Woolverstone

There is no doubt that moving to Woolverstone Hall School in the Suffolk countryside was a major positive event in my father's life.

My father, writing in 2003, records his first sight of Woolverstone Hall School when he was called for an interview there in January 1958:

A local bus had brought me from Ipswich to the end of the drive. I had been assured that it was the place to get off. It looked like the middle of nowhere. It had snowed; now the sun shone. I walked towards a church. Pheasants pecked around it. Giant beech and oaks guarded whatever it was that lay ahead.

As at Sedbergh I suddenly turned a corner; here, I was confronted by the sight of a large formal, 18th century mansion, a beautiful house in a beautiful setting. Was this it? The school?

It was. As was, after an interview with a peppery headmaster and a trip next day, to County Hall, the job.

In 2003, I still live a very few yards from that drive and that lovely building; - over half my life has been spent near there, being and doing exactly what I wanted for myself and for my family. Magnificent luck!

My father taught Geography on the top floor of the main building with its fine views up and down the estuary of the River Orwell. This was a daily inspiration to him.

He wrote:

In the end, wonderful Woolverstone was closed. Created by Labour, it was killed by the Conservatives. It was a painful experience to have lived through; to have found paradise and then lost it.

Web sites containing information about the school and village may be found on the links page.

Mark Hyde

mahyde[at]gmail.com