Joan Gurney (Appleton, 1938-51)
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What Joan Did Next - Part 6
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My second granddaughter was born in 2002 which was another great joy for me and another aquatic potential to nurture!
My swimming programme at the Adult Community College, which had been built up over a number of years, was a significant casualty in the reorganisation and reduction of classes by Essex County Council which began in 2005. All swimming classes, except swimming teacher training, were withdrawn. This left a substantial library of books intended for swimming teachers in training, and others involved in this aspect of the curriculum. These had been paid for by several sponsors and gifts from many people. The clearance of the Grey Friars contents was scheduled to be completed in the shortest possible time and many things were saved from the skip at the last minute by several dedicated followers of the Grey Friars story. The swimming programme itself had been described as a model of excellence in curriculum design, with its opportunities for students to progress to more advanced aspects of the subject, or to make a sideways move on to different styles and interpretations of aquatics.
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In those very last days of Grey Friars as a college, a final day of appreciation and goodbyes was held, and also an inclusion in the annual Heritage Open Weekend of viewing in September 2007. This gave people the chance to take a last look at this beautiful classical building with its history, architecture and meaning that it held for many in their educational and social lives, either as ex-pupils of CCHS, or as students, past and present, of the college which was about to close. Members of the college staff who assisted on these days were overwhelmed by the response. Vast numbers, not only of students and tutors from adult education, but alumnae from its time as the Junior Department of CCHS, eagerly came to experience, perhaps for the last time, the aura of a much loved building, and to remember the chances which it had given them in life but opening unexpected doors to them. Nobody at that moment had any idea what its fate would be after the sale, and whether there would still be access for the public.
As many rooms as possible on the ground floor were open to those who just wanted to wander and enjoy the
atmosphere that Grey Friars had always created, but visitors could also sign up to take a guided tour of approximately 45 minutes, covering all floors and part of the garden. Alan Skinner and I acted as tour guides and although we both tried to cover the history of the building and its site, inevitably my emphasis was on its occupancy by CCHS between 1920 and 1957, and Alan’s was on the Adult Education College aspect of it from 1965 to 2006. The number on each tour had to be increased and time extended because of the excessive demand and the valuable reminiscences of visitors which demanded compulsive attention.
The comments and appreciations after these events were endless. The “Comment and Remarks Book” was bursting at the seams and most of the entries ended with “You must put all this into writing”. Alan and I did our own very final goodbye to Grey Friars after those two exhausting, but very satisfying, weekends. We looked at each other and said simultaneously “We’ve got to write a book”.
From that day onwards our work on the Grey Friars book began. We did not know how long we would still have access to the building and who the new buyers would be. Nor did we know if it would still be open to the public after the sale.
We began a lengthy search of the building from attic to cellars looking for historic finds and discarded artefacts. We took endless photographs and uncovered older ones. We talked to notable historians, explored ancient documents, visited libraries and looked into the archives of CCHS and Adult Education in Colchester and beyond. Later we even salvaged items dug up by the developers in the
garden. In all our research we had the dedicated help of numerous interested people. The whole exercise developed into a Sharing Project, and we received support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The book began to take shape and after seven years it was eventually finished. Meanwhile the protective awning and scaffolding had gone up at the front of Grey Friars (above), and minor alterations, decoration and restoration would follow.
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Our book was published in 2014 just before the opening of Grey Friars as a hotel. It became “book of the week” at the Red Lion Bookshop during that Christmas period and sales included many copies posted out as a Christmas present to CCHS Old Girls living in distant parts of the world. Our wishes had come true. The buyers of Grey Friars, OMC Developments, had sensitively and tastefully restored the magnificent architectural features of Grey Friars, and as a hotel it would, once more, be accessible to the public.
Once again, Alan and I had a preview of the building just before it opened as a hotel. We, of course, looked at each room with hindsight and prior knowledge of its previous use when it was a college, school and even the priory of the Franciscan nuns between 1904 and 1919.
The impressive Hall with its stained glass windows, originally the nuns’ chapel, later the Assembly Hall of CCHS (above left) and Flower Arranging venue for the Adult Community College, was now the hotel’s dining room. The former CCHS dining room (above right) was now the hotel’s Reception area with access to the garden, All Saints House, and High Street.
The mezzanine floor of CCHS, which Alan recalled in his days as Principal of the College) housed his office (and two others) was now the Honeymoon Suite. The garden room below, everybody’s favourite space, was now the bar with its extension into the original 1755/80s library. In the days of CCHS occupation this had been the cosy secluded hideaway of the headmistress (Miss King). It was a terrifying experience to be ‘sent to the head’: I only achieved this once and I vowed never to go
again! The small rail-back chair which stands in the window (above) I found discarded and abandoned in the attic during my rescue of the Grey Friars contents and it remains a souvenir of my episode of misbehaviour!
The big bay windows of the bar have an inset opening with steps down to a well-planned all-weather terrace with wicker chairs, tables, umbrellas and awning which overlooks the original tennis lawn of CCHS. It is overshadowed on one side by the 400 year old holm oak which features in the end papers of the Grey Friars book. Its visiting squirrels still like to aim twigs and nuts on to
visitors below. All is spectacularly lit up at night.
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Although my official working life at Grey Friars College had ended, I could not keep away from it – only an excuse was needed to drop in for coffee or a snack. I was still collecting my Bathing Bygones, giving talks, writing articles, lending items to museums, teaching swimming regularly and tending my wildlife garden all the way through the 7 years of book preparation.
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In 2007 I set up my own exhibition – nearly every aspect of my collection was on display in a very big space. I had discovered over the years of exhibiting that it is not only the very rare, valuable, attractive or oldest objects which cause the most interest but very often the ultra modern, quirky, amusing ones give the
utmost pleasure. A favourite piece in my collection is the rubber hot water bottle modelled on the famous 1950s film star Jayne Mansfield (above right) wearing her notorious red bikini. It causes mirth and mystery because it resembles a free-standing sculpture, but the black beret which she wears is really the cap for filling the interior with hot water.
In 2012 I attended the Olympic Games, keeping my promise to my father 44 years previously when he had wanted to take me to the revived post-war Olympic Games in 1948 (left) but did not want to interrupt my School Certificate year and also raise the wrath of the headmistress, Miss Ruth King!
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The highlight of this second decade of the new millennium belonged to my husband, Gerald. In recognition of his
outstanding contribution to the history of sport, he was invited to Her Majesty the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in 2012 and I was also invited to accompany him (above right). His archive of racquet sports has always outshone my Bathing Bygones Collection and this was a just reward for him. Guests were not allowed to take cameras into the grounds but this did not prevent us from venturing on to the tennis court at Buckingham Palace – an image which would be imprinted on our memories indefinitely.
This brought back a similar experience of 2009 when Gerald, after much research, was the first person to discover Charles Darwin’s original hour-glass shaped concrete tennis court (left) at his house in Downe, Kent, which he had laid down for his children just before his death in 1882, to replace an earlier grass court which was nearer to the adjoining terrace of the house. We both stood together there, holding a racket of the same period (right – court hourglass shape just visible to the left of Joan’s shoulder). My biology
teacher, Miss Roper, never told me during lessons on evolution that Charles Darwin sometimes played tennis (but more often watched his family playing) whilst he contemplated his completed masterpiece “On the Origin of Species 1859”. Nor did CCHS offer Greek as a subject so that I could translate this early version of tennis known as Sphairistike.
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I took my last class for swimming in 2015. This was not a retirement from work, but a rest from a pleasurable activity which had rewarded me over 60 years of teaching with the joy of seeing a few thousand children and adults achieve their goal of learning to swim – a strange turn-around when, on leaving CCHS in 1951, I had never considered swimming as a career.
2022 marks 71 years since I left CCHS. Over these years many things have changed – fashions, domestic appliances, hair styles and entertainments. Some things have come and gone forever, others have remained as favourites and several have been revised and reinstated as classics, never to be forgotten.
One of the early black and white films (made during the war years of the 1940s) was “Brief Encounter”. It is now considered one of the most romantic films ever made. Its theme music, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2, brought classical music to the forefront, and it has remained in Classic FM’s top ten favourites for several years. The remote Carnforth railway station in Cumbria, where it was filmed and the story played out, remains a tourist attraction to this day.
The liberality of the 1960s and 1970s produced many legends which have been glorified today – the Mary Quant bob and the miniskirt which has become shorter and shorter as the years have passed. Her achievements are celebrated in the Mary Quant film recently released. These two decades were also rich in producing new artist and entertainers and many of these are now immortalised. The Beatles’ music is still played; ABBA has briefly reformed; “The Good Life” is currently being filmed and not to be outdone “‘Allo, ‘Allo” is occasionally shown; “The Two Ronnies” regularly appears at Christmas and “Dad’s Army” goes on and on.
Opposition to the new liberality of the 1960s would have been felt by the occupants of Grey Friars at this time when the Senior Evening Institute was just beginning there. Mary Whitehouse, the morality campaigner, lived in Ardleigh and had an office in All Saints House next door. She set out to censor new plays, new art, television, sex, nudity, bad language and mockery of religion. No doubt Miss King, with her high standards, would have approved of her opinions.
My CCHS school text books could never have predicted the varied, rare and bizarre weather conditions experienced during my lifetime. I first enjoyed an unusual sighting of the Northern Lights over the night sky in Dedham during the early 1940s and was told by my parents that I would never see it again unless I went up to the Arctic Circle, but twice in 2022 the same phenomenon has been visible. Other unpredictable and unexpected events were the East Coast floods of 1953; a decade later the prolonged winter followed and in 1987 the Great Hurricane came. A variety of unfamiliar weather features also manifested themselves – ash clouds from an Icelandic volcano and red sand from the Sahara.
Looking back at all the multitude of experiences and variety of activities in my childhood and early days at CCHS my life could have been very different. My father, as a young man in 1912 and the eldest of ten children, decided to go abroad looking for work and to seek his fortune. He spent 17 years firstly in China, then Australia and finally Canada before returning to England in 1929 and marrying. He made many friends in Australia and kept in contact with them.
At the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939, I had just started in the Preparatory Department of CCHS at Grey Friars, and had made several friends, some of whom would shortly be evacuated to the West Country. Concerned for my safety if the enemy invaded the east coast and occupied East Anglia, my parents arranged for me to be evacuated to the new friends in Australia who were willing to welcome me with open arms. All plans were made and finalised when a ship carrying children was torpedoed with great loss of life. All arrangements for my departure were cancelled immediately.
I stayed here, living in the attractive East Anglian countryside attending CCHS, a school with the highest educational standards, and eventually established a rewarding career at the Adult Community College, both housed in turn at Grey Friars, one of the most interesting and fascinating buildings in Colchester; all of these have influenced every aspect of my life. I so nearly had to swap all this for a life with koalas, kangaroos and eucalyptus trees! However attractive this might sound, I am glad that my roots were firmly established here and I have no regrets. I might even have returned home with an Australian accent.