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A beautiful sunny day after a foggy start. The school is set on high and pleasant grounds and the birds were singing in the trees as I walked through the school gates. John Colyer, QC and Chair of the Trustees for the school greeted Beth Astridge, our Project Archivist and myself. John showed us the very tidy archive, including minute books, student election records, Head Teacher log books and student records going back through the school’s history. We also looked at some of the sculptures, paintings and photographs of former Head Teachers and the school through time.
This tower used to be scaled by students, as a rite of passage, quite unknown to the staff.
One painting of the original school building, at Margate, shows a building in the Gothic style of architecture, featuring a large tower which could not be accessed from inside the building. This tower used to be scaled by students, as a rite of passage, quite unknown to the staff. They would leave their mark inside the tower. One terrible night, in 1950 a student fell from the tower, trying to complete this challenge. Even at this stage, no one knew the tower had been climbed by the students for this purpose until the old building was being dismantled, the tower was taken down and their graffiti was found inside it.
Did you climb the tower and leave your mark in the tower?
Would your name appear in the student records?