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While at Stockingford I attended a lecture by Percy
Blandford a well-known canoeist and designer who sold me on the building
of kayaks as a hobby and a handicraft project in school. Our canoe club
built nine and took them on the River Severn. Below are more projects
including on the left an oak, glassed door book-cabinet built during my
adult evening classes.
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My enthusiasm continued at Bablake and before long
we were making a much sleeker, better designed model of Blandford's original
seen under construction in this shot of the woodwork room in 1956. A solid
geometry problem can be seen on the board.
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Barry Daniells and John Haines built their own two-seater
kayak in 1957 and later paddled down the River Wye.
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Finally, the skin goes on and they are seaworthy
and ready to paddle.
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They could not resist showing how long their craft is and I show off my own canoe Sabrina, named after the Goddess of the River Severn, not the popular model of the time. |
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Some masters at Bablake were assigned to a form as
mentor, hall overseer and attendance taker. This is the official photograph
of Shell W in 1956. The master is Mr.Goodman known as "Benny"
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Rupert Fisher writes "I believe Benny Goodman left soon after our arrival (not my fault honestly) and you were given the honour for some unknown reason of replacing "Benny" and took this unofficial photo of Shell W outside the handicraft room later in the year. |
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MY NOTE They look more relaxed or are they out of
control?
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(L to R) Pashler, Jeffs, Mitchell, Buck, Parr, Wills, Osman, McGlynn, Pacey, Speed Middle Blakeman, Richardson, Beynon, Cox, Carter, Bryant, Collerson, Barclay, Taylor, Hatfield Front Hopkins, Jones, Lazenby, ?, Elliott, R Colledge, Watts, S Colledge, Hall, Pearson |
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