EAW022719 ENGLAND (1949). Shirley House Preparatory School for Boys, Watford, 1949

A tennis hard court? My memory of this is a bit vague. Certainly by my time there this area was derelict and pretty overgrown and there was long grass and a few poorly maintained apple trees beyond. It all looks well-kept in this picture from 1949 but clearly had been let go by '56/'57 when I got to know it. We roamed in that area a bit during breaks. Likewise what looks like a neat kitchen garden over to the left was also rather neglected by my time as I recall it.

Just partially visible here is a brick-built squash court. We boys never used it. It was I suppose for the school owners and staff only (and maybe friends of the owners). My guess is that it had been there for 20+ years before I went to school there as it didn't look new but on the other hand certainly not as old as the house. A c.1930s addition probably. As a youngster I didn't know about squash at all until I saw this building and it was explained briefly to me. There was no viewing gallery so hearing the thwacks and thumps, running players and calls was all we had to go by in our understanding. The sole entrance to it was an external door on the north side (far side in this picture) that opened straight onto the court.

More classrooms (x3), pupils' toilets and changing area (for the gym). Toilets very dank and run down, painted mostly a dark Brunswick Green (peeling).

The playground. The school was not on the main drainage system. Once a week or so the 'stink bomb' as we called it (honey wagon), an effluent tanker, came into the playground and a manhole cover was taken up so that the school's cess pit could be pumped out. Very pungent!

The woodwork classes shed. In retrospect I think that probably the woodwork teacher was also the school's odd-job man, using the workshop to mend items, store tools, paints and varnishes, etc.. it always smelled in there as we used animal glue that was kept on a heater to liquefy it.

The main house building. I believe that the house was originally built for the Stewart family as a residence but quite soon they opened a prep school (1899?). I was a pupil there from 1956 to 1962. The main house included the headmaster's residence (In my time Alan Mould + wife and two children), matron's 'sanitorium' and borders' accommodation and possibly some staff accommodation. On the ground floor were kitchens, the school dining room, headmaster's study, staff common room and (bottom/right) a couple of classrooms.

Just out of view off the far left corner of the playing field was a swimming pool, inset into the woods. It was not heated and it received limited sunlight so was always cold. The summer term included compulsory swimming periods and we had to go in. The water temperature was often in the mid 50s (F)or so, say 12 to at most 15 degrees Celsius. The pool was also used by the pupils of the next door Northfield School for Girls. We often played in the woods after lunch. They were owned by the school. The rear of the woods was fenced as it marked the side of the steep cutting in which the steam trains ran on the LMS Euston-Scotland mainline. A few hundred yards up the line to the left were the entrances to the rail tunnel.

The playing field, set out in the three terms for football, rugby and cricket. It also had a running track marked out on it (possibly just a 100yd straight although maybe a 440 yd oval as well, not sure). The added photo is taken at the Sports Day in 1959.

A building called 'The Ark'. It contained a changing room on the ground floor and above were, I believe, two floors of bedrooms and presumably a bathroom for the single staff, no doubt frugally furnished and rather cold, perhaps with paraffin heaters or coin-operated gas fires if they could afford them.

What became a small tuck shop during my time there(1956-62). They sold mainly just small round cheese biscuits etc..

The Assembly Hall. Used every morning for assembly (a hymn or two sung and typically a prayer and a few words from the headmaster before classes started). It was also the school gym and had climbing frames, climbing ropes, etc.. It had a stage for school plays/events.

Called 'The Dairy' in my time there (1956-62), a quite large/long classroom fronted by a glazed roof canopy along the side of it. Here was situated the main (students') entrance to the school. Pupils were not allowed to enter the school normally via the main house entrance/reception area before and to the right of The Dairy.

A year or two after I arrived (I started in 1956) a long single-storey pre-fabricated block was built here to house another 3 or 4 classrooms. At its peak while I was there I think that Shirley House had about 180 pupils, mostly day boys like me(I lived in nearby Stratford Road). I don't know how many borders there were; perhaps 20-25. There were four school 'houses' - Cawdor, Auchinleck, Loudon and Crawford, if my memory serves me well. Sports days were organised on a house basis with different coloured sashes worn by the four house teams. The school owners/head governors were Scots, the Stewart family, hence the Scottish house names.

Further classrooms for the younger pupils and an art (painting) classroom upstairs. Presumably the house staff annexe when it was a private residence, as I believe it was for a relatively short time before becoming a prep school.

The garden. As a rule we (day) pupils were not allowed onto it. Perhaps the relatively few borders could play there at weekends. In my time (1956-62) it was used for annual school photos (those long photos taken with a motorised panning camera) and individual close-up photos taken of each of us every year that were stuck into our school report books. It was also where refreshments etc were set up for parents and pupils on the school open days in the summer term.