蜜芽传媒

In 1939 the Headmaster of Cheltenham College was informed that in the event of war all the College buildings would be required as emergency accommodation for the Civil Service. Shrewsbury School agreed that the College could share its premises temporarily and in the autumn some 350 Cheltenham boarders and day boys moved to Shrewsbury. They remained for two terms before returning to Cheltenham.

Michael Walford, a boarder from 1938 to 1942, recalls the experience:

鈥業 was allocated a billet with the Denville Jones family (he was a local dentist) together with Coplans, Macdonald and Collins 鈥� The Denville Jones put all four of us in their spare bedroom and we had the use of another small room for doing our prep. Meals were taken in their dining room by ourselves.

In order to share the school facilities jointly, our day used to start with a meeting in the Allington Hall where I think we were lectured by the Pot [the Headmaster] or Pink Flea [a senior master] and then by our respective housemasters. We then turned out for games. Afternoons were spent in the classrooms and labs only just vacated by Salopians.

As a result of these arrangements we hardly ever saw or had a chance to speak to the Shrewsbury boys 鈥� nevertheless there was a general feeling by us that they were distinctly inferior as they were a soccer school. The staff on both sides I was told many years later were always concerned that a pitched battle might break out but at 2nd year level we had other things to think about.

The phoney war period did little to impinge on our lives and though food rationing had started there still seemed plenty to keep us well fed. Margarine became a regular edible fat and I was severely berated one teatime for asking someone to pass the 鈥渕arge鈥�. Mrs D-J still thought we should be only eating butter and referring to it as such when visitors were present鈥�

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