Surreal Stroud: Blackboy School and Sock

I have been wanting to blip the Blackboy school, which I pass every morning on my way to work, for some time. First of all, the name: Digital Stroud says the building dates back to 1844 and is colloquially named after the clock on the front, the clock being older. The clock was restored in 2004, but didn't keep striking for long. I was lucky enough to see and hear it in action for the few days that it did strike the hours. The figure of a little black boy in a grass skirt striking a bell below a clock is more than a little incongruous in a Gloucestershire town in 2012. CleanSteve has blipped it here

The building is now divided into flats, being no longer a teacher's centre. I worked for the Art College on the Access to Art Course in 1995-96, just before the conversion began. It was a beautiful building with a real sense of history, but very cold in winter. At the time I lived in a flat about 100 yards away, and there was a coffee shop just 50 yards down the hill. Happy days!

It seemed fitting that, having learned something about surrealism on my "thundering through the thirties" course, that this morning I should find a lone sock adorning the railings. It looks so innocent ( can a sock be innocent?) against the harsh exterior of the building with its grim yard, where nothing grows except cars. My niece Christina, now 21, first visited Stroud when she was 6. Having lived only in Bahrain and New Zealand, she was flabbergasted by the sight of the Victorian brick buildings as they drove into town, and blurted out, "do they still beat children here?" Not in school, now, but I bet they beat the cr*p out of them in this school!

Finally, if your eyes haven't glazed over by now, I would like to say a huge Thank you to whichever anonymous benefactor gifted me a blip membership! I was more than a little taken aback, and even had to sit down for a moment. Visions of deranged stalkers flashed through my mind for a nanosecond ( I was subject to the attentions of a deranged stalker at one time) but I decided to look on it as the gift of the blipgods, or one of my two or three readers on Facebook. I can now view my statistics, invite you to view the sock in large (!) join the poetry group among others, and dole out hearts and favourites. Big heart to the generous benefactor!

PS my links aren't working properly, so here is what Digital Stroud says:
"The former National School in Castle Street, which opened in 1844 and closed in 1964, takes its name from the only known jack clock in Gloucestershire. The clock is older than the school, having been moved here from a watchmaker's shop in the High Street. P.H. Fisher remembered it being there in his childhood in the 1790s, but its date is unknown.
The black figure, or jack, is about two feet high, was described by Fisher as "turning his head, lifting his club, and striking the hours of day and night as they came round".