Following my renewed interest in things Woodbridgian, I went over in my mind my time at School House and came to the conclusion that being so long ago my memories were very sketchy. We spoke of the gorseing that went on and I can remember enduring this on occasions. It appears that not much has been spoken of the other quite dangerous punishment meted out in the ‘Rockies’ where our ccf kit was stored in kitbags. The idea was to set the kitbags swinging across the aisle from side to side and send the poor miscreant along the aisle. To be hit by a loaded kitbag on the side of the body was to say the least painful.
As a ‘fresher’ I did my stint as a ‘fag’; it’s where I learned to clean shoes. As a non-swimmer I was entered into the Swimming Gala Novices race which some clown decided should be started from the deep end, no questions asked. To this day I have a fear of anything associated with swimming, brought on by nearly swallowing the contents of the pool before someone realised I was drowning and not kidding!
When we had our meals in School House I can remember putting my hand on the prefects’ table one evening when asking a question and nearly having a finger removed by a flashing knife blade. (Editor’s interruption. That was school cutlery. I think you were safe!) My only regret, and I hate admitting this, is that when it was my turn to be a tormentor, the powers that be decided it was all very anti-social so I was denied my retaliation. The business of parading down for meals has been well aired; has anyone mentioned getting indigestion after rushing back to School House after the evening meal to listen to Dick Barton at 6.45pm?
One memory of which I am very fond is a school trip to Paris. Was it in 1948 or 1949? There were about 20 of us and we stayed as I remember at the Lycee Jean de Sailly or similar spelling. It still exists apparently. At any rate I seem to remember we were sort of pathfinders in the school exchange programme. I can recall gaining access to some pretty impressive places not open to the general public. We enjoyed some wonderful meals that seemed to go on for hours. I will forever remember a couple of us buying a bottle of Cointreau from an off-licence and refusing to share it. We ended up with a hang-over for about two weeks! To this day whenever I smell the zest from freshly-broken orange skin, I recall the bottle. Has anyone mentioned this trip before?
All in all I consider myself privileged to have spent school days at Woodbridge. Whatever my parents’ motives for sending me away from home, I have to thank them for preparing me for the real world.
Remarkably, it is as long ago as 1991 when Tallents House closed.
The winter edition of The Woodbridgian contained both an obituary of the former governor, P.C.Tallents and the news that Bryn, a large house in Moorfield Road, had been acquired as 'a waiting house for junior boarders'. Conversion of the building was painfully slow and it was not until September 1965 that the house opened, as Tallents House, with 18 young boarders under the charge of Mike Lubbock, with his wife Jill as matron.
It is said that boarders at Queens, Marryott and School marvelled at the provision of interior sprung mattresses and central heating; allents House was the envy of the boarding community. The cellar was converted into a workshop and a television was provided, 'very popular before tea'; a lawn was created from the rubble and Jeff Leslie became house tutor. A house newspaper was prepared; the first snooker table appeared; model aircraft were an early craze and autumn fishing trips were popular.
When Mr. Leslie took a party to see a live performance of Crackerjack, Mark Wakelin became a national TV personality in a single afternoon. Happy times, and following a Summer Term party in which a crate of strawberries was provided by a grateful parent, the writer of House Notes, 1967, concluded with 'thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Lubbock, for making our stay at Tallents so enjoyable.'
Gardening was the rage in the early 1970s and the orchard was annexed for individual plots. New arrivals of note included Adam Lubbock, an event of 'great interest' to the house, Abbas, an academic and cricketing star from Pakistan, the sports hall, John Penny s tutor, and colour tv. The years rush by in the pages of The Woodbridgian, a blur of swimming, tobogganing, Xmas and Summer Parties, chicken pox, gliding and chess.
It could not last for ever and the end came in 1980. Plumbers, electricians and carpenters wrought the magic that made Tallents a suitable residence for the first girl boarders. The tuck-box room became a 'sewing area'. Surely not! Jill Lubbock became house mistress with Ruth Hadlee as house tutor. Years of more dramatic change at Tallents lay ahead and in 1982 the Lubbocks moved next door, their places taken in quick succession by Sylvia Huggett and Janet Nightingale. Contrasting styles of pastoral care were studied by the discerning inmates of the house.
In 1986 boys were back, as changing patterns of boarding life forced a reassessment of the School's accommodation. Ian and Eve Saunders crossed the grounds from Queens, accompanied by M.A.Weaver and W.E. Kelly as tutors. A house of 20 boys relished the comforts provided for the girls but expressed puzzlement at the barred windows - to keep intruders out or the girls in? The trio of Andrews, Pickering, Baughan and Clarke, gave the house a musical and dramatic ambience.
In 1987 the first Australians arrived, together with the worst winter in memory. Tallents lads cleared snow for a week while day pupils enjoyed an extra holiday. In the famous October storms, a Cedar of Lebanon crashed into the first floor dormitory but no one was hurt. The Saunders boys, with Ruth and Titus, gave Tallents a family feel again and Harper, Guest, Grant and Dorwood snapped up the sporting trophies. The sixties had returned. When the Saunders clan moved on to School House, Colin and Liz Warden moved in.
Abbey boarders were a novel feature of the house in what turned out to be its last days. Boarding numbers were in decline and at the end of the Easter Term 1991 the house closed. The remaining youngsters moved into School House. Since that time Tallents House as osted innumerable Australians and other foreign bodies and continues to play a part in school life.
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