Former Staff Member from the 1940s re-visits the School
Posted: 18/09/2014
On Wednesday Gwen Ceridwen visited us, accompanied by Eric Burford, recently retired as Head Groundsman.
Originally from Merthyr, Gwen worked for the School during its exile in Llanwrtyd Wells and then at 14 – with 6 other young ladies – moved with the School back to Bromsgrove in late 1943. She mainly worked for the Headmaster and his wife – Mr and Mrs Walters - and she and the other housekeeping staff resided on the top floor of what is now Lyttelton House. Their sitting room is now the Chaplain’s Study. Mrs Shinn’s classroom was the kitchen and the Housman Room the dining hall. They served food through a hatch and we found that boarded up. The classrooms now on the Lupton/Lyttelton corridor were studies. Wages were 2sh and 6d a month. They rose at either 5.00 am (to make the huge bowl of porridge) or 7.00 am and worked through till 3.00. They were back on duty at 5 until 8.30 and had to back in by 10 for the black-out. (That was 7 days a week.) Recuperating American soldiers from the hospital on the Stourbridge Road would often hang around at the gate but a dragon of a matron kept an eagle eye on everyone. It sounds like Downton Abbey. Upstairs, downstairs. The cellars below Lyttelton (now their changing rooms) was the air raid shelter.
Gwen said Mr Walters was a wonderful man. As with most of the other girls, she never went back. There was no work back home. She got married and finished work with us in about 1950.