My secondary school

I’ve been doing more of my Life Story and this shows some parts of the secondary boarding school that I went to. It was based in an old Manor House. The grounds were about 35 acres which including all the usual tennis courts and playing fields plus an outdoor swimming pool, as well as stable and a field for riding lessons! 
I knew nothing about the history of the house when I was there but have now looked it up! It was built around 1800 in the Georgian style on the site of an older house . The little chapel dates from the 16C but was too small for us to use. In the 1920/30’s the house was modernised and had some art deco features including a huge hall with an ornate staircase. It had black carpet with a yellow border, we were not allowed to use this staircase but sometimes we dared each other to go up and only trod on the yellow part or our footsteps would have shown on the black! Also there was an Italian garden..the Belvedere. It became the senior school of a convent founded by an order of Belgian nuns. I was not a Catholic so was not keen on going to mass etc.! 
It probably looks very ‘posh’ but actually the teaching was not very good I realised later when I became a teacher…I then realised why I didn’t do well in my A levels! I would have done much better if I had gone to the local grammar school but my parents decided ai should go here! I enjoyed my time there as I didn’t mind being at boarding school and took part in all the activities, had lots of friends plus didn’t find the schoolwork difficult! 

A day at home which involved a spring clean of the kitchen/dining room…lots of books and magazines still need to be sorted…some mine, some my husbands. 

Our daughter plus family visited for ‘tea’ as they are away on holiday tomorrow.