Amersham

For a period of three years, from around 1972 to 1975, I attended Dr. Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham (actually Amersham-on-the-Hill, not to be confused with Old Amersham at the bottom of the hill). The school celebrated it's 350th anniversary while I attended, since it was founded by Dr. Challoner, who was a Parson, in 1624.

I was curious if the "temporary" buildings that existed when I went there were still around. They had been created in three different eras: the one my homeroom was in had been constructed of brick and concrete in the late 1940s or early 1950s and was still in great condition; there was a second series that had been built in the 1960s of wood, and they were pretty dilapidated, and there were were modern ones from the 1970s that just fell apart under the on-slaught of hundreds of schoolboys day in and day out. I was pleased to discover that all the temporary buildings were gone, and some very beautiful new buildings replaced them.

It was a very English school; we wore school uniforms, and were divided into Houses (I was in 'Windsor'), though it was very muted, a far cry from the Houses in Hogwarts. I ran into the Assistant Headmaster (who started in 1983, so after my time), who updated me on what my former teachers were up to now. Herr Binns, my German master, was still teaching there, though he probably remembers me as a poor student at foreign languages. Christopher Crawley, who had been my Form master, as well as English and Music teacher, left the school in the late 1970s to teach at a very prestigious school at St. Albans and was still there. Mr. Dickinson, my P.T. teacher, had been the top British Hammer Thrower (a track and field event) and number three in the world, has gone on to be one of England's top sports commentators. Unfortunately, he also gave me the sad news that my former Math teacher Mr. Bibby had committed suicide late last year; I successfully guessed the reason from my time at the school, and it was confirmed in a newspaper article that I found.

I received a great education at the school, and think my life would have been profoundly different for the better if I had stayed and finished there instead of returning and entering High School. Even though I skipped ahead a grade in the process, I was still generally bored witless in High School because what I had learned at Dr. Challoner's was so far ahead of the American school system.

My only non-fond memories of the school was the bigotry some students and teachers felt towards me because I was American. I got a fair amount of physical abuse because of it from fellow students (egged on by one rather hateful teacher in particular--my profound hope is that there is a spot in Hell reserved for people who abuse the color of authority to inflict harm on the defenseless). My mother is English, and when the school got around to classifying our nationality it decided I was British, because I had 'come into the country to join my Mother' (even though she had travelled with me). Unfortunately, the anti-American bigotry remained, mostly at that point a hold-over from World War II, where the United States' late entry into the war, and then whose soldiers were 'over-sexed, over-paid, and over here' still caused a lot of anger. None of that was anything to do with me--I was just a 12-year-old school boy, and so I generally suffered the bruises in silence, and pondered.

It has been a recurring theme of my life to be either on the edge between cultures or as an outsider. I was middle-class in a working-class neighborhood in Bethesda; a Damn Yankee from the North when we lived in Virginia Beach (still fighting the Civil War more than 100 years after they lost it); a despised American in Britain; and later as a gay man in a straight and homophobic society. I've been on the edge for so long that the mere concept of 'belonging' to any part of the mainstream is alien to me. That's a little sad.

Barkingside station, where I was staying.	I love the parallax effect of train stations.	Amersham station. Ironically, I'm not sure I ever used this station during the three years I went to school here.	There was, however, a sweets shop just downhill from the Underground station. The shop was still there, though it was now a burger joint.
Looking up from the Underground station, this road was kind of a spur from the official "High Street".	The main gate of the school.	Looking along the left side of the school. The beautiful building had windows like a church, and was our Music Room.	The Tower Block, a very strange and profoundly ugly building. The whole first floor is bathrooms, and the upper floors are classrooms. There is a breeze-way over to the Science building on the second floor. (This is a pseudo-wide-angle shot created by stitching together three photos from my digital camera.)
Front side of the main building. The gym was on the upper floor to the left, a large assembly hall on the upper floor to the right. The cafeteria was underneath on the left.	A few of the beautiful extensive practice fields. Another pseudo-wide-angle shot.	A view of the backside of the assembly hall/gym building. Another pseudo-wide-angle shot.	New construction: classrooms adjoining the older building.
A building from my time that now has the woodworking lab in it. I have a vague recollection of those labs being in temporary buildings in my time, but can't say for sure.	A view of the main administrative building. The Headmaster's office was either in the corner or under the gabled roof you see to the right. You really, really didn't want to get sent to the Headmaster's office. Back in my day, he still had the power to cane unruly students (although controls, such as making him record in a book the infraction, how many strokes, and what with--rod, birch, etc.--had been instituted).	Where my dilapidated temporary buildings had been there are now these gorgeous brick and glass buildings, along with a landscaped courtyard.	A view of the old library.
Another view of the library, as you walk down towards the front of the school.	The end of the administration building closest to the front of the school. The main office is now in that front corner.	A last view of the school looking from the road back towards the Music building.