Memories of Elmbridge
(Camp) School, Cranleigh, Surrey
by Peter J C House written April, 2002
I came to Elmbridge
in September, 1945; I was not 11 until the 22nd of that month.
I think something had gone wrong with the system and I should
have been in the next year (the oldest in the class, not the youngest).
I was soon to experience the already established tradition of
being tossed in a blanket by the entire dorm on one’s birthday.
My schooling, like so many of my fellow pupils, had been badly
broken up by the war and it was felt that a period of comparatively
intense education would be good for me. I also had a neighbour
who was already at the school and told me wonderful things about
it in the holidays.(Chris Smart).
I was put in Fairlop
Dormitory as that was Chris’ dorm (or so I would like to
think). So much for the chronology; the rest of my memories I
have tried to put under headings, but in no special order.
FOOD
This was a big disappointment
after Mum’s cooking. Ghastly puddings, two types, known as
‘plonk’ ( an onomatopoeic term conveying the sound that
it made when hitting the plate) and '‘concrete’ which
needs no explanation.
A (regrettably) regular
appearance on the supper table was ‘camp’ soup, an evil
tasting suspension of , I think, vegetable filings in an insipid
brown liquid. There was a lot of pressure upon us to eat ALL our
food and more than once I was to be found scurrying across to
the lavatories with green liquid running down my leg from the
pocket-full of cabbage. I recall the large enamel pots of cocoa
and the sensation of the first banana after a void of 5 years.
The food was not all bad; my great favourite was cheese and potato
pie, which often appeared at suppertime and no doubt the kitchen
was on a low budget and still restricted by rationing.
WEY AND ARUN CANAL
This derelict waterway
was an important leisure time facility, somewhere to fall into,
swing over on ropes and to walk on when frozen. It almost dried
up during one drought and the few remaining pools were teeming
with fish.
OUT-OF BOUNDS
This was a new phrase
to me. The school was surrounded by farmland and parkland and
the owners were, understandably perhaps, rather sensitive to the
incursions of 180 Essex (ugh) boys onto their peaceful Surrey
land. Our hate figure was personified by one Major Rowcliffe who
had a way of charging up on his enormous horse as soon as one
so much as placed a foot over his boundary.
Perhaps the most serious case of trespass was a series of raids
carried out by pupils on Dunsfold Airfield. As the war was over
I assume that security had relaxed. We got in by creeping along
the canal bank under the barbed wire. Bays were filled with, I
believe, Typhoons. We got into the cockpits, opened hatches and
took away cordite filled starter cartridges and ammunition. In
Fairlop dorm there was a hatch in the floor under one of the beds
which gave access to the void under the dorm: at one stage there
was a big stockpile of assorted explosives, radio parts and God
knows what else. On Guy Fawkes night one master was heard to say
to another "do you know, I’m sure that I can smell cordite".
He could, some boys had been making fireworks from the spoils
of Dunsfold. Sadly one boy was badly burnt when some cordite pellets
in his lumberjacket pocket were accidentally ignited .
PETS
Grass snakes and
squirrels were fairly common, though very few survived for more
that a couple of months.
WEATHER
By today’s standards
we had extreme weather, hot dry summers and very cold and snowy
winters. 46/7 winter was particularly bad with heavy snow which
laid for a long time and serious floods when it subsides.
DORMITORY
I was in Fairlop
though I daresay there was little difference from the other three.
Two tier bunks, sleeping bag type sheets and an open two- shelf
locker. About 45 boys in total. At one end were the dorm mistress’
room and the Headmaster’s study and at the other end, Miss
Montgomery’s room and the ‘boot room’. Half way
down on one side was the night lavatory, a chemical affair which
was incredibly popular after "Appointment with Fear"
on the dorm radio.
YOUNG FARMERS
I was not a member,
but I recall the extreme seriousness of the escape of the pigs
from their sties and the damage to their weight/value done by
this unplanned exercise.. Also the foul smelling, diesel/water
fired pig-swill boiler which laid a cloud of black smoke for miles.
The annual haymaking ritual involving the whole school turning
the hay by hand, stripped to the waist and covered with insect
bites.
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