The First 50 Years of Charney Hall School

The Great War and Charney Hall School.By 1912 the School was in its heyday. The school was successful academically and the sports teams enjoyed much success. Nothing seemed to be on the horizon to challenge this idyllic way of life. But there were signs of the growing militarism of Britain and Europe. These signs manifested themselves in the significant number of Old Boys who were now obtaining commissions in the armed forces.Abruptly in 1914 the Charney Hall Notes started to reflect the threat of an impending war. The November notes record:“We hope the following list of Old Boys serving their country in the present crisis will be of interest. The list is incomplete, as some have not replied, but it hoped that more information will be supplied from time to time”. The list contained 59 names, some of whom eventually appeared on the Grange War Memorial. The articles were many and varied but one has been included because it was from George’s son Hubert. The article reads:H. Podmore appealed to Grange and Rugby (where he had been teaching) for trousers for his Battalion , as the men had been drilling for five weeks in their own (usually rather flimsy) –clothes with the result that a large number of them had to wear overcoats all day for obvious reasons; and uniforms were not expected for another three weeks. As a result of this appeal he received 150 pairs of trousers, and 100 shirts in three days. We take this opportunity of thanking the kind contributors. He has lately been acting as the Adjutant had to go to the front at very short notice. His name has been sent up for promotion to Captain. Hubert was killed in 1917.

Another sad entry was the obituary for Captain T.H. Preston, the first Old Boy to be killed, which read as follows:

OBITUARY

We deeply regret to record: Killed in Action in Flanders, Nov. 17th.Captain T. H. PRESTON, East Lancashire Regt.T.H. Preston came here in May 1880, and left in July 1894, going on to Haileybury, and then Sandhurst. He served with the 1st East Lancashires through the Boer War, being invalided home early in 1900, but going out again in Nov. of that year. He was in command of a mounted infantry section, and was mentioned in Despatches by

The First 50 Years of Charney Hall School

Lord Kitchener, and received the Queen’s Medal with three clasps. In 1902 he exchanged to the 2nd Battalion, and went with his regiment to India, and subsequently to the Curragh. In Nov. 1911, he got his company , and was placed in the Special Reserve. He was in the shooting team of his regiment, which in 1912 won the Army Challenge Cup, open to all Reserve Battalions.In February, 1913, he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Diploma. He was ordered to France in August, and was at the Front all though the battles of the Marne and Aisne. His only brother, J.S. Preston, Lieut. 1st Royal Scots, died of enteric (sic) in the South African War at Dewetsdorp.

The final school news was about Conrad Podmore joining the school staff and a small article about Belgian refugees which has a modern ring. It reads as follows:

“There was some disappointment, when the Chief Constable of Lancashire refused to sanction the housing of any Belgian refugees in Grange, since it is in a prohibited area”.

George never mentions the fact that Conrad also served in the War and survived it. Conrad may not have escaped entirely from the experience and conditions he faced as an officer. This may well have been a contributory factor in his early death in 1937 aged only 52 years.

SCHOOL NEWS

G.C.Podmore, M.A., Trinity College, Oxford, joined the staff here in May. He won successively a Junior (1896) and a Senior Scholarship (1898) at Charterhouse, was in the 2nd Xl. both at Cricket and Football. He left Charterhouse in July, 1902, having won a leaving Exhibition and the Talbot Classical Prize there, and an open Classical Exhibition at Trinity College. At Oxford he was placed in the Second Class in “Mods”, and in the First Class in Lit. Hum, and captained the Trinity Association Team in 1904-5. Since then he has had nearly eight years experience in school work, under Mr J.G. Bradshaw, Packwood Haugh, Hockley Heath.

The article finished off with the comment that “Mr P.B.Halewood leaves us at the end of the term to go to Cuddesdon College, with a view to ordination.”

The First 50 Years of Charney Hall School

These last notes of November 1914, bring to a conclusion the writing of the “Charney Hall Notes” by George until March 1923, although a “long letter” was sent in January 1916 to parents and all Old Boys who were serving. George was the focal point of correspondence with pupils, Old Boys and families. His was also the driving force behind compiling and writing the Notes. He constantly wrote and received masses of letters which kept the School bound together. What happened to one happened to the School. Nobody was ignored.

It is not surprising that the Charney Hall Notes virtually ceased after 1917 when George, Matilda and their family, lost Hubert# in an avoidable accident during a mortar practice. The notes above, and those mentioned later on, show the effects the Great War had on ordinary families and small, very personal and close knit private schools. It seems likely that much of the responsibility of running the school fell on Conrad’s shoulders including the writing of the Notes. Conrad admitted in a later note that he did not have the same connection to the Old Boys as George had done. # See obituary of Hubert Podmore by the author.

In March 1923, the Notes were again being sent out regularly and the usual sports results and academic success was recorded. It was also the year of catching up with events that had happened back in 1914-21. George had recovered from his devastating loss and submerged himself in the news of old and new. There was mention of Conrad’s marriage to Barbara Geraldine Wolton in 1920 and subsequently of the birth of their son Derek George in 1922.

This happier note was modulated by the death of Mr Hubbert in 1922 which highlighted the considerable contribution he had given the school over the years. “His name will recall (to the Old Boys) many pleasant strolls on Hampsfell and elsewhere, and a great enthusiasm which he inspired for entomology. We owe him a great debt for the cheerful unselfishness, with which he gave up so much of his leisure, in order to take charge of the boys, when Mr Conrad and Mr Hutchinson were both away in the time of the War”.

In 1923 there was mention of a “memorial of some sort” to commemorate those Old Boys lost in the War. There had obviously been some discussion before this date about a preferred structure, as a circular had been sent out in November 1920. The Notes

The First 50 Years of Charney Hall School

indicated this should be a Memorial Hall with facility to have a Library and Reading room for school prayers, Lectures, and other Meetings, and was the generally favoured option. Within the Hall would be a suitable Memorial Tablet bearing the names of all who gave their lives in the War.

The Memorial Hall at Charney Hall School

In the “Charney Hall Notes” of March 1924, there was a synopsis of the discussions that had taken place. The general agreement was that the memorial should be situated within the school grounds. The Old Boys, in particular, felt that this was preferable to “adding to the already large number of Church Memorials”.

Work had already begun in April 1922 and by the end of the summer term in 1923 the exterior was practically completed.

The following November, the Bishop of Barrow gave a talk to the current boys, which was both”sympathetic and impressive”. He explained the objective of the Hall and its association with the memory of those Old Boys killed in the Great War.

The First 50 Years of Charney Hall School

The Memorial Hall was demolished in the 1970’s re-development, and very little information has survived about its use. Recently obtained pictures show the exterior and interior of the hall with several plaques/boards in place on the walls. Close inspection of these pictures did not reveal any tablet or memorial plaque. There was a description of the hall in the Notes from March 1924 which gives a good idea of what it looked like upon completion and the note that “although a permanent memorial tablet had yet to be made, a temporary panel had been placed on the south wall of the Hall”.

Interior of the Memorial Hall

“It is built of native limestone, and roofed with red asbestos tiles, as we are told that these, laid on thick felt will not crack from the impact of a cricket ball, as we know that slates and tiles do. The Hall itself is 35 ft. By 18ft., with a porch 8ft. by 5ft., and is floored and lined with pitch pine (all nailed through the groove, so that no nail heads are visible). It has an open unceiled roof, showing the beams. There are three lattice windows on the south, looking onto the drive, and one at the east end facing the top of Yewbarrow. The double doors are of Japanese oak. It is lighted by lantern pendants from the beams, and warmed by radiators. Over the arched entrance to the porch, this inscription is cut in the stone.”

The First 50 Years of Charney Hall School

IN MEMORIAM1914-1918

LEST WE FORGET.

The diagram below is a copy of the temporary tablet mentioned above. This memorial did not contain all the Old Boys killed or who died later through injury or illness attributable to war service.

The list of Old Boys Killed in World War 1Copyright ©David Clapp January 2017.