Bryn Thomas Ammanford, South Wales All posts by this member | 1 of 10 Tue 19th Mar 2013 10:40am Member: Joined May 2010 Total posts:45 As a 9/10-year-old I was sent to the City of Coventry Boarding School in Cleobury Mortimer for a week. Does anybody else have any similar experience or does anybody know anything of the history of the place? |
City of Coventry Boarding School | |
gangan Stockton, Southam All posts by this member | 2 of 10 Tue 19th Mar 2013 1:12pm Member: Joined May 2012 Total posts:114 Hi Bryn. My father was evacuated there during the war and it was his proud boast that he helped lay the paths. Not much in the way of info, but as it is said, "Every little helps" |
City of Coventry Boarding School | |
mick coventry All posts by this member | 3 of 10 Tue 19th Mar 2013 4:03pm Member: Joined Sep 2012 Total posts:72 I was involved in selling the school when it finally closed and, of course, visited several times. It first closed as a boarding school and then operated residential courses which were funded through the Manpower Services Commission. The Council then sold it to a Christian youth organisation and I was led to believe Cliff Richard was connected with them in some way.
I do not know how Coventry came to select the site [known as Wyre Farm] but the huts were built of maple by the Canadian Air Force and was initially used for evacuation during WW2. Another intriguing feature was that the Elan pipeline ran through the site and I have heard that this pipeline from Elan to Birmingham operates solely on gravity - a pretty remarkable achievement! |
City of Coventry Boarding School | |
artful lancashire All posts by this member | 4 of 10 Wed 20th Mar 2013 3:37pm Member: Joined Sep 2011 Total posts:132 My brother suffers with asthma and during the late 40's or early 50's he spent a term at Wyre Farm.
Our Dr considered that the cleaner fresher air would benefit him. He is 76 now so it couldn't have done him any harm. |
City of Coventry Boarding School | |
Foxcote Warwick All posts by this member | 5 of 10 Wed 20th Mar 2013 3:47pm Member: Joined Jan 2012 Total posts:832 There's a good link here with school photographs etc. Wyre Farm website |
City of Coventry Boarding School | |
Dreamtime Perth Western Australia All posts by this member | 6 of 10 Thu 21st Mar 2013 12:44am Member: Joined Jan 2010 Total posts:2867 A very good link Foxcote. I would not be surprised if you get a good result from this.
Clever girl. ![]() |
City of Coventry Boarding School | |
Barbinoz Australia All posts by this member | 7 of 10 Sun 24th Mar 2013 9:05am Member: Joined Nov 2011 Total posts:20 I remember going there for a week too Bryn, not sure but I think it was just before I started secondary school. That would have been 1963 I think.
From what I can recall we had a great time, we were in long dormitories with bunk beds.
There were lots of outdoor activities - just as well it was the week of summer ![]() ![]() |
City of Coventry Boarding School | |
Foxcote Warwick All posts by this member | 8 of 10 Sun 24th Mar 2013 11:56am Member: Joined Jan 2012 Total posts:832 Glad you appreciated it, Barbinoz ![]() |
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GVB All posts by this member | 9 of 10 Tue 26th Mar 2013 12:19am Total posts:105 Many years ago I was friends with a chap called Tony Tompkins who as a child had gone to Cleobury Mortimer. One day when we had nothing to do we decided to head out to visit the school. So Tony, myself and a guy called Derek piled in a Morris Minor and off we went. We got fairly close to the school and as we had plenty of time we decided to drive around the Clee Hills so Tony could show off his knowledge of the local area. What his local knowledge did not extend to was the almighty explosions that were about to occur in front of the car leaving us all very alarmed. The TA were on manoeuvres in the hills and had a extremely plentiful supply of thunderflashes. It was almost justification for joining the TA and wearing khaki trousers. We left that area pretty quickly and headed back to the school where Tony met some of his old teachers who all remembered what a hard working student he had been (yeah right). Not only that, one of the very elderly teachers was sure that he had taught me. That would have been difficult as I had never attended that school. Still, it was a good day out. On the way back we got lost a few times, although local pubs are very good with directions ![]() |
City of Coventry Boarding School | |
Trev T North Yorkshire All posts by this member | 10 of 10 Fri 29th Mar 2013 7:33pm Member: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:11 I run the Wyre Farm / City of Coventry Boarding school blogspot - thanks a lot for linking it here. We've sourced a lot of photos, memories and resources for it over the last year and half and more are welcome. You can read how it started - part of the National Camps Corporation project with over 30 similar camp schools around the country. There's an index on the site. Former pupils and daughters of staff now also share memories on facebook here
Feel free to join the page and share your memories. |
City of Coventry Boarding School |