The Old Bordenian Association

2008 Maroon – A tour of the School: memories of Martyn Calder (1962-1969) in response to John Macrae’s article. The articles contained within the 2008 Maroon (including the “Tour of the School”) will be added to the website in due course. If visitors to the site want this to be given priority, please add your comment to the bottom of this post.

A great pleasure to see you and some other old faces (some, of course, older than others!) at the Old Boys’ Dinner.

As promised I am writing to add my own very personal and short term (1962-69) memory of the various nooks and crannies of the school

So, starting as you did in the south-west corner:

The Art Room was my first year form room (1 West, 1962-63) and Reg Goff provided an extremely kindly introduction to life at Borden, though I’m not sure my art work ever properly repaid him.

During my time I seem to remember that the under stair cupboard next to Room 1 was used briefly as a tuck shop, and at another time as the hockey stick store.

Room 1 was always the English room with “Nick” Nicholls. Was it also here (or was it Room 2?) that we were taught by the wonderfully eccentric “Percy” Bates, the only person I ever heard use the phrase “carried his bat” in real conversation.

Outside here were the lockers we used in the first form. By then (1962) the sprung doors had been removed (presumably a combination of noise and disrepair) and one’s belongings were on show to the world.

Ken Booth taught Latin in Room 2 during my early years, where the raised dais gave him an excellent vantage point to hurl chalk sticks, blackboard pegs, and, in extremis (notice the Latin; once learned…), the blackboard rubber at errant boys. He also took a particular interest in junior school sports – he would usually have class members who had played for the U13 or U14 football teams at the weekend on the front dais, and would administer a slap round the ear to each boy for each goal conceded. Since the teams often lost eight or ten nil, this was sometimes painful.

Room 3 I always remember for Music with Mr Lucas (is that right?) who, armed only with a old record player and a tambourine, one day ignited a love of classical music by playing The Ride of the Valkyrie.

The Library always remained something of a closed book (ha!) to me as I was a maths / science student. I mostly associate it with parent / teacher visits, and – in the sixth form – debating competitions. I never knew it was originally the handicraft / biology room, which now explains the strange little annexe at the end where we sometimes lurked away from supervisory eyes.

Any reference to the offices by the main entrance must surely include mention of Stan Ashby. How on earth did he (or anyone?) compile school timetables before computers were invented?

Room 3A was of course “Sniffer” Snelling’s French Room and, I think, the Borden house room. For me, its main function was the venue of the after school chess club. Outside in the corridor were the House notice boards which dutifully recorded the inter-House football, cricket, and hockey scores and which poor wretches had been nominated for the poetry reading in the Arts Festival.

Room 4 was forever, as you recall, Roy Hill’s Geography room, with the epidiascope that looked like a prop from some 1920-ish version of War of the Worlds. If you were given A5 paper for tests, you were indeed privileged. What we would have given for A5! This was also School House’s room.

Room 5 was Jimmy Howard’s room. It was indeed Swale House’s room, and as a member of Swale and eventually House Captain, I used to watch the increase or decrease in the number of wooden shields (turned, I believe, by John Weekes) with pride or concern.

Room 6 I primarily associated with Religious Education – initially with “Rabbi” Mills and latterly with the very genial John Lilly – he of the red beard and Jowett Javelin.

Room 7 I associate with History, taught by “Bomber” Lancaster.

The eastern cloakroom was, by this time, the sport changing room, and included a “run-through” series of showers.

The Gym Store remained a rather mysterious place until I started doing school plays, and the Scout Room was also a relatively unknown area to me.

Outside in this corner was the (then, according to your notes, only five years old) woodwork room – John Weekes’ domain and home of the fabulous model railway. It was also where we had our first form maths lessons. My maths has always been much better than my carpentry.

Upstairs were the then fairly new architectural abominations at each end. To the west, Rooms 12 (Terry Veal) and 13 (“Tot” Wheatley). Room 11 – the small one – I only ever remember as a venue for small French classes with a female French assistant – presumably for my O level.

The Dining Room and Chemistry and Physics Labs remained unchanged over my time as, no doubt, did the Staff Room.

The Prefects Room was an unknown area until I eventually gained a red tie. Most memorably it contained a small snooker table. Of course it was forbidden to play during lesson time, but nevertheless Jimmy Howard’s French classes below were not infrequently disturbed by the thump of the cue ball hitting the wooden floor, and a few minutes later some fearful second former would knock on the door to the Prefect’s Room and convey Mr Howard’s polite but firm request for silence. Glad to see that the lessons have been learned, and that the pool tables in the sixth form block can’t disturb anyone!

The small room next door I only ever remember as a sixth form Chemistry set room with Roy Sowden’s successor[Jeremy Hindle - editor], whose name now escapes me (and perhaps explaining why my A-level chemistry was such a disaster).

Rooms 8 I can barely ever remember entering, and Room 9 rarely, though I think it was the venue for some of our maths lessons about 1963-ish from … was it “Bunny” Warren?

Finally, at the western end, the “new” Biology Lab (for our classes, Stan Ashby then Roy(?) Burrell). [Alan Burrell – editor]

Martyn Calder