As part of our cataloguing project, we have just completed listing everything we hold in the Foundation Archive on King Edward VI Aston School. This contains some amazing records including photographs of forms, paperwork on the school buildings, newsletters, and magazines. One of the most interesting parts of the collection are the papers associated with the Second World War.
At the outbreak of war, Aston, like many other schools in the King Edward VI Foundation, arranged for a number of its pupils to be evacuated out of Birmingham (a likely target for nightly bombing raids) and into the safety of the countryside.
The headmaster at the time, Mr Brandon, selected Longdon Hall in Ashby De La Zouch, Staffordshire, as a safe refuge to house pupils. He and his wife accompanied the boys to Longdon to act as both teachers and guardians and during this time and saw how their boys benefitted from this change. This was not just in terms of their safety, but from being in a small community, working outdoors and with animals, while still having regular school lessons.
At the end of the war when the majority of pupils returned to Aston School, Mr Brandon persuaded the Foundation governors to acquire Longdon Hall (at the time owned by the Paget family) so the use of the house and surrounding farmland could continue.
From May 1949 groups of Aston boys boarded at Longdon for a complete term, mostly from the fourth or third forms, with groups of boys from other forms living at Longdon for shorter periods during the summer, sometimes with an ‘outdoor pursuits’ course. Teaching was done mostly by visiting Aston staff and was split between the classroom and outdoors.
Longdon Hall Class of 1952
Class of 52' Reunion in 2012
The aims of taking the children out of school for one term were for them to get more contact with nature, to learn to live with others and share as part of a community, and provide an understanding of agriculture, hard work and country life.
The school day consisted of regular classes in Religious Studies, English, History, Geography, Maths, General Science, a language such as French, Latin or German, as well as farming, craftwork, physical training and games. Farm work was often a mix of animal care and growing fruit and vegetables.
A survey was carried out in 1969 asking the pupils about their experiences at Longdon Hall. The response was overwhelmingly positive, although among the least popular aspects were early rising and early bedtime. Interestingly after the experience, 80% of pupils were conscious of gaining in confidence, 70% came to appreciate home comforts more and 35% even said they appreciated their parents more as a result!
Sadly, the scheme didn’t last and Longdon Hall, a feature of the school scene for over a quarter of the school's century, was closed in 1975. This was because of cuts to funding by the local authorities, and the contributions of parents alone could not maintain the running of the scheme. Thankfully, we have plenty of paperwork and photographs in the archive to commemorate this innovative approach to school life.
