I attended Barrow Hills between 1970 and 1974. Father Dunstan was Headmaster for my first year, followed by Father Dominic for the following three years. I then went on to St George’s College, Weybridge, Surrey.
My first year at Barrow Hills was probably the most positive, both because the experience overall was so new and different, and also because I did well academically. I boarded the entire period, from 8 to 12 years old. It wasn’t easy adjusting – I missed my parents, and it was hard for my mother.
I enjoyed many things about school. The expansive playing fields where some (but not all) sport could be enjoyable, such as softball. The swimming-pool and also judo, which was an innovative thing for the school to do. The messy art classes in the makeshift building. The walled allotment where we could grow things. Language and reading were also encouraged.
In my later years there were times when we were left to our own devices and did things like listen to heavy rock music in the library – the priests were perhaps a bit naive and unaware of the radical nature of what we were listening to! Last, but not least, I enjoyed doing activities with the boys I was friends with.
Looking back, although the priests were often very strict (and not in my view that compassionate, although, to give credit where its due, Fr. Dunstan did kindly and successfully intervene in one instance for me), we were fortunate and privileged. Politically and socially, the UK was in a very difficult place in that period of the 1970s, and although I had some general awareness of that, at the school we were shielded from it, especially given the incredible backdrop of the physical setting, notably the immediate surrounding grounds, and we had access to facilities and things that other schoolchildren wouldn’t have had. There was even a language laboratory with tape reels and headsets, and the library had a subscription to a novel French science-fiction comic!
Although the discipline could be harsh and at times, it seemed to me, unfair, I think the overall ‘regime’ (if I can call it that) instilled a very valuable and enduring work ethic in me that continues to this day. As I recall, in the morning after getting up, we would wash (washing ourselves in sinks using a washrag – there were no showers by the dormitories), do homework, attend mass and only then finally get breakfast! I still get up early and do things such as swim before tackling the day’s tasks.
One thing I do have doubts about though is whether keeping boys constantly closely together (i.e. in a boarding situation) is a good thing – boys would easily turn on each other (and I was not blameless here either) and you couldn’t really escape from this.
All told, I am glad to have gone to Barrow Hills and pleased that it remains a school and has kept its magnificent grounds.
After school, I’ve been lucky to have experienced a variety of work, but you need to look for opportunities and create your own luck, as well as work hard and continuously adapt. I studied at university (a few over time) and lived and worked abroad for a number of years, based mainly in Belgium, France and Germany along with spending some time in Russia, and also working for quite a bit of time in Bosnia, Croatia and Romania; I’m currently UK-based.
Amongst my studies I was fortunate enough to do Art History (which I am currently trying to get back into professionally – for a while I was a guide and translator at the Pompidou Centre in Paris). I have mostly worked as a lawyer (as a solicitor, having started as a barrister) and I am also a qualified translator (French to English) and I taught English as a foreign language (some time ago) including in the US.