Idlicote House Prep School

[corinne]

Does anyone remember this school?  My Dad taught there at the time I was born.  I visited the area a couple  of years ago but it seemed to have reverted back to a private house.  I'd really like a few stories about the school as it was in about 1956 - how big, how many masters and staff, what age kids, etc.

[charlesxx]

Dear Corinne
Yes, I was a pupil at that school from 1960 to '64. What is your maiden name ?  Charlesxx

[corinne]

Great to hear from you.  My dad's name was Warwick Curtis.  He would have been about 25 years old when he taught there in 1956.  He was from New Zealand and doing the big overseas working holiday - then met mum, got married, had me, returned to NZ etc.  You were there just a few years too late for my father.  Do you have any pictures of the school at that time? 

[charlesxx]

No, I don't recall mention of your father's name ...as you say, we missed eachother by a few years. I do recall quite a high turnover of teachers at the school. My time there was not good... a bit of an ordeal, actually. The food was poor, the buildings were cold in the winter and we were very isolated up there on the hill. The only contact we had with the outside world was a transistor radio in the dormitory at night (strictly forbidden, of course). Dave Clark 5's Glad all Over still takes me back to those times. They were formative years, though, and looking back on it now, I do have some fond memories. The headmaster was a Mr.Parsons. He continued the school up to about 1971, I think by which time pupil numbers were dwindling ... there were about 85 when I was there. They came from all over the country, too. I used to live in nearby Banbury but am now in Perth, W.Australia. Pictures ? well I do have some old black & whites which I'll have to scan sometime for you to see.

[corinne]

Thanks for that info.  I suspect my Mum found the place a bit of an ordeal too, as I believe she took me back to my grandparents for a couple of months soon after I was born, while she waited for Dad to finish out the term there. 
Corinne

[nixword]

I was at the school from August '67 to summer '70. I remember Mr Parsons (we used to call him LAMP as I think they were his initials) falling asleep in Latin! And 'Jag's Fowler?! And a very strange man called Mr iseman who taught French - and tried to grope us during lessons. Yikes - he'd be rightly buried alive these days. My name is Nick Green. Anyone remember me?

[Ikoyi]

I attended Idlicote House from 1959 to 1961. We called Mr. Parsons the headmaster "Barney" because his first name was Barnabus. Mr. Geoff Fowler taught maths and acted as assistant head. There was a Miss Blenkinsop who had a classroom above the library, adjacent to the changing rooms and gym, and taught the first-formers. As Charlesxx said, the rooms were cold. The dormitories in the main house were gaunt, bare floorboards in most cases and it was a lucky winter night if the Victorian radiators worked. Apart from the first form classroom and the Hall, the two pre-fab classrooms had no heating. I seem to remember Mr. Fowler telling me on a later visit that they had to install heating after the (1964?) ferocious winter when the ink froze in the ink wells. I also found it something of an ordeal, but my last two years were much better and I even looked back fondly at Idlicote once I was at Highgate School in north London (though Highgate's food was brilliant after Idlicote's!).

[Ted Kleber]

I attended the prep school back in 1967 for a couple years. I was the only American attending the school at that time. I live in Germany and was sent to boarding school there when my Dad served in Vietnam. I have a lot of memories there with Mr. parsons. I believed he was blind in one eye because he would always look sideways at us when he was selling us candy in the Tuck store. Being the only Yank there got me in a lot of trouble there at the school. Remember Mr. fowler as my Math teacher. Learn to play Cricket, rugby and football there, never heard of those sports before, but became quite good at football and rugby and continued on with my Education at Winslade Boarding school in Exeter, then on to St. boniface College in Dumfries, Scotland.
Returned to the United States and served in the US Air Force for the next 20 years.....

[Johnco]

I was at idlicote between 1964 and1967. I certainly remember jags Fowler and mob Blenkinsop. Jags was probably one of the better teachers. Also mr Macdonald who could hit you with a piece of chalk if caught not paying attention. I can also remember the French teacher, Mr Clark who hit me over the head with a shovel for jumping in the long jump sand before it had been made ready. I also remember getting slapped around the face seven times by Parsons for being caught reading a war book in his Latin class. Also remember going into the church and playing the church organ, climbing the slate ledges inside the dovecote, playing rugby on a ridge and furrow field when all the furrows were full of water, playing Bulldogs in the quad, watching Chuchills funeral on TV at school, crap school meals. I've still got a 4 inch scar on my leg from sliding through a barbed wire fence. Also remember wearing boiler suits at break times, you could tell the new boys because their suits were not as faded as the older boys.I and some others left when a whiff of misconduct surfaced regarding Parsons and the school closed a few years later. Some memorable times, but not a very good school. I popped in a couple of years ago for the first time in over 40 years and I noticed the outdoor swimming pool is being used as a dump for garden rubbish