier and so a veterans XI was assembled to play the 3rd XI. batting at No. 9, the historical W.G.Grace scored nine and his teams of over-55s won. They entertained the lads in the evening, spanning a couple of generations at least.

The arrival of the new Headmaster, Canon Dudley Symon, in the same year produced a noticeable change in the content of the school magazine, there being a considerable new emphasis on drama, literary evenings and debating. His impact on another field was not so positive.

Framlingham 1st Innings 216. Woodbridge 27 and 22.

It was Canon Symon who made the bold decision to substitute rugger for soccer. The latter was tainted with the stigma of ‘professionalism’, although there were hazards to be faced in adopting rugger. Few teams played the game locally so we would be obliged to give up our local matches. In fact it was revealed the School would be hard-pressed to find teams of 15 to play other schools anyway and house matches would have to be abandoned for the same reason!

The year 1927 saw the loss of an old familiar friend ......... Whatsoever things are true .....the probably unread exordium of ‘The Woodbridgian’ since 1882 and the detailed cricket cards bowed out too. I wonder why the latter went. In its place are some interesting pen portraits of the 1st XI players.

J.R.Sayers. Improved in batting but still has a good many golf shots which clear him of the bunkers some times. Not sound in the field but has stopped many hard ones.

W.W.Smith. Keeps a good length and bowls with his head.

L.J.Parmiter. Bowled well at times but went off rather.

After 50 years of publication, an anniversary which the editors of 1932 missed, ‘The Woodbridgian’ had barely changed in its essentials. The next 50 years were not to prove so stable.

In December 1933 it was finally decided that the appearance of the journal lacked dignity, attractiveness and character. Its role in School life was reaffirmed, however. The magazine is primarily our School Chronicle, our Terminal Minute Book, our Record Office in print. It was felt that the dullness of statistics could be overcome by the addition of commentary and a greater concern with the individualities. More photographs were planned. One small photograph taken in 1933 may be of more interest and value in 1983, than acres of letter-press. So it was that issue No 153 became New Series No 1.

Certainly the new format is more entertaining and yes, the photographs are an archivist’s delight. For example, the editors of April 1935 proudly show the new Seckford House Common Room, built to replace a wooden shed in the Quad. Today, 1982, it is the boys’ changing room next to the School Hall. Today, 2006, it is the stage of the new Seckford Theatre! Times they do change, eh? The meat of the journal was largely the same old fare in spite of the critical self-examination of 1933 and there is little indication of the more personal approach that had been sought.

Adolf Hitler takes his place in the magazines of the 1930s. A public lecture delivered by a visiting speaker in 1934 concluded that whether we sympathised with Hitler or not, we had much to learn from it. In April 1937 the school-boy audience of a balloon debate ejected Mae West, the fulsome actress, in order to save Herr Hitler. In spite of these aberrations, the journal progressed to the outbreak of the War, excellent value at an annual subscription of 3s 3d.

Woodbridgian 1939

The first wartime publication boldly asserted its determination to keep going without serious interruption. The editors nervously looked back to the experience of 1914 as a pointer to the School’s survival in 1940. Former Headmaster R.Kennard Davis wrote a cheery note with some Great War experiences, no small comfort for the trials that lay ahead. As early as Spring 1940, the Editorial, written by Headmaster Symon, I imagine, saw clearly that everything will be in the melting pot. The threat to the survival of the School would not come from the Germans but from post-war reconstruction. This anticipation of real change indicates that if there had not been a Beveridge, someone would have invented one! The awareness that the war would bring social upheaval was accompanied by a determination that the old Grammar School should continue to serve its country as faithfully as it has already served it for close on 400 years.

Those first war days, coinciding with the start of the school year, to say nothing of the rugby season, as already expressed, had the impact of the tidal wave. The Head and Mrs. Symon personally supervised the black-out arrangements; 150 temporary refugees arrived and were housed and fed; the first air-raid warnings occurred; senior helped to distribute ration books. School House threw a sherry party.

The magazines of the Second World war lack the personal reminiscences of the earlier conflicts but they are more pertinent and immediate in their style and content. The impact of the war is indeed striking. The news of military decorations makes fascinating reading. Flight-Lieutenant Ian Soden, 1926-1934, won the D.S.O. One evening in May (1940) while the aerodrome was being heavily bombed, he jumped from a shelter trench, climbed into the nearest fighter aircraft without knowing if it was fuelled or armed, and in spite of the presence of delayed action bombs, took off from the aerodrome which was covered in smoke.

On another occasion Ian Soden single handedly attacked a flight of over 50 aircraft. The same journal reported him missing, believed killed. ( In 2004 I visited his grave, in a tiny corner of a civic cemetery in Northern France). His Marryott House contemporary, P.R.Walker, who is credited with shooting down the first Messerschmidt of the War, won the D.F.C. after dispatching six enemy aircraft. These are a representative two from an impressive list. You cannot fault the playing fields of Woodbridge. Singapore took more than its fair share of OWs and Ian Soden’s brother succumbed to Blackwater Fever in the retreat from Burma.

Sixty years after the founding of ‘The Woodbridgian’ its founder also dies - Orby Wood, 1942. Though somewhat eccentric latterly, he was a loveable personality and a great feature at all OW dinners.

It may be a comfort to find that when the School seems most under threat, it flourishes! Dudley Symon admitted this in July 1944, talking of the most embarrassing position of coping with a very considerable increase in numbers. The following year he was able to announce that Victory has come at last in the 18th Term, and he extended his congratulations to all members of the School having emerged from these days of darkness and peril.

In July 1947 the last of the ‘New Series’ of magazines was published - number 27, just in time to welcome the new Headmaster, Eric Ayres. It was time again for reassessment and ‘The Woodbridgian’ leapt back to 1932 with the familiar smaller format and inevitably a bout of self-searching.

  Woodbridgian 1958

The magazine must be designed primarily as an official record of the Term, a medium for spreading Old Boys’ news and announcements and as an outlet for the literary talents and general opinions of the School. In short we aim at satisfying boys and masters, past and present and at the same time interesting people less intimately connected with School.

‘The Woodbridgian’ settled into a routine format, an echo perhaps of what the School needed after the trauma of the War years. The totally unequal struggle at cricket against Framlingham College was resumed. In 1949 an OW was still remembering the victory of 1906! A regular ‘Meteorological Section’ examining the termly weather in scientific detail stood in sharp contrast to the few purple patches that escaped the editors’ notice.

The drooping banners swaying in the dusty sunbeams fixed a note of colour that lived again in the gleam of violin and glitter of drum under the arches of the great church. Over the waiting audience an angel might well have passed, so swift and complete was the silence that fell upon the aisles.

Thus wrote a young English master, inspired by the music at Aldeburgh.

The years seem to rush by in the company of these journals. Captain G.B.Riddell makes a stately exit, from Junior House, the School Contingent and finally the classroom; matrons are welcomed and adieued with startling frequency; the long-promised showers appear in Marryott House; OW foreign experiences reappear. In 1950 the death of the stalwart master C.E.J.Houghton, ‘Tout’ to his pupils, is reported. Interestingly, reveals ‘The Woodbridgian’, the teaching of History over nearly 100 years rests in the hands of just three men - Redstone, Houghton and J.N.Stevens. A rare photograph shows ‘Tout’ at work, casually leaning on the classroom mantelpiece, engrossed in a book and his pupils, in the true tradition of History pupils everywhere, staring out of the window!

The constricting size of the second new series Woodbridgian and the rigid order of articles and features, published at 7s 6d per year, perhaps tends to mask two decades of constructive activity and steady growth - academic achievement, foreign trips, the continuation of drama, debating and music and an increasing concern with Science. Familiar names appear, not only Charrots, Hulls and Proctor-Robinsons, with whom one eventually worked, but Binsteads, Ormes and Digbys whose children one came to teach!

Issue number 36 made a bold discovery - The Woodbridgian Magazine. Founded 1864, an error repeated for several issues. These were years of true centenaries, of course, including 1964 - 100 years on the present site and 1962 - the 300th anniversary of the School’s founding. For the latter event Headmaster Ayres produced a small centenary booklet, ably assisted by pupil historian C.N.Moore, who did much to preserve and publish material relating to the School.

The mid sixties was a time of turmoil for the independent school as long-established traditions and compulsions collapsed with startling regularity. The threat to the system from Harold Wilson’s new Labour Government was nothing compared to the stresses from within, brought about by the youth revolution. Woodbridge School, which had never indulged in the more bizarre rites and attitudes of the ‘great’ Public Schools, probably escaped lightly. How irrelevant the ‘long hair’ debate seems now.

There can be no doubt that ‘The Woodbridgian’ was swept along by the prevailing mood. Editorials suddenly have a bite that is clearly lacking.

‘The Woodbridgian’ has tended to deteriorate into a rather dreary list of notable school events and achievements; it has also laboured under the difficulty of being too much connected with the attitudes of Establishment. Unfortunately, this image of the Magazine still prevails ...... It is now editorial policy to alter this image.

Wow! A new generation of determined editors, H.R.Gardner, C.Goodden, P.J.Freeman and P.R.A.de G. Sievking, with considerable literary and journalistic flair, did succeed in killing off New Series 2 and in 1967 introduced a restructured magazine, the immediate forerunner of today’s journal.

  Woodbridgian 1970

Not an epoch-fracturing event of the Bastille-bashing type, admited the editors modestly, more one of reformation and modernisation. There were, in addition, more photographs and line drawings and an advertising section. The journals bear the numbering system, Volume 13, 1 to 9, and gave way in 1974 to the more familiar ‘monster’ mags. They introduced the photographic cover, the photo-montage, the two-column page and more.

  Woodbridgian 1973

A mini-mag for the Spring and Summer terms of 1974 was published so that a fresh co-educational journal could be produced the following year. Yes, girls had arrived. What a Woodbridgian that was - arguably the best ever. The art-work of new girls Anita Andrews and Jane Clark was magnificent and with editors of the calibre of Sam Organ and Andy Sims, the issue had to be a triumph. By this time, too, editors and their helpers were designing their own lay-out and pasting up the copy for final printing - by no means an easy task. Proof reading was almost non-existent! For years there wasn’t even a numbering system for each passing magazine. Future generations will have to judge the new, new, new, modern series!

These Woodbridgians paid tribute to outgoing Headmaster, J.L.Rolland, who had weathered the storms of a stormy decade and welcomed A.F.Vyvyan-Robinson. A century of magazines had passed; headmasterial aspirations remain strong and constant.

1886. Dr. Wood. ......ventured to repeat the hope that in no distant future the Woodbridge Grammar School may take its place among the great schools of the country.

1977 A.F.Vyvyan-Robinson..... My aim would be to do all in my power to make Woodbridge the best school of its type, if not in England, then in East Anglia at least.

Generations of pupil editors have enjoyed a rich educational experience preparing the school magazine for publication. Generations of pupils, one hopes, have found the journal an interesting record of their years at School, their house, their team their society or club, their friends. Old Woodbridgians have found it a useful way of keeping in touch with school news and old friends.

The next hundred years will undoubtedly bring further sweeping changes as the constant search for a better magazine continues. Since 1882 no one seems to have realised that ultimately the journal is only as good as the hacks that write the house notes or team reports! We trust that the editors of the future will bear in mind the responsibility they have in preparing what is the only record of a School Year and we wish them well.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ‘WOODBRIDGIAN’.

The Woodbridgian 1882 - 1982.

1882 - 1933 Numbers 1 to 152.

1933 - 1947 New Series 1 to 27.

1947 - 1967 ‘New’ Series. 1 to 59.

1967 - 1973 Volume 13** 1 to 9.

1974 - 1981 8 issues unnumbered

1982 Centenary issue.

(**The previous 238 issues having been bound into 12 volumes.)

Well, that’s what I wrote in 1982!! Now for the tale of ‘The Woodbridgian’ 1982 to 2006, ups and downs certainly and again a fascinating reflection of the dramatically changing times in our school’s history.

  Woodbridgian 1982

So we are now looking at the next 25 years of Woodbridgians - and even a period of a few years when no Magazines were published at all. There was a time when I was the staff editor for one year! We lapsed back into unnumbered copies and a few with no dates on!

There is a problem here, you see, and I imagine that all schools suffer it. Firstly, what is the role of the School Magazine? Our editors have been trying to define that role for over 100 years and each generation interprets the role of the mag differently. Here are the options.

• A record of the school year and all that has gone on.
• A vehicle for pupils to express their opinions, opinions which can be reflect negatively on the School and for which there seems to be no right of reply.
• A source of poems, drawings, literary contributions etc., the work of the pupils.
• A learning platform for budding journalists. (Here we could point to dozens of OWs who have edited the magazine and gone on to wield the professional pen.)

In a way, dear reader, you can’t have it all. So it comes down to the staff editor and his sense of priorities. Take Derry Purvis, editor for many years, and also Head of the Art Department. Naturally the artistic side flourished during those years. Then various Heads of English have sought to use the magazine to display the writing and creative talents of our students. Being The Staff Editor has never been a post fought over by staff in any school!

So, 1983. We hope that your reading of this ‘Woodbridgian’ will provide once again an interesting insight into the life at Woodbridge School, wrote the editors. The cover was the first ever photo-montage. In the following year the editors hoped that the reader would find this Woodbridgian both entertaining and informative and will feel as optimistic about the future as we do ourselves.

This was the year in which the new science laboratories were opened and the teaching of science featured in the journal. In 1985 farewells were said to outgoing Headmaster Fred Vyvyan-Robinson. He not only took the school back into independence; he also left it with a healthy queue of customers anxious to benefit from the standards he set. It is interesting to note that the Debating Society held 16 debates during the year.

A school magazine should reflect as closely as possible the social and academic achievements of the year, wrote the editor in 1986. Headmaster David Younger was welcomed and ‘so farewells’ were sung to Tom Dewar, Tim Nightingale, Ian Gwyther, Alan Nicholls, Peter Gibson and the stalwart Paul Dumbrill. That was quite an exodus.

1986 was given the number 261 after I fussed and moaned for ages. It was a fulsome journal, 64 pages in fact, and contained the first ever colour photos - celebrating the visit of H.R.H. The Princess Royal to the School. In the following year the editors declared that the attitude towards The Woodbridgian has been somewhat detached and hoped that the next editors will receive still more enthusiastic support, enabling the magazine to go from strength to strength.

  Woodbridgian 1987

The Great Storm was featured and there’s a genuine cartoon by the great Lucy Duffield. The 64 pages again reflected a busy time at the school.

In 1989 the Editors were a formidable trio of William Robinson, Amelia Clarke, Clare Coulson. The latter has since become fashion editor at the ‘Daily Telegraph. One of the inherent problems of the Woodbridgians, they boldly stated, seems to be the lethargy which would-be contributors possess. It has seemed inordinately difficult to get people to write for what is essentially their magazine. So the editors commissioned a questionnaire and found, I suppose, what every editor had experienced. People loved the magazine as long as they didn’t have to write for it. Some wanted more sport, others more drama, others more music, others more art, others more photographs!!! Certainly the art lovers got their wish as there was a generous art gallery.

  Woodbridgian 1989

This run of magazines came to an end in 1990 with some poor magazines - the printers seemed to have lost control of their font sizes and the earlier discipline of this series was not fully maintained. When the staff editor moved on, I took over the job. Immediately, of course, I put my own emphasis and sense of priorities in! This proves what I have been saying from the start - how can you run a magazine consistently when personal preferences loom so large? I had two excellent and very talented editors and I apologise to them both now and before the world. I was far too pushy and did not allow them any real editorial control. James Ashton and Claire Maroussas - I was at fault. We had our first colour cover and there were cartoons again, including a final Duffield, captioned photographs and a new printer. It was more of an archivist’s dream. OK, I’ve made my apologies. I’ll say no more.

  Woodbridgian 1991

For 1992 I was one of four editors so that was a mercy for the World! Colour photos of Art work occupied the centre pages. It was an ordered and organised journal, one of the best every produced. Editors - Maia Bristol and Adam Lawson. Well that tells you something. 1993 did not disappoint. The cover depicted the proposed Redstone Building. There was another big going-away - Roy Allen; Ivan Hayward; Michael Lubbock and Tony Waller. Headmaster David Younger also departed for the North.

  Woodbridgian 1993

The journal of 1994 contained an editorial by Nick Attfield. Together with my colleagues I had dreams of journalistic glory, shaping the new look and presentation of its contents. Well, he produced an excellent magazine. Editing, wrote Nick, is a full-time job that requires long hours and vast amounts of energy and diplomacy. I am exhausted and quite frankly pleased to be handing over this illustrious task to the unsuspecting victim who will follow after me. New Headmaster, Stephen Cole was welcomed with an in-depth interview and Chris Tyndale-Biscoe departed. A pull-out supplement on School House, 1895-1995, was included. (This will eventually appear on the website.)

  Woodbridgian 1994

1995 was the last of staff editor Michael Poole who had maintained a corporate look over five issues. Jeff Leslie and Pauline Moore were given valetes.

Thence came editions 271 to 274, excellent magazines which reflected the busy and creative life of the school. I can’t see who the editors were on three of these journals and there are no self-searching editorials. We said final farewells to Jeff Leslie and P-R and celebrated remarkable achievements in music and drama, the CCF and foreign travel. Good magazines all round but then it stopped! 274, 1999-2000 seemed to be the last.

Now why is this? Other schools had ditched the traditional magazine so we were not alone. Experts, some as old as 27, who, working for publicity companies, studied the school magazine phenomenon across the nation and wrote learned papers on it declared that the age of the school mag was indeed over. We had websites and modern technology. We did not need it.

  Report 2001-2002

In October 2001 Woodbridge School published its first annual report. Headmaster, Stephen Cole wrote: This annual report is the first of its kind and genre at Woodbridge. The Woodbridgian is an excellent magazine, but like all school magazines it needs to balance the need to record information with the desire to entertain the readership.

Three of these reports were published and certainly will prove invaluable to historians. The new European initiatives and international exchange programmes are featured along with the great work collecting for worthy charities.

Woodbridgian 2003

But you can’t tie a great and historic journal down and in the Autumn of 2002 English teacher Shona Norman took on the duty of creating ‘The Woodbridgian’ again. The emphasis has been strongly on pupils’ efforts and the three issues that have been published reflect that desire. Here are the words of Miss Norman, in The Editorial of 2004-2005.

It is overwhelming to consider the sheer volume of what goes on at our school, continually challenging the magazine’s editors as to what should be included for your perusal. Change can be a daunting prospect but once you have made that first step, an abundance of opportunities will open up for you.

The Woodbridgian strives to encapsulate what it means to be a student here at Woodbridge, reflecting the diversity of all that you are involved in, from trekking in the far-flung rainforests of Peru through to battling it out on the muddy hockey pitch. Just like the magazine itself, Woodbridge School goes from strength to strength.

The Woodbridgian seems safe for a while but who knows what technology lies ahead, what modes of communication that might bring an end to a publishing tradition of 125 years?

My next task will be to list the Editors of the Woodbridgian over the years. Keep reading!!