Welcome to another interim edition of "Notes and News", whilst I remain in turmoil.
I am now back in Harrow, and the first card that someone offered me as an illustration for this week was this one.
However it did not turn out to be the story I intended to tell at all, because though the front says "Harrow", when you turn the card over and read the reverse there is rather a surprise, for it does not actually deal with the main group of schools that are based on the slopes and brow of Harrow Hill; instead it features the County School for Boys in Gayton Road, which is very much on the lower slopes, about a kilometre away and twelve to fifteen minutes walk.
This "other" educational establishment is also much more recent in its foundation than the original school on the hill which was founded in 1572 by a local farmer called John Lyon, who was then almost sixty years old.
Strangely, John Lyon was not born a local, he was part of the Lyons family of Northamptonshire, but they owned land at Harrow on the Hill, and at Kingsbury, as well as at Marylebone - and though he was described as a farmer, he was more of an overseer. In fact he was probably also one of the richest men in the Harrow area, for it is recorded that he was the person who received the most income, of all in the area, from the rental of lands and properties. And that almost certainly did not include the Marylebone sites.
Despite his wealth, he was unsuccessful at having any children, something he regretted very much, and so he faced his ending, and the ending of his lineage, with uncertainty. What he did was to set up a trust for the maintenance and improvement of the Harrow Road and the Edgware Road, along which he presumably travelled, and a charity for young children. He had also been supporting several children with their education, providing moneys and materials, and when this came to the attention of Queen Elizabeth the First, she granted him a Royal Charter to found a free Grammar School for the education of boys from the Harrow area.
That charter was granted on the 13th of February 1572, but it took a long time to begin construction and the first actual schoolroom, the Fourth Form Room, part of what are known as the "Old Schools", was not opened until 1615, some twenty-three years after his death and almost eight years after his wife`s. Both are buried in St. Mary`s Churchyard, by the way, on top of the Hill.
As for Harrow County School for Boys, the subject of our card, that was founded in October 1911. Our card was issued in 1929, in two sizes, and the text on both is identical, telling us that it was by then a "Secondary School administered by the Local Education Authority, inspected and recognised as efficient by the Board of Education". In fact that system had been in force when the school was founded, because it was the Education Act of 1902 that took the powers from the current school boards and gave them over to the local council.
Many famous people attended the school, but one who stands out to me is Sir John N. Boothman, an instructor at the Central Flying School who won the Schneider Trophy in the Supermarine S.6.B in 1931 and went on to to serve with Coastal Command, Bomber Command, and in the Far East, and also to become an adviser to the United States Air Force. And he also appears on this card, number 6 of Lambert & Butler`s 1935 set of "Famous British Airmen & Airwomen"
The school was only re-christened Gayton High School in 1975. After that it gained a reputation for sporting prowess, especially cricket, which is also featured on the Carreras card, and both Angus Fraser and Mark Ramprakash attended. In fact that card could well be a sleeper for cricket collectors, but one they will now look out for.
Then in the 1980s it merged with the nearby Harrow High School and it was decided to keep the former County School building, but the name of the other school, though the alumni continue to be called Old Gaytonians.
In 1998, girls were allowed to attend the school for the first time.
And in 2011 it became an Academy.
However I seriously doubt that it features on any other cards, and that actually makes me wonder if Carreras didn`t get it slightly wrong, and believe this was the schools on the hill...?
This Week`s events and meetings :
Sunday the 9th of August - two meetings
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Cheshire - from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., at Larkhill Community Centre in Thorley Lane, Timperley WA15 7AZ. Admission Fees : £2 per person
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Hants & Surrey - from 1.30 to 4.30 p.m., at Normandy Village Hall, Manor Fruit Farm, Glaziers Lane, Normandy, GU3 2DD. Admission free to all collectors
Thursday the 13th of August -
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Cotswolds - from 7 p.m. at Uckington Village Hall, The Green, Tewkesbury Road, Uckington, Cheltenham GL51 9SR
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Reading - from 7.30 pm (for 8 pm start) at Charvil Village Hall, Park Lane, Charvil, Twyford RG10 9TR. Admission free to all collectors.
Saturday the 15th of August -
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East Anglia - from 8.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. - with auction at 11 p.m - at Roydon Village Hall, High Road, Roydon, Diss, Norfolk IP22 5RB. EACC members free with annual subscription, visitors pay £3
In the mean time...
I have been steadily working through the back issues of our newsletters which were yet to be indexed. We are now in 2022, and this week thirty-six more cards have gone in to said index, these being the diary cards for the 3rd of December 2022, the 10th of December 2022, the 17th of December 2022, the 24th of December 2022 and the 31st of December 2022. And tomorrow I will start moving back into November 2022.
As for newsletters past which were published around this week in years gone by, they are as follows :
And if you have any updates, comments, or suggestions for any of those, do please let us know, by emailing webmaster@card-world.co.uk.