Tettenhall College summer school camp at Salcombe 1954.
Tuesday 14 May 2024
A few memories of a trip to Salcombe by Robert Green (TC 1954-62) August 1954, I was 10 years old and in my first year at TC. I joined around 100 excited boys from TC at Wolverhampton Low Level station at the crack of dawn, with their kit bags and sleeping bags, not a mobile phone or i pad in sight, to catch the famous GWR Wolverhampton to Penzance train, known as ‘The Cornishman’. The train was an enormous steam engine of the Castle class pulling at least 12 coaches. It ran via Bristol, stopping at Newton Abbott, where we alighted and caught the local train to East Brent, then boarding the train to Kingsbridge, on the single track line through the Sorley tunnel. ( line axed by Beeching a few years later!)We were then met by two buses that took us to Salcombe’s North Sands, negotiating some hair pin bends on the way.The TC camp was situated a down a farm track, a couple of fields back from the beach on Rodger’s farm. The tents and communal marquee had been constructed and readied for our arrival, by an advance party, a few days earlier, consisting of a group of 6th formers, including my brother, Michael, who was 6 years older than me. There were 8 large tents accommodating 12 boys each, and an enormous marquee used for communal meals and gatherings. The camp was organised and run by F C Pine, an elderly TC teacher, who had spent many years teaching at the College.First thing in the morning, he would announce breakfast by a rendition of ‘ come to the cookhouse door boys’ on his bugle, and in the late evening, the ‘last post’, for lights out.After breakfast, the morning was spent clearing and airing the tents for inspection, prizes awarded for the best kept tents. Then the boys were divided into four tribes, Antelope, Bison, Carabou, and Deer, for the four tasks of transporting drinking water from the farm, collecting dry wood for the camp fire, food preparation, and cleaning up after meals. These tasks were rotated on a daily basis.Cooking was done on the campfire by a group of OTC’s, headed by Chip Wood and Brian Docherty, who was later to become a teacher at TC. A stream ran through the bottom of the field, which was ideal for washing, and cleaning cooking pots and plates.The afternoons were free, to spend time swimming, fishing or walking the Cliff road into Salcombe town centre, a 25 minute walk, rarely seeing a car on the way, as Salcombe was then a sleepy fishing village, only a very few tourists, two hotels, some shops and pubs.On some days, trips were organised to Dartmouth, to see the tall ships, or across the estuary to Sandy Bay with a Cornish pasty lunch or the walk around Bolt Head to see the remains of the wreck of the Finnish four masted clipper ship, the 'Herzogin Cacille', that had been beached there in 1936 after foundering on the Ham Stone. It had sailed from Australia in 86 days with a cargo of grain.After the evening meal at the campsite, time was spent in team games, like fox and hounds, where two fast running boys were dispatched with the bugle into the surrounding countryside, sounding the bugle every five minutes, the rest of us in pursuit 15 minutes later. The first 10 to catch them, were given prize tickets for use in the tuck shop.Then it was time for the gathering around the campfire for stories and singing, accompanied by mugs of cocoa, and then off to bed, usually absolutely exhausted and tired.This all must sound so tame in these days of International travel and entertainment, but the boys who went to these camps, never forgot those Halcyon days spent in the South Hams. In later life, my wife and I, purchased a holiday cottage in the area and our family spent many happy days there, often bumping into many OTC’s , on holiday.Unfortunately the camps lasted only a few more years, as Mr Pine retired from teaching, and bought a house in Salcombe to enjoy the rest of his life there.