(Spoken introduction) Ruth Whiting. Teacher of History at Bedales, 1963 – 2000. I had the pleasure of meeting Ruth Whiting a few months before she died. She had a staggering knowledge of Bedales, past and present. Whilst I was preparing this talk, Ruth came to my house to exchange information and chat generally about John H Badley, Founder & Headmaster of Bedales & Oswald B Powell Co-founder and Second master - my Grandfather
Ruth asked my opinion about these two gentlemen. My reply was that Badley seemed to be escaping from, and reacting to, his home and school life……….at which point Ruth interrupted, very animated, saying, “Yes! And your Grandfather wanted to continue his!” Oswald absorbed so much from his father, so much from his family with all their activities, so much from his life as a pupil at Uppingham School in Rutland. Experiencing, doing, always learning, always keeping an open mind. That was my Grandfather. Emphasis on DOING. One The following are the sources for this talk. by Ann Donnelly (née Powell) & Jill Thompson-Lewis (née Powell)
• More than 40 volumes of family letters & writings, circa 1848-1949, now in The British Library. Plus family photos. • My sister, Jill Thompson-Lewis, extracted about 30 A4 sides of references to Bedales from the above volumes. • ‘Memories & Reflections’ by J H Badley. • Dr Cormac Rigby, broadcaster, who kindly lent to me his Ph.D Thesis on The Rev. Edward Thring. • My 1973 dissertation “Bisham Village School, Uppingham School, & Bedales School, a Family Connection” used many extracts from the family letters & writings. • Jerry Redman, Uppingham School archivist. 2 • Malcolm Tozer, master at Uppingham 1966-1989. Author. Well, what is “Bedales”? • It is a private co-educational boarding school. It has been in Steep, near Petersfield, since 1900. • It was founded 1893 in Lindfield, Sussex, by John H Badley aided by my grandfather, Oswald B Powell. • One of the “progressive” movements of the time • The move to Steep from Sussex was made as more space was needed. • It celebrated its 125 anniversary in 2018
• There seemed to be no mention of my Grandfather in the celebrations. Hence this talk! I would like to stress that this talk is also by my sister, Jill Thompson-Lewis, former Secretary of both PAHS & The Museum, of which she was one of the founders. She was also Editor of the Bulletin. Sadly, she’s now in a care home.
4 Grandfather was Oswald B Powell 1867 – 1967 (Osbos) Second Master and co-founder of Bedales School. This talk is about his journey to it.
John Haden Badley and Oswald Byrom Powell, two Victorians, met through a common acquaintance. They were very different in character & background. Two Founders. Two different men. They complemented each other. But how? John H Badley Oswald B Powell “The Chief”
“Osbos”
6 John Haden Badley went to Rugby School
Father was a doctor.
Mother, was an Evangelist.
8 John Badley wrote numerous books as well as his autobiography:
“Memories and Reflections.”
1938 Amy Badley with my Mother, myself and siblings
9 There are many errors in this book about the Powell family.
Amongst some good accounts of his life, there is also an absurd & fictitious account of Oswald’s death……..
10 Please meet Oswald Byrom Powell, my Grandfather, 1867 – 1967
……his parents.
...and boyhood home
Man, matron, maiden, Please call it Baden. Further for Powell, Rhyme it with Noël.
(by Robert Baden-Powell) 11 The Rev. Thomas E Powell
Vicar of Bisham
. 1848 - 1900
Oswald was the youngest son.
12 Emma Corrie Powell . She bore 12 children
Oswald was the 11th.
She outlived her husband by 18 years.
13 1846 Cookham Dean, near Marlow
Thomas & Emma, moved to Cookham Dean, near Marlowe, in 1846......
“....a semi-savage district, spreading corruption & mischief to all surrounding parishes. All disreputable sports such as bull-baiting, dog-fights etc. desecrated Sundays.”
14 As an unpaid young Curate, Thomas was alarmed at being awakened at 5am on a Sunday by the “primitives” shouting hymns & sermons, using a wagon for a pulpit . “Preachers, male & female, held forth, surrounded by loafers and drunkards.” Then…….. in 1848 he was appointed Vicar of Bisham & with it, the care of the
School. 15 It was clear that the children had been badly treated.
The boys were in a minority “..& in a position quite secondary , to the girls..”
Most boys went to work aged 7 or 8. “..the residue seemed cowed by the superior age & position of the girls...” This was owing to the lucrative Satin (Damask) stitching by the girls. 16 Actually, it was two “ladies” who ran the school. They were sacked. So....
..a talented master, Mr Heald, was engaged. A few weeks later numbers rose from under 20 to 70, ”..including many Marlowe children..” It was now a mixed school, but with the infants separate. The satin-stitch girls were all found posts in the area. Alas, Mr Heald’s honesty came into doubt. Sacked. 17 In 1849 came a meeting, that was to have a lifelong effect on the lives of
Thomas E Powell,
Edward Thring
&
Oswald Byrom Powell
18 • While out walking, Thomas E (Oswald’s father)
• met……
• The Rev. Edward Thring.
Horse (Grasshopper) & a dog (Queer), exhausted, recuperate, Gloucester 19 “A friendship thus commenced which with some vicissitudes lasted until his (Thring’s) death”. (From Thomas E Powell, Memoirs)
Cormac Rigby comments on this friendship: “In the Vicar of Bisham...... Thring found a man after his own heart. Thomas Powell (had) set out to raise the educational level of his parish, and naturally he found an ally in Edward Thring”.
Thring wrote of his Gloucester days..> 20 In a speech to Ed. Soc., Thring referred to his work in the slums of Gloucester.
“...how on earth the Cambridge Honour Man, with his success and his brain- world, was to get at the minds of those little labourers’ sons with their unfurnished heads, & no time to give.....”
21 “They gave me the great axiom, ‘the worse the material, the greater the skill of the worker.’
They bred in me a supreme contempt for knowledge in lumps, for emptying out knowledge lumps in a heap like stones at a roadside, and calling it teaching.....”
So, this is what he did 3 years later, recovered, & now a close friend of the Powell family. 22 He refounded Uppingham School. It became a Public School
Cormac Rigby:: “The essential influence was that of a happy house..” The ‘Houses’ consisted of 30 boys of mixed ages. The Housemasters were encouraged to marry young and start a family.
For now, back to Bisham………. 23 Bisham Vicarage was home to Oswald’s parents & siblings for more than 50 Years
24 Oswald, the youngest son, & his 5 brothers and 4 sisters all learnt to water-colour, play an instrument, use their hands to make things and sing.
And they wrote letters to their parents and each other - a lifelong occupation.
They sang & played in their own concerts on the lawn that ran down to the Thames.
25 Rowers stopped their weekend outings, resting their oars to listen, blocking the river from bank to bank.
26 A report in The South Bucks Free Press named them:
“The Bisham Family Singers.”
But there was also a question of duty to others...
27 Here is Oswald’s diary of 1878, aged 11.
He had to wait at table.
In ‘dress clothes’ if there were visitors.
But excused if it was his bath night! In 1882 he was at Uppingham….and this is what young Oswald experienced at school….. 28 Classics continued, yes. But then......
• Music, practice under Paul David (son of Ferdinand David) • Singing, including a choir. ♦ Modern Languages. • Carpentry. ♦ A school garden. • A love of Nature - birds fed from Thring’s lips. • Athletics, tennis – even teaching it himself! • A school gymnasium. A swimming pool. • Country walks, with no masters. • Private study rooms, “where a boy could cry.” Paintings & works of Art to inspire the boys. Supervised cookery lessons for the village ladies. Then there was sport … 29 Trophies, Uppingham style.....mid to late 19th Century!.
30 I would like to emphasise…..
This was mid Victorian times. No names such as “progressive” had been added to the word “education”.
Thring just got on with doing something he thought was right.
My Grandfather said that even with flogging they still loved & respected him. There was always a talk, an exchange, first. 31 Schooldays over, University over, Oswald taught in Manchester Grammar School. With 40 -50 boys in a foggy classroom something had to change!
He wrote to a friend of his sister Emily,
‘Goldie’ Lowes Dickinson 32 How the Founders met • “Goldie” Lowes-Dickinson, a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, a philosopher & liberal thinker, introduced them to each other. • He was known to John Badley from Cambridge. • He was known to Oswald Powell through his family & sister Emily.
33 Badley wrote on 22/06/1965: “..with all his
(“Goldie’s”) wisdom and loving kindness.....I owe an immeasurable debt of thankfulness; and I hope that
all who know Bedales know how much it owes to him as well as to its actual founders....” (Badley explains “founders” means himself, his wife Amy, & Oswald & his wife Winifred)
34 So, the two men met in Dudley. Before going to the Badley home, they talked on a hill.
Oswald later described Badley’s home as “drab and narrow”.
However, he was impressed by Badley’s prospectus.
It was agreed they would forge ahead together.
“Goldie” Lowes-Dickinson had laid the first foundation stone of what was to become Bedales School. ( OBP had been advised by his friend and colleague from Manchester Grammar School to Dudley “well-dressed and, if occasion offered, to show that you smoke and are not anti-alcoholic…” Grandfather followed the advice……..!) 35 Badley searched & found a suitable house, ‘Bedales’, in Lindfield Sussex. This is where it all began.
Badley searched & found a suitable house, ‘Bedales’, in Lindfield Sussex. This is where it all began.
37 The first Bedales in Lindfield Sussex, circa 1894
38 Oswald went to a crammer to ‘perfect’ his French. Badley gave him £35 to pay for it.
Weekends at the Sillig crammer near Montreux!
After a week of cramming French, the students had use of the-four-in-hand. For that they had to tend to the horses and clean the stables and harness.
39 By the beginning of November, Oswald was in Paris. November -December 1892, to Prof. Gouin.
He was learning a new method of language teaching from the originator: Prof. François Gouin. The method was very much the start of how languages are taught today.
From his letters & Accounts entries, Oswald seems to have funded himself a series of lessons with Professor Gouin.
Oswald introduced this method to Bedales 40 41 42 Arriving from Paris (29th December 1892), Oswald walked from Haywards Heath to Bedales in Lindfield. He then went to Bisham…..
Bedales opened at the end of January.
Three pupils.
Six Staff.
Time to make a curriculum. Some unusual subjects.
As well as see to other practical matters such as earth closets…….. 43 Used by all, emptied by all!
44 Bedales, (?1894), brother Malcolm Powell teaching woodwork. He also taught science at the “new” Bedales, after setting up the laboratory.
(He had previously taught science at Sunderland High School & Mill Hill. On leaving Bedales he became science Lecturer for Northants CC) 45 Beekeeping • At Lindfield, it was decided to introduce beekeeping into the curriculum. • Oswald must have taken on the task. He also declared that he knew nothing at all about bees. • The solution? Talking to the boys, he discovered that 2 of the boys had families who kept bees. • It was the boys who taught him. • Oct. 1904, now in Steep, he gave a lecture on Bees, “with beautiful slides from Phillips.” 46 A sewing class for girls & boys.
(This photo is very probably taken in Steep) 47 Starting a Choir • Oswald had an impressive singing voice, later singing locally & throughout Europe. He sang in the Oxford Bach Choir until about 85 years old. • But Oswald had also never started a choir. • So when the question of starting a choir at Bedales came up, “..I was bold enough to ask the organist at Westminster Abbey who had a great reputation as a choirmaster, to let me watch him at work.”
• Luxuries? Well…… 48 The Powell Carriage
Winifred describes her future husband 5/7/1893 ”He keeps a very charming donkey here to wh. he is tremendously attached & is going to have a cart so that we shall keep a carriage!” Later, 3/10/1893 “The donkey cart is a queer little affair one has to sit more or less on the outside to get two people on the seat at all.” Oswald, 24/10/1894: “The donkey is used quite a lot this term....though the people of Lindfield grin when they see us coming in to the shop in the very minute cart.... 49 Oswald & Winifred were married in 1894. • Roger arrived in 1896.
• Roger was the second ‘Bedales baby’.
• Winifred was described as ‘sensible’, ‘reliable’, ‘a fine musician’.
• Badley commented….
50 It was very rare to hear any criticism from Oswald, but some years later Oswald wrote:-
“It was about this time that JHB felt moved to let me know that I was attempting to live a double life, that my position on the Staff of Bedales was suffering from our ‘having a home of our own and the beginning of a family’……..”
53 Jock Badley (R) was the first ‘Bedales baby’.
Oliver Powell (L) 3rd Bedales baby, Roger’s brother.
Probably 1901 or 1902
54 Moving to Steep, Petersfield.
• Numbers increased, the lease was ending, a new place had to be found.
• Oswald wrote to his Father on 3rd Nov. 1898 for a loan. Badley was going to Dudley “on Monday to consult his Father about the matter.”
55 There seem to be discrepancies in “Memories and Reflections” about the financing of the new Bedales in Steep.
On page 19 of “Memories and Reflections” Badley writes of his Father: “It was his business ability and the value of the property he left that eventually made possible the building of Bedales.”
However, on page 30 Badley tells of a legal action by his Grandfather. Referring to the resultant bequest, JHB writes, “By that time it (the bequest) had come to me, just when Bedales had outgrown its first home and was forced to move;………the price obtained ……did much to make possible the building of the present school.”
But, on page 138 “..(a bold step of buying land, plus Steephurst etc.) was now made possible by realising and devoting to this purpose the property that had come to me on my father’s death.” (now to Oswald’s account >) 56 This is the first page of a letter dated …….
November 3rd 1898
It asks for money.
The final sum lent was
£1017
(complete letter is next) 57 58 On 28th January 1899, Malcolm Powell, one of Oswald’s older brothers who was now on the staff, wrote to their mother that “the place is bought now, & all hands are turned on in the architects office....”
By rail & horse and cart, the school moved to Steep. Oswald & family were in the new home by August. But the new school was far from finished.
59 Oliver (l) Roger (r) circa 1901 or 1902?
• The boys came to their new life in Steep but at first living in “Burnt Ash” on the Farnham Road. • Little Hawsted may have been under construction when this was taken.
61 Oswald’s brother (L) Alfred, the architect of Little Hawsted, Church Road, Steep.
62 Petersfield Woman’s (sic) Suffrage Society.
Oswald was on the Committee and wife
Winifred was The Hon. Treasurer
63 Froxfield:
Sale of Miss Cummins’ goods.
65 12th March 1913. Oswald’s letter to The Hants & Sussex News,
“It is never good for the governed or for the government that injustice should be tolerated without protest…..” (he describes the problem - Married Women & Income Tax)
“The thing is an iniquitous absurdity….”
66 An eloquent & colourful report by Oswald of the Women’s International Congress in Budapest. June/July 1913
Millicent Fawcett was there.
Kate Harvey, well-known suffragist, was also there; the future mother-in-law of Oswald’s elder son, but they did not meet then.67 A plea from the
Ministry Food,
May 1917, to eat less bread.
68 This photo is dated 1917. WW1
69 Little Hawsted 1906
Aunt Lewin (Octavia Lewin Cobb)
70 Oswald presided over a meeting to choose the Labour Candidate for E. Hants.
He stated in later writings that Badley had “turned left” long before he, Oswald, had.
It was reported that Oswald “expressed distrust of all political parties.”
71 The report of a stirring speech by OBP to the youth of Petersfield.
Just after WW1 in 1919
72 Singing in Actively all Europe supporting Women’s Walking Suffrage the Lecturing in footpaths Petersfield
Writing to the Press Busy!
Busy!
Busy!
Tried to write his autobiography…..aged 95 or73 96! Once settled in Headington Quarry, Grandfather set up an Orchard Service, giving advice on
Leaving home, leaving Bedales, leaving Steep....off to Headington, Oxford.
This is Oswald’s and Winifred’s last apple crop.
1935 74 Last words from Oswald in an article called “First Impressions” published by The Bedales Society
“...I have a memory that consistently refuses to record unpleasant events of which, no doubt, there were many.”
75 What do you do on your 90th birthday?
Then in 1965 Badley…… >>>
76 On 22/6/1965, aged 100, Badley wrote to Oswald......
• “I hope you realised from the greeting that I sent to the luncheon party, how much I feel that Bedales owes, & has always owed to you. People ought always speak of it as our work (yours & Winifred’s, as much as Amy’s & mine); & I can never adequately thank you for all you did in helping to make it what it was – and still is”.
(January 1967 letter overleaf >) 43 The following letter from Badley, dictated and signed on January 7th 1967 shortly before his death, was ready for Oswald’s 100th birthday. Sadly, it was never read. Granddad died too young!
“....It was one of the happiest things in my life that you joined me at Bedales and helped to shape it into what it has become. One of the many pieces of good fortune was in having you, for which I have to be thankful……warmest thanks for all that you have done for me and been to me all my working life – It is one of the many things that I have so much cause to be thankful for….”
78 What no Names? Which is which?
79 Parents’ Day
June 30th 2018
(One of 6 placards in the school entrance)
80 The End.
Thank you for listening.
81