I returned to Hertfordshire in 1998 having spent 10 years in London and then to Stevenage in 2000. On one occasion, I cycled up the Old Town on a Sunday with my son and pointed out Alleyne’s School, where I’d been a pupil (now the Thomas Alleyne Academy. Ed.)
The locked gates and fences suggested that strolling around it it was not an option so we walked around the Grange instead, which was now fenced off and clearly no longer a part of the school. It had been converted into a block of upmarket flats. The big wooden doors at the entrance were now permanently shut so we had to walk round. The doorway on the corner we used to walk through was no longer there. A column with a spire, identical to the one on the other side of the building, had taken its place. The main entrance was where the stairs to the upper levels had been when we used the building.
The main door opened and a gentleman stepped out to have smoke and to inquire as to why we were snooping around. When I explained, he became a lot friendlier and said that he and his wife actually lived in the very flat that had previously been his wife’s classroom, even before it was annexed by Alleynes.
I noticed, beyond a fence, that what had been a hard tennis court behind the chemistry lab was now a car park. We continued to the back of the building. The whole of the playing field to the south of the Main Hall was now fenced off and had been built on. On the corner of the Grange, I pointed out the ground floor room that had been the sixth form common room, where only progressive rock music LPs were allowed to be played. I clearly remember Hocus Pocus by Focus blaring out of an open window on a pleasant summer’s day.
Part of the long high wall on one side of the playground was now demolished. We continued to the back of the building where my classroom had been on the ground floor. The windows and patio doors appeared to be in the same order (albeit replaced) but I was surprised to see that the sloping corridor that led to my classroom no longer had any windows. I remember queuing in that corridor on my first day with the sun blazing through the windows. Then, as we approached the flat, we heard a dog barking from within and decided to beat a hasty retreat!
On another occasion, I was able to walk up the drive towards the Main Hall with my daughter in tow. The fives court was now boarded up and possibly being used for storage. I pointed out my classroom (for the 4th and 5th year) above, It had been the art room before the new block was built behind the Main Hall. I pointed out the original hall (before my time) which was now the dining room with the kitchen added on. Blocks of classrooms on the left, of course, but the place where there used to be a large area of grass in front of the labs now had a library on it. I’m sorry to say that I believe Prince Charles would describe it as a “carbuncle” as it is in such contrast to the buildings around it.
When we arrived at the Main Hall, we were surprised to find that it was being hired out to a congregation without a church. We were mistaken for newcomers and invited in but I declined, being in no way religious. It would have been a good way to view the inside, of course, so maybe I should have accepted the invitation. The Main Hall was no longer connected to the gymnasium by the changing-room and lockers. A few cars were parked in that space.
The ancient outbuilding opposite the “carbuncle” in which caretaker George Pitcher stored various items was now, of course, demolished. I looked for any remains of the footpath which led to the back of the Grange without success and where was that small statue of a lady in a toga directly behind the outbuilding? Looking through the windows of the classroom adjacent to the outbuilding which had been my chemistry lab, I noticed that it had been converted back to a regular classroom. We departed via the Maltings and looking through the window, I spied an electronic keyboard, which suggested that it was still dedicated to music but in need of restoration. I believe it had recently been restored in 1968 when I joined the school because the paint smelled fresh and the varnish on the floorboards was still sticky in places. I never knew of its connection with Vincent Motorcycles up to 1955 until I saw the blue plaque on the end of the building where the entrance had originally been.
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Hello Hilary Judd, surprised to read your comment regarding Alleyne’s school. This is Robert (Bobby) Dines, your cousin. Are you still living in Canada?
My brother Don Cole was a pupil at the school in the 1950s and I am looking for anyone associated with the old boys association, or anyone who knew him.
Thank you, Steve, for your reminiscences. I attended Alleyne’s as a short-trousered, school-capped first year in 1965, coming from St Nicholas Primary with you, Trevor Muir! Only having stayed for two years, and never having returned, my memories of this place are scant, but I do remember that all first years were housed in the Grange, though we did trail over to the main school for many of our lessons. I do recall that one of the classrooms housed the ‘Fourth Form Remove’ which was a group of disaffected youths who looked menacing, but were probably harmless. At break times we were turned out into what felt like a walled prison exercise yard in which the only plaything was the business end of a JCB digger.
I’ve just been looking at Street View pictures of the building, but they led me to the conclusion that I never actually looked at it when I was 11! The whole area seems to have been remodelled and become highly gentrified since I was there, but perhaps that’s a view coloured by living in Leeds for over 50 years.
Brest wishes to you, Trevor.
RE: RON WHITTLE. Thank-you for your kind comment but I have been rather slow to remember that I have in my possession a book entitled, “The Schoolboy’s Pocket Notebook” by Carlton Wallace which has your name and form (4.2) written on it. I remember you giving it to me when we occupied the old art room for 2 years (1971-1973) but what I swapped it for, I do not remember. It is indeed a miracle that it survived all the times I moved home in the past but I have lived in my final resting place in Stevenage now for the last 22 years. I hope you will be pleased for me to send it back to you but I need your address of course. I hereby consent to Our Stevenage passing you my email address [Done. Ed.]. I hope that you are able to respond to this comment soon (I’m assuming you live in UK).
Re: John May (83-88). You mentioned Mr Munn having a wooden leg. During my time there (68-73) we did indeed hear that he had been involved in a serious car accident and that he had to be cut free as one of his legs had been trapped. It must have been some time before he returned to the school. My memory of him before the accident is that he was a massive Bob Dylan fan and often quoted him!
When I attended (83-88), the Grange was solely for the use of first year students. I guess it kept them away from the ‘dangerous’ big boys!
Reading around the comments here, I can’t believe how many of the teachers who taught me had been there in the late 60s and early 70s… Mike Hogg, Dr Splett, Mr and Mrs Munn (I remember he had a wooden leg), Mr Biggerstaff, I’m sure there are more.
I moved away from Stevenage at 19, after college, and never went back. Spent 10 years with the MoD, travelling the world and then settled into life in the Middle East for 20 years (defence engineering).
Seems strange seeing the old alma mater after all these years, I bet it’s changed an awful lot over the years. Feels like forever since we took the first ever GCSEs and then girls arrived the next year (if that would have happened when I was still at school I’d have done even worse at my exams than I already did)!
Nisi Dominus Frustra
I remember when the Grange became a sixth form block the common room leaked and there was some grass growing on the roof. At the time there was a suggestions book in the common room.
One of the suggestions was that we should keep a cow on the roof as this would provide these milk and save a trip to the main part of the school to collect bottles of milk.
Funnily enough, the suggestion book disappeared – but the roof was repaired shortly after. This was probably in 1970 as I was in the lower 6th form when the Grange was first used by 6th formers.
I was at the school from 1965 to 1972.
PS. I should have mentioned the devastation caused to the trees in the Avenue by the famous gale force winds of 1987 as famously denied by the weather forecaster, Michael Fish.
I was not not aware of this when I left the town in 1988 so when I cycled there in 2000, the new trees were still quite small and gave the Avenue an altogether different aspect compared to the way it had looked for a few hundred years previously.
[See here (click) for a history of the tree plantings in The Avenue. Ed.]
What a wonderful tour down memory lane.
The Grange was an iconic building, being not only our first form room in 1968 but also as described the location later in our school career for the sixth form common room. What made me smile most though was the detail of the Maltings buildings as being freshly painted and the varnish on the floors still being a bit sticky. That was a memory not dredged up for over half a century but isn’t it strange what details our memories latch onto.
All of the old buildings were a part of the character and history of the school and each will hold particular associations.
Thank you Steve for bringing a smile to my face.