AOSA CENTENARY HISTORY 1841 - 1941
page forty-four
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix
A more important change came with the division of the school year into three terms instead of two halves. The custom had long obtained of letting those whose parents wished have an exeat over the Easter weekend. Those who remained at school had holiday. During one of these holidays the boys who stayed behind with a master accomplished a remarkable walk. Starting on Good Friday morning they went to Ingleby and up Ingleby bank to the top of Clay bank; then they went on as far as Chop Gate where they ate part of their food and drank various fizzy drinks. A right-handed turn brought them on to the Red Road along the lonely moorland behind the hills, and Carlton lay at the end of the descent of Red bank. Moorland streams refreshed the body but did not ease aching feet, and the long trudge to Stokesley brought enquiries of how much further to go. The suggestion that a bit over two miles remained, deceptive though true, heartened the weaker ones. The big boys helped the little and the last bit through the fields by the Leven relieved tired feet. On the Saturday no one was any the worse though there was a definite feeling against football. Not always, however, did they go so far afield for on another Easter Monday girls and boys, mistresses and masters, walked via Broughton to the foot of the bridle path from Kirkby to Bilsdale. Here in a little dell just inside the gate off the road everybody built a big fire. Frank Arundel, who, with ample provisions, had arrived in his pony trap, superintended the making of delicious soup by pouring tin after tin of Lazenby’s turtle soup into a vast cauldron of boiling water. Sheltered from the biting wind, the partakers agreed that they enjoyed a repast rather than a picnic lunch.
Such simple delights belonged to a simpler age, and when in 1904 a sub-committee reported that only Ayton and Sibford kept halves, these joys ended. The Committee felt ‘that the general welfare of the educational system would be enhanced by the proposed change,’ and, when they declared that they did not propose ‘to increase the length of holidays but to re-arrange the existing total,’ General Meeting and Quarterly Meeting agreed, and halves disappeared.
The second feature of F. R. Arundel’s rule comprised building and electric light. The first building was a comparatively small matter. In 1897 the Committee completely renovated the old mill. Part of the mill was already used for the electric light plant. Alterations to the rest produced an efficient laundry where in addition to the actual cleansing, girls learnt laundry work. A room was set aside for cookery where certain girls tried their hands on simple eatables which, to the envy of the others, justified or not, they themselves consumed. The cost of these alterations came to nearly £400. Almost the whole of this amount was collected by Sophia M. Fry, a member of the women’s committee, who was the prime mover in the matter of laundry work and cookery. The girls did not alone feel the benefit of the changes for the old laundry store-room at the end of the bathroom passage became the famous ‘A’ bedroom where fifteen of the older boys maintained a dignified selectness.
In the other building the Committee undertook an altogether bigger task. At the headmaster’s suggestion they considered whether it was feasible to provide further class rooms and girls’ bedrooms, fresh hospital accommodation, new sanitary arrangements for boys and girls, a covered shed for the girls, an adequate sitting room for the men teachers, additional changing room for the boys, and as amenities rather than necessities, a covered-way between the girls’ side and the boys’ side, and the roofing of the swimming bath.
The need for some of these extensions could hardly be denied. The women’s inspection at General Meeting had reported that the girls were too crowded in their bedroom, and that ‘strips of carpet would be a great improvement.’ The old Nursery at the end of the coach road had outlived its usefulness, and the smallpox outbreak in the district in 1898 had alarmed the committee. During that time the School had been completely isolated; the Easter weekend had been wiped out, letters were fumigated. These precautions served but had they not served the nursing facilities would have been a mockery. In sanitary arrangements, too, the school lagged. The village had just completed a water-borne sewage scheme and plainly the School earth-closets would have to be replaced by water closets.
As the obvious place for building on the girls’ side,
the Boarding House immediately demanded attention. It possessed a contiguous
frontage on the green and only a wall separated its grounds from the
girls’ playground. The Committee therefore approached Mary Anna
Hodgkin’s trustees as owners. Agreement was soon reached. In
view of the close connection which had always existed between the Cleveland
Lodge estate and Ayton School, and in view of the desire of the owners
that ‘the best thing should be done for the interests of the
School the said trustees had decided to offer to the School the boarding-house
with the land, outbuildings, etc. attached thereto for £I,155.’ The
committee on their part recommended that ‘no portion of the school
estate between Cleveland Lodge and the road to the station would be
sold without first offering the same to the owner of Cleveland Lodge.’
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