WYCOMBE HIGH SCHOOL
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Even Schools are born.
As Jung remarked in the pages of Synchronicity, "Whatever is born or done at a moment of time has the qualities of that moment of time." He studied astrology, researched it with considerable success, despite the absence of computers or the historic and technical advances that have been made in the field since his time. |
21st Century astrology is an ever-deepening subject; it can be fine-tuned to a degree undreamed-of by the ancients. Even so, the briefest glimpse of its insights is rewarding. What can we learn about Wycombe High?
Its effective birth was at the start of lessons at 9 o'clock on that late September day; the Moon had just entered the sign of Aquarius and shone close to the IC, the Imum Coeli, the lower meridian under England's feet. By tradition the Moon embraces women, dependents and crowds; Aquarius is the sign both of the group and of innovation. Any luminary or planet close to the meridian or the horizon is strongly descriptive.
Here immediately is the picture of groups of girls and female staff crowding into a challenging new environment, facing a radically new venture in education. Because deep, emotional, probing and controlling Scorpio rises on the Ascendant, the eastern horizon, at right angles to the Moon, analysis and intuition must both be valued and come equally into play - a challenge which can develop into a great strength.
This new school, willing to try anything new and demanding, should produce scientists, researchers, psychologists, innovators; people of power, discretion and self-control. It should encourage the detective in its students, right across a modern curriculum. Scorpio Venus is about to rise and is dominant in other dimensions of the chart, bringing with it a love of harmony, of profound beauty - which is constantly manifest in the rich musical and creative life of the school.
The Sun in Libra is ruled by this Venus, and shines in the 11th house; harmony, kindness, fairness, balance and proportion, femininity itself are at the heart of education here, with a strong focus on social and civic preparation, and as many group activities to join as there are imaginations to create them.
Here though lies one of the possible difficulties at Wycombe High - the Sun is at right-angles ('square') to Jupiter, Chiron (discovered in 1977, orbiting between Saturn and Uranus every 50 years) and Neptune. It will be all too easy for the social and extra-curricular life of the school - staff and pupils alike - to so engage them that it becomes a real distraction from serious study, and a drain on the school's resources, even though they are ample.
A balance must always be maintained that keeps the collective spirit high without diluting or undermining a broad, imaginative but grounded education. Neither study nor recreation should be emphasised at the expense of the other.
Scorpio Mars in the 'Dragon's Head' assures that a most beneficial addition always to the life of the school will be physical education, indeed competition of any kind on and off the sports field. It will develop in the students and in the school itself strengths, resilience, commitment and a deep, confident sense of identity. These are qualities actively to pursue.
Secure in its own vision and purposes, Wycombe High need never look outside of itself for guidance or inspiration. To do so - or indeed overtly to compete with other schools, for example in the current questionable 'league tables' - would be demeaning and retrogressive. Instead WHS should always be determined to set an excellent example of principle, vision, scholarship and behaviour to others.
A sine qua non in education is the mind itself, with its powers of communication; these are the domain of Mercury, found here in balanced Libra in the chart's 12th house just above the eastern horizon. There will always be a willingness here for civilised discussion and a just administration that works quietly, benignly behind the scenes dealing generously and effectively with major issues of policy and resources. Wycombe High's wider connections, its circle of Friends, can always be relied upon for unobtrusive, influential help in these areas.
The same pattern - Mercury beautifully connected to Jupiter and Pluto - suggests that the best route to academic brilliance is taken through plentiful facilities for quiet, private study or debate; not solitary, but in the peaceful intellectual companionship of very small groups where creative inspiration can flow unimpeded, and enquiring minds work to their fullest potential. In the broader scheme of things, this augurs well also for the development of fine political acumen. Citizenship would fit naturally into the WHS agenda... and help to channel some of the restive, rebellious energy of the Aquarian Moon.
Its effective birth was at the start of lessons at 9 o'clock on that late September day; the Moon had just entered the sign of Aquarius and shone close to the IC, the Imum Coeli, the lower meridian under England's feet. By tradition the Moon embraces women, dependents and crowds; Aquarius is the sign both of the group and of innovation. Any luminary or planet close to the meridian or the horizon is strongly descriptive.
Here immediately is the picture of groups of girls and female staff crowding into a challenging new environment, facing a radically new venture in education. Because deep, emotional, probing and controlling Scorpio rises on the Ascendant, the eastern horizon, at right angles to the Moon, analysis and intuition must both be valued and come equally into play - a challenge which can develop into a great strength.
This new school, willing to try anything new and demanding, should produce scientists, researchers, psychologists, innovators; people of power, discretion and self-control. It should encourage the detective in its students, right across a modern curriculum. Scorpio Venus is about to rise and is dominant in other dimensions of the chart, bringing with it a love of harmony, of profound beauty - which is constantly manifest in the rich musical and creative life of the school.
The Sun in Libra is ruled by this Venus, and shines in the 11th house; harmony, kindness, fairness, balance and proportion, femininity itself are at the heart of education here, with a strong focus on social and civic preparation, and as many group activities to join as there are imaginations to create them.
Here though lies one of the possible difficulties at Wycombe High - the Sun is at right-angles ('square') to Jupiter, Chiron (discovered in 1977, orbiting between Saturn and Uranus every 50 years) and Neptune. It will be all too easy for the social and extra-curricular life of the school - staff and pupils alike - to so engage them that it becomes a real distraction from serious study, and a drain on the school's resources, even though they are ample.
A balance must always be maintained that keeps the collective spirit high without diluting or undermining a broad, imaginative but grounded education. Neither study nor recreation should be emphasised at the expense of the other.
Scorpio Mars in the 'Dragon's Head' assures that a most beneficial addition always to the life of the school will be physical education, indeed competition of any kind on and off the sports field. It will develop in the students and in the school itself strengths, resilience, commitment and a deep, confident sense of identity. These are qualities actively to pursue.
Secure in its own vision and purposes, Wycombe High need never look outside of itself for guidance or inspiration. To do so - or indeed overtly to compete with other schools, for example in the current questionable 'league tables' - would be demeaning and retrogressive. Instead WHS should always be determined to set an excellent example of principle, vision, scholarship and behaviour to others.
A sine qua non in education is the mind itself, with its powers of communication; these are the domain of Mercury, found here in balanced Libra in the chart's 12th house just above the eastern horizon. There will always be a willingness here for civilised discussion and a just administration that works quietly, benignly behind the scenes dealing generously and effectively with major issues of policy and resources. Wycombe High's wider connections, its circle of Friends, can always be relied upon for unobtrusive, influential help in these areas.
The same pattern - Mercury beautifully connected to Jupiter and Pluto - suggests that the best route to academic brilliance is taken through plentiful facilities for quiet, private study or debate; not solitary, but in the peaceful intellectual companionship of very small groups where creative inspiration can flow unimpeded, and enquiring minds work to their fullest potential. In the broader scheme of things, this augurs well also for the development of fine political acumen. Citizenship would fit naturally into the WHS agenda... and help to channel some of the restive, rebellious energy of the Aquarian Moon.
This hilltop school will always be at its best when bucking or setting the trend, trail-blazing, mould-breaking, networking. These are the qualities for which it will always be best known, and for which, spiritually, it was founded.
They impact dramatically and beneficially on the town of High Wycombe itself ('born' June 24th 1237), and today's Centenary reunion marks a high point in a year whose solar return chart last September (2000) promises to be full of interest, enjoyment and excellent publicity - even a touch of glamour.
(Next year? Nose back to the grindstone!)
The Aquarian capacity for inventiveness, modernity, social conscience, scientific curiosity and surprise lies deep at the heart of the school, in strong positions of the 'draconic' Sun, Uranus, Pluto and Chiron; it is this that really drives achievement here and enables an often maverick establishment to make its mark powerfully on the society from which its students are drawn and to which they are returned.
In constantly re-inventing itself and transforming peoples' lives, High Wycombe High School makes a real contribution to changing the world.
........................................................................................................................
They impact dramatically and beneficially on the town of High Wycombe itself ('born' June 24th 1237), and today's Centenary reunion marks a high point in a year whose solar return chart last September (2000) promises to be full of interest, enjoyment and excellent publicity - even a touch of glamour.
(Next year? Nose back to the grindstone!)
The Aquarian capacity for inventiveness, modernity, social conscience, scientific curiosity and surprise lies deep at the heart of the school, in strong positions of the 'draconic' Sun, Uranus, Pluto and Chiron; it is this that really drives achievement here and enables an often maverick establishment to make its mark powerfully on the society from which its students are drawn and to which they are returned.
In constantly re-inventing itself and transforming peoples' lives, High Wycombe High School makes a real contribution to changing the world.
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pam at high wycombe 1959-1961
FORTY YEARS ON ~
A Personal Memoir
Back in 1961 I little thought that it would literally be Forty Years On when Wycombe High called me back to the top of Marlow Hill! I was only there for two years, from the Autumn term of 1959 until Christmas 1961, but those few terms had a tremendous, seminal impact on my life - much of it due to the kindness and vision of Annie Downs on the cusp of her retirement. I am sure there must be many WHS pupils who share my gratitude to her, and to all her teaching staff.
After nine tedious years in the north, it was a revelation to be pitched into such a hive of creative activity. There were still twelve Houses, and lively competiton between them not only on the sports field (extensive in pre-Motorway days) but in the arts and music.For example - the House Choirs competition in the spring of 1961....
Imagine, twelve eighteen-year-old girls of varying musical inexperience, charged - as House captains - with the daunting task of bringing a scratch chorus of assorted juniors and seniors to an agreeable standard of performance in not one but two part works, before the whole school! And first you had to find some songs.
A Personal Memoir
Back in 1961 I little thought that it would literally be Forty Years On when Wycombe High called me back to the top of Marlow Hill! I was only there for two years, from the Autumn term of 1959 until Christmas 1961, but those few terms had a tremendous, seminal impact on my life - much of it due to the kindness and vision of Annie Downs on the cusp of her retirement. I am sure there must be many WHS pupils who share my gratitude to her, and to all her teaching staff.
After nine tedious years in the north, it was a revelation to be pitched into such a hive of creative activity. There were still twelve Houses, and lively competiton between them not only on the sports field (extensive in pre-Motorway days) but in the arts and music.For example - the House Choirs competition in the spring of 1961....
Imagine, twelve eighteen-year-old girls of varying musical inexperience, charged - as House captains - with the daunting task of bringing a scratch chorus of assorted juniors and seniors to an agreeable standard of performance in not one but two part works, before the whole school! And first you had to find some songs.
Ever a tail-end Charlie, the captain of Nash House (me) got to the music cupboard late in the feeding frenzy and had to make do with the crumbs. One was Linden Lea; the other a stirring anthem, 'O Thou, the Central Orb', both with piano accompaniment. Unfortunately no one in Nash House could play the piano. What to do? We sang a capella - and won!
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Not only the girls were expected to entertain; does anyone remember the Staff panto "1066 and All That", by Reginald Arkell... "with A Rumbling Appendix by Anon" ? Amongst many luminaries it starred Ruth Herring as the Earl of Essex, and Miss Minett as Guy Fawkes. Bear in mind this was just before the Sixties hit respectability and deference for six; to see our dignified teachers brilliantly joking and clowning was enormous fun, almost shocking, and such a tonic; a psychological Mardi Gras before the privations of study and exams.
The sixth form Prefects were not to be outdone. In December we put on a 'complete and unexpurgated school edition' of 'Snow White' partly in dreadful verse and laden with In-jokes you would never get now.There was a great drive to get us all knitting wobbly lurid squares for refugee blankets; these, plus the current Bus and Tube ads by the Wool Marketing Board produced gems like (Scurfy Knave:) "Hello Queenie! Listen, do! / To be well-dressed, be wool-dressed too! (produces pathetic fragment of refugee blanket) / In elegance it is the rule / there is no substitute for wule! " And topical little items ... (Tree:) "The workmen have had to run round the palace grounds forty times for not getting on with the swimming pool." (Chorus:) "Forty years on, and it's not finished yet!"
The sixth form Prefects were not to be outdone. In December we put on a 'complete and unexpurgated school edition' of 'Snow White' partly in dreadful verse and laden with In-jokes you would never get now.There was a great drive to get us all knitting wobbly lurid squares for refugee blankets; these, plus the current Bus and Tube ads by the Wool Marketing Board produced gems like (Scurfy Knave:) "Hello Queenie! Listen, do! / To be well-dressed, be wool-dressed too! (produces pathetic fragment of refugee blanket) / In elegance it is the rule / there is no substitute for wule! " And topical little items ... (Tree:) "The workmen have had to run round the palace grounds forty times for not getting on with the swimming pool." (Chorus:) "Forty years on, and it's not finished yet!"
Doc, Number_Six of the Seven Dwarves (staggering wit quite lost on WHS) was, in our version, 'Doc' Numbers, one of the staff, hence Scottish and somewhat touchy. Thus Sneezy, "It's time you went to Doc for your savings" and (Doc:) "Ah'm sorrry, but Ah've rrrun oot o' stahmps thus wick!" ... because she ruled over the school's National Savings on Mondays. We actually had 9 dwarves, having added Fred and Cyril. Also there was no Apple. Queen: "Don't be afraid, little girl. Here is a nice bowl of school prunes for you. ... If you want more you can come up to the hatch." I suppose you could say Snow White was hatched, despatched and matched!...
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Forgive the personal nature of these memories, but in the previous year the School Play (in aid of the swimming pool of course!) literally changed my life.
It was Shakespeare's "Tempest", and I had only ever been a chanting monk in my other school's "Murder In The Cathedral". So what happens? Inexplicably a small 17-year-old gets picked to play Prospero for three nights in April (7th-9th ) standing on an orange box, discovers Confidence, and ends up ditching University for Drama School.
Among the cast, the Bucks Free Press reviewer "especially liked Josephine Harvey as Ariel, the lovable little airy spirit. ... a spry, bare footed elfin figure with a mass of auburn curls" who "captivated." Other Guild members who took part were Judith Palmer as the Master of a Ship, Shirley Smith as Francisco, Valerie Austin as the goddess Ceres and Cynthia East as Juno. Bridget Jackson assisted Miss M. Brown and three other sixth-formers with the music.
This is the wonderful thing: many schools only prepare their students for scholarly achievement, but Wycombe High allowed the non-academic and the unconventional to blossom. While I was there, opportunities arose to compete in the European Inter-schools French essay competition and spend ten unforgettable days - including Bastille Day - in Paris; to spend a month with a French family in the Dordogne; and to take part in "Let's Find Out", a BBC Radio programme recorded at the Wigmore Hall in which sixth-formers interviewed well-known people - our group met composer Lionel Bart, cricket's Colin Cowdrey and Charles Chilton, producer of the BBC's thrilling "Journey Into Space" (29 years since his epochal 1972 and we still haven't made it to the Red Planet!)
To give you a flavour of the times we grew up in, now - in the true millennium - it is Forty Years On from 1960 and the very first minicabs, MOTs, traffic wardens, man in space (Yuri Gagarin), computerised bank (Barclays), Minis (cars and skirts!), Motorway services (on the new M1), televised football, and betting shops. Castro was taking over Cuba, the Berlin Wall was under construction, Princess Diana & Carl Lewis arrived six hours and an ocean apart on July 1st, JFK was on his way to the White House, Bluebird (finally raised this March from its grave in Coniston water) had its first UK test, Beatniks arrived, and in the dock stood scandalous Lady Chatterley. The UK applied for EEC membership; Maggie Thatcher from Newark became a Tory MP. And we were down to our last farthing...
You couldn't ignore the fact that Wycombe High was confronted from across the valley by Wycombe Grammar. I don't know if the custom has continued, but our enlightened Head permitted after-hours dancing on Tuesdays - when the braver or more foolhardy (or more romantic!) pairs of feet from WHS and WGS got together in the Hall, generally stepped on each other, and reinforced informal and sweaty bonds forged in the intimacy of the school train - a privilege not, I gather, afforded to the Abbey girls down the hill and for which we were greatly envied! I'm not sure they would envy the bruises...
The tempi of our personal lives were those of the fledgling Cliff Richard, Elvis, Buddy Holly, the Everleys, the Drifters, Fats Domino, Lonnie Donegan, and for the more sophisticated, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Chris Barber and the Modern Jazz Quartet. I cannot separate the hot, glorious summer of 1960 from the theme from "A Summer Place"; fishing out of my files a poem I wrote that year, the music immediately came back with it.
Remember June '60?
Slim silver saplings on blue-beating heat,
Brow-beating heat and thin blue cotton dry
Or damp around the waist, and burning feet
All down the hill: an oven is the sky
And Wycombe, cooking, shimmers....
We always seemed to get the best and worst of the weather up there; another adolescent out-pouring, Marlow Hill ends,
Who would believe that - now so still -
Hurricanes howl on Marlow Hill,
Hurling their weight against the doors,
Screaming with glee down corridors?
Devilling darkness round the ears,
Fighting with skirts and forcing tears?
Who would believe the stately clouds
Curtaining rain or sun, in crowds
Club to conspire our daily fate -
Playing with men like gods, or great
Children? The thunder grumbles still
Loudest of all on Marlow Hill.
We are unmatched for flood or fire,
Battles with hail, disasters dire;
Sunsets and storms unbeaten still -
Ever extreme on Marlow Hill!
The summer heatwave worked its way a little more felicitously into Latin translation -
Romanus Romano
O come to the shade
of the cool colonnade -
don't botherwith vestimenta!
What use is a tunic
to Roman or Punic?
This is the Community Centre!
Vel Gallic, vel Grecian,
your friend Diocletian
invites you to bathe at your leisure.
It's such fun to swim in
(as well as the women!)
The scenery promises pleasure
Diverting to play with ...!
And you have a way with
the ladies that seems to amuse them.
So let's make a foursome.
Ointment? I'd adore some!
But never mind clothes - we don't use them.
We were doing Virginia Woolf's "The Waves" in the spring of '61; a few of us started reading it in the Library, only to be interrupted by Visitors, no doubt connected with the impending retirement and necessary replacement of our beloved Annie Downs. Hence The Library -
Give me paper, give me pen.
I am thinking like the book ...
Chairs bang. Look through the steam of dreams,
Someone else's dreams
Now mine.
Girls rise like starlings, flock
And fall apart,
Blue by the ochre tables.
They are coming with the men,
The women with the feathers round their faces
And the five headmistresses.
There are the books,
Crumbling walls of books, tilting fences
Trapping us in the tight world
Of prefects' tea-parties
(Spilling the tea on staff stockings,
Shocking the stilted laughter
Among the stilettos
And crumbs on the library floor)
Of prim reading the books one ought to read.
And it goes on. I'll spare you the rest - but talking of prefects' tea-parties, during one of our perilous cook-ups on the camping Gaz, a large picture of one of Wycombe's past dignitaries jumped off the wall and crashed at our feet on the opposite side of the prefects' room. To this day that is a mystery - WHS' own personal X-file!
My difficulty has been to stay even relatively detached; I had a fantastic couple of years. Here is the more personal stuff -
In that inter-schools French essay competition I came 2nd in the UK (a Scottish girl was 1st), hence four of us joining scores of other winners from all over Europe for that wonderful ten days in Paris, based at a Lycee in the Rue de la Pompe. What memories! I actually bought my first astrology book there, a little Marabout Flash pocket edition - but even my good French couldn't cope with the strange terminology! It was another 7 years before I really got going.
Also Annie Downs decided to make a new award at her last annual prize-giving, an Award for Enterprise, which was mine, to my great surprise. All I can say is that I loved this school and everyone in it, threw myself into everything that Manchester had denied me for nine years, and was delighted to take all the opportunities offered. I just wish I'd been there longer, studied music, and taken part in athletics - never an option at Withington in those days.
Nash House's success in the choirs contest I lay entirely at the door of Mr. Norrish, our choir-master at St. James' Church, Gerrards Cross (curiously, I married Gerard James Crane! ... who became a bishop, and is never without his Cross); he was such a good director that he had taught me enough to pass on to the raw recruits. My music theory remains pretty basic - but for 5 years I was with Canterbury Choral Society as their one lady tenor (the school loos were great for practising low notes!!!) CCS performs the most beautiful sacred music four times a year in the cathedral, with occasional engagements at the Royal Albert Hall; conductor Richard Cooke also directs the Royal Choral Society and the choir sings with them from time to time.
- Which reminds me: one of my friends at WHS was Charmian Hickox, who is the living image of conductor Richard Hickox (recently departed and very much missed), and I assume must be his sister. Is that right, does anyone know?
Strange patterns were set - many years after the challenge of Prospero and subsequent training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, an apparently unconnected interest in astrology became very serious. After study and qualification I was befriended and encouraged by one of its best teachers, Ronald Davison - who, I learned after his death, had believed himself to be the re-incarnation of Elizabeth 1st's astrologer Dr. John Dee, upon whom Shakespeare is said to have modelled his Prospero!
To staff and students past and present, seen and unseen - Happy Centenary, WHS!
Pam
........................................................................................................................
You couldn't ignore the fact that Wycombe High was confronted from across the valley by Wycombe Grammar. I don't know if the custom has continued, but our enlightened Head permitted after-hours dancing on Tuesdays - when the braver or more foolhardy (or more romantic!) pairs of feet from WHS and WGS got together in the Hall, generally stepped on each other, and reinforced informal and sweaty bonds forged in the intimacy of the school train - a privilege not, I gather, afforded to the Abbey girls down the hill and for which we were greatly envied! I'm not sure they would envy the bruises...
The tempi of our personal lives were those of the fledgling Cliff Richard, Elvis, Buddy Holly, the Everleys, the Drifters, Fats Domino, Lonnie Donegan, and for the more sophisticated, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Chris Barber and the Modern Jazz Quartet. I cannot separate the hot, glorious summer of 1960 from the theme from "A Summer Place"; fishing out of my files a poem I wrote that year, the music immediately came back with it.
Remember June '60?
Slim silver saplings on blue-beating heat,
Brow-beating heat and thin blue cotton dry
Or damp around the waist, and burning feet
All down the hill: an oven is the sky
And Wycombe, cooking, shimmers....
We always seemed to get the best and worst of the weather up there; another adolescent out-pouring, Marlow Hill ends,
Who would believe that - now so still -
Hurricanes howl on Marlow Hill,
Hurling their weight against the doors,
Screaming with glee down corridors?
Devilling darkness round the ears,
Fighting with skirts and forcing tears?
Who would believe the stately clouds
Curtaining rain or sun, in crowds
Club to conspire our daily fate -
Playing with men like gods, or great
Children? The thunder grumbles still
Loudest of all on Marlow Hill.
We are unmatched for flood or fire,
Battles with hail, disasters dire;
Sunsets and storms unbeaten still -
Ever extreme on Marlow Hill!
The summer heatwave worked its way a little more felicitously into Latin translation -
Romanus Romano
O come to the shade
of the cool colonnade -
don't botherwith vestimenta!
What use is a tunic
to Roman or Punic?
This is the Community Centre!
Vel Gallic, vel Grecian,
your friend Diocletian
invites you to bathe at your leisure.
It's such fun to swim in
(as well as the women!)
The scenery promises pleasure
Diverting to play with ...!
And you have a way with
the ladies that seems to amuse them.
So let's make a foursome.
Ointment? I'd adore some!
But never mind clothes - we don't use them.
We were doing Virginia Woolf's "The Waves" in the spring of '61; a few of us started reading it in the Library, only to be interrupted by Visitors, no doubt connected with the impending retirement and necessary replacement of our beloved Annie Downs. Hence The Library -
Give me paper, give me pen.
I am thinking like the book ...
Chairs bang. Look through the steam of dreams,
Someone else's dreams
Now mine.
Girls rise like starlings, flock
And fall apart,
Blue by the ochre tables.
They are coming with the men,
The women with the feathers round their faces
And the five headmistresses.
There are the books,
Crumbling walls of books, tilting fences
Trapping us in the tight world
Of prefects' tea-parties
(Spilling the tea on staff stockings,
Shocking the stilted laughter
Among the stilettos
And crumbs on the library floor)
Of prim reading the books one ought to read.
And it goes on. I'll spare you the rest - but talking of prefects' tea-parties, during one of our perilous cook-ups on the camping Gaz, a large picture of one of Wycombe's past dignitaries jumped off the wall and crashed at our feet on the opposite side of the prefects' room. To this day that is a mystery - WHS' own personal X-file!
My difficulty has been to stay even relatively detached; I had a fantastic couple of years. Here is the more personal stuff -
In that inter-schools French essay competition I came 2nd in the UK (a Scottish girl was 1st), hence four of us joining scores of other winners from all over Europe for that wonderful ten days in Paris, based at a Lycee in the Rue de la Pompe. What memories! I actually bought my first astrology book there, a little Marabout Flash pocket edition - but even my good French couldn't cope with the strange terminology! It was another 7 years before I really got going.
Also Annie Downs decided to make a new award at her last annual prize-giving, an Award for Enterprise, which was mine, to my great surprise. All I can say is that I loved this school and everyone in it, threw myself into everything that Manchester had denied me for nine years, and was delighted to take all the opportunities offered. I just wish I'd been there longer, studied music, and taken part in athletics - never an option at Withington in those days.
Nash House's success in the choirs contest I lay entirely at the door of Mr. Norrish, our choir-master at St. James' Church, Gerrards Cross (curiously, I married Gerard James Crane! ... who became a bishop, and is never without his Cross); he was such a good director that he had taught me enough to pass on to the raw recruits. My music theory remains pretty basic - but for 5 years I was with Canterbury Choral Society as their one lady tenor (the school loos were great for practising low notes!!!) CCS performs the most beautiful sacred music four times a year in the cathedral, with occasional engagements at the Royal Albert Hall; conductor Richard Cooke also directs the Royal Choral Society and the choir sings with them from time to time.
- Which reminds me: one of my friends at WHS was Charmian Hickox, who is the living image of conductor Richard Hickox (recently departed and very much missed), and I assume must be his sister. Is that right, does anyone know?
Strange patterns were set - many years after the challenge of Prospero and subsequent training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, an apparently unconnected interest in astrology became very serious. After study and qualification I was befriended and encouraged by one of its best teachers, Ronald Davison - who, I learned after his death, had believed himself to be the re-incarnation of Elizabeth 1st's astrologer Dr. John Dee, upon whom Shakespeare is said to have modelled his Prospero!
To staff and students past and present, seen and unseen - Happy Centenary, WHS!
Pam
........................................................................................................................