ROSE THE OT MAGAZINE . 2020
Habeo ut Dem OTs supporting the NHS Tudor in the 1930s OT Patricia Hinman reminisces All the world's a stage OTs on stage and screen
ROSE THE OT MAGAZINE . 2020 CONTENTS
Cover image: Flaming June by Saskia (LVI) Model: Ivory Flame
Why be a teacher? Headmistress Wendy Griffiths discusses this invaluable role
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HRH The Duchess of Cornwall opens Tudor’s Teaching Centre
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Tudor introduces…
Debbie Chism, Chair of Governors
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Degree results
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Emma Bell, Deputy Head Kate Simlett, Deputy Head (Pastoral)
Tudor Gap Scholarship 24 An exciting new programme open to Tudor’s UVI leavers Tudor Hall School Wykham Park Banbury Oxfordshire OX16 9UR Tel: 01295 756201 Email: lsilver@tudorhallschool.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/school/tudorhall-school
Editor: Lindsay Silver Design and layout: Smidgin Studio Print and production: The Lavenham Press Limited
OT Prefect Sophie reflects on her role and being part of the OT community
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Habeo ut Dem Celebrating the role our OT community is playing in rising to the challenges of the Covid pandemic
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Emma Willis The inspirational entrepreneur and philanthropist shares her story with us
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Patricia Hinman 40 Our oldest OT shares her memories of Tudor in the 1930s All the world’s a stage We hear from a selection of OTs who have gone on to have careers on stage and screen
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54 Burnt Norton OT Heather Holden-Brown interviews Caroline Sandon, owner of Burnt Norton and author of the novel of the same name Interior values Interior designer Antonia Stewart argues the case for choosing beautifully made British products
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Floral styling with Willow Crossley A must-read for flower lovers everywhere
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Spectacular plants for dramatic autumn colour 70 Award-winning garden designer Sparrow Morgan-Grenville shares her tips for creating autumn colour
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Horatio’s garden 74 Garden designer Camilla Hiley talks about creating this very special sanctuary of healing and hope
Whisky, the water of life Peter Mayne shares his growing appreciation of this tempting tipple
Mountain Trek 78 Hannah Timmons shares her very personal story about how she came to live and work in this beautiful place
OTs today 96 Hear the latest news and updates from a selection of OTs Former staff We say goodbye to four long-standing members of staff – Amanda Brauer, John Field, John Jackson and Clare Macro
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Bespoke stained–glass windows for the School Chapel A lasting gift from our 2019 leavers
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Tudor archives Bringing Tudor’s past to life
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News Some of the highlights from the last year at Tudor and beyond
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Events OT get-togethers from the past twelve months
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Announcements Births, engagements, marriages and deaths
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Tudor alumnae survey Your chance to shape our alumnae programme
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An insider’s guide to San Francisco Teresa Fitzherbert gives us the lowdown on the City by the Bay
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Tudor foodies Delight your taste buds and feel great with healthy recipes from a selection of Tudor’s foodies Just the tonic Lucy Warhurst talks about her brand of lightly alcoholic premium drinks
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FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to the 2020 edition of Rose.
you and your families are safe and well in these challenging and uncertain times. Thanks to the wonders of technology, Tudor’s girls have been able to continue learning remotely and staff are able to continue to provide support and guidance. We are, however, looking forward to a time when the school community can once again be together in person.
What a difference a year makes! In previous years, I have written this section of the magazine from an office in Tudor's main building, looking out over the beautiful grounds as groups of girls pass by in the summer sunshine, chatting and laughing on their way to and from lessons. This year I am writing from home (looking out at my daughter playing in the garden) as Tudor's buildings lie almost still.
More than ever, we hope that looking through the news and articles in this edition of Rose will bring you some joy and remind you what an amazing community you are a part of. Many items in the magazine were written before lockdown, so we hope these will provide some welcome relief from the current situation. We are also proud to celebrate the role our OT community is playing in rising to the challenges created by the pandemic and trust you will enjoy reading about this too.
Things are very different for everyone at the moment, and very difficult for many; we hope that
Lindsay Silver lsilver@tudorhallschool.com
OT EVENTS We feel very lucky to have welcomed many of you at some fabulous OT events over the past year. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, our programme of events is currently on hold, but we very much look forward to meeting with you again once circumstances allow. Invitations for upcoming OT events will be sent in the usual way, so please make sure we have your current contact details. To update your contact details, please email: ota@tudorhallschool.com. You can also look out for information about upcoming events in our termly e-newsletter and on the School’s website: tudorhallschool.com/our-community/alumnae/ alumnae-events
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Why be a
teacher? Wendy Griffiths, Headmistress, talks about this invaluable role and offers her experience and insights. When I started my career, I remember pupils regularly asking why I had become a teacher. Many seemed surprised that it would be a conscious choice for graduates. Their other focus was a genuine belief that teaching must be boring, as our role was simply to deliver the same information on an annual basis. I recently asked the teachers at Tudor to indicate whether teaching had been their chosen direction when they were at school. Approximately two thirds,
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myself included, had not seen themselves pursuing a career in education. This can, in part, be put down to the lack of clarity of direction which is true for a lot of young people when they are at school, but I am also convinced that it was also because we did not truly understand what it meant to be a teacher.
The most important factor in being a successful teacher is the ability to build a rapport with your students and, as no two pupils are the same, the number of different experiences and challenges are infinite.
The most important factor in being a successful teacher is the ability to build a rapport with your students and, as no two pupils are the same, the number of different experiences and challenges are infinite. There is a scheme of work to be covered, but anyone who thinks that a ‘one size fits all’ delivery is the way forward will not survive for very long. For many, like me, this is what makes the job fascinating. Having the opportunity to work with young people as individuals and to see them develop academically and personally – all requiring different support, a variety of stimuli and personalised direction – can be demanding, but provides ‘job satisfaction’ on a daily basis. It is certainly never boring.
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The other aspect of teaching that so many people fail to understand is that a huge part of what we do does not happen in lessons. Everyone understands the work that takes place behind the scenes in terms of planning, assessment and reporting, but it is what the individual teachers do outside their teaching responsibilities that guides the development of the person. The hours spent working with the cast of the
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play, training the debaters, the weekends supervising Outward Bound, the one-to-one sessions to build the academic confidence of a child and, as a consequence, their self-belief; this is where magic is performed. Many of the young people that I have taught and known have become teachers and some of their insights and stories are shared in this magazine. They, too, will have been asked why they chose teaching and undoubtedly there may be moments in the early days where they have wondered the same. If anyone asks them in the future, they might like to use the short but expressive dialogue between Sir Thomas More and Richard Rich from Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, which I have quoted many times in assemblies: “Sir Thomas More: Why not be a teacher? You’d be a fine teacher; perhaps a great one. Richard Rich: If I was, who would know it? Sir Thomas More: You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that.” R
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Nicola Cornish (1994) Deputy Head Academic, Prep school Throughout my time at Tudor, a career in teaching had always interested me. I was a Todd Prefect and particularly enjoyed working with this year group during their very formative year at school. During the Upper Sixth, I applied for business courses at various universities and thought I would go back to teaching at a later stage, however I couldn’t quite find a course that appealed to me – I think teaching was always in the back of my mind. I literally woke up one morning and said, “Right, that’s it, I am going to apply for teaching courses”. So that’s what I did. I gained a place at the University of Northumbria, where I completed a three-year degree in Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status. I absolutely loved the course, in spite of the daily 9:00am starts! Over the three years, I undertook many placements in local primary schools. These were eye-opening experiences, which made me really appreciate the education I had received at Tudor and encouraged me to strive to offer the children I worked with - both during those placements and now – the enthusiasm, care and support that I received during my schooling. My teaching career started at Garden House School in London as a Year One class teacher and over the next twenty years I taught all ages from Year One to Year Six. After about six years of teaching, I applied to be the Science Coordinator. In this role I oversaw the teaching of science within the school and led the development of the science curriculum. From there I moved to Key Stage One Director of Studies, overseeing all the
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teaching and learning in the lower part of the school. I now hold the position of Deputy Head Academic across the whole school. What I love about teaching is that no day is ever the same and you have no idea who or what is going to come through your door that day – it might be a wonderful poem that a child has written, inspired by an assembly you have just done, a piece of mathematics that is all correct when the pupil had been struggling to grasp a concept, or even a birthday cupcake! I now have extra responsibility in helping to place our children in their senior schools, which means dealing with a lot of parents and supporting them and their children through what is a very demanding time for them. The hours are long, but it is honestly the most rewarding job in the world. Nothing beats the feeling of seeing a child’s face light up having finally cracked a challenge, be it on the sports field, in the classroom or, simply tying their shoelaces. You certainly need passion, patience and a good sense of humour, but it is a wonderfully fulfilling job.
Henrietta MacLennan (Martin Smith, 2005) Head of Sixth Form & Secondary Classics I wouldn’t say that I had always dreamed of being a teacher; in fact, I don’t think it was something I’d even considered when I left school. An internship in an investment bank in Athens during the summer of my second year at university very clearly ruled out any
previous aspirations to work in finance, and by the time my friends began job-hunting in earnest in our final year, the only ‘next step’ I was considering was a PGCE. If I were to teach, I knew I wanted to teach in the state sector and thought that I would be more likely to find a post in a history department than a classics one, so initially expressed an interest in a history PGCE course, but I was then firmly steered to the classics PGCE by one of my teachers who ran the course. Once I had a foot in the classroom, I never looked back. I began teaching at Saffron Walden County High School, a large comprehensive in North Essex, as a lone Latin and classics teacher. The students were fantastic: interesting and interested. Within two years, we had enough uptake to hire another specialist Latin teacher and the department grew. Whilst I was teaching Latin throughout the school, I was also teaching classical civilisation at A Level, so the majority of my teaching timetable was filled with Sixth Form students. This really clarified for me where my more specialist interests in teaching lie; working with Sixth Formers to help them identify their next steps. From there, I moved into the Sixth Form tutor team, where I had a group of forty-five Year 12 and 13 students under my care. Finding out what Year 12 students want to study and what they hope to achieve, then working with them to find out how to get there over their two years in Sixth Form, is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job to this day.
two year period, working closely with the tutor team to ensure students had opportunities to identify and pursue their interests and also supporting students in the Sixth Form with special educational needs in mainstream education, particularly ASD students. Alongside this, I was also part of the Prince’s Teaching Institute, for whom I co-developed, designed and led residential courses for state school classics teaching as part of their Schools’ Programme. This mirrored what we were trying to achieve in schools, but for teachers; this time, reigniting as opposed to finding, teachers’ subject passions and helping to identify ways to integrate this into classroom teaching. The residential courses have been highlights of my career – they fostered an excellent network of classics teachers in state schools, all of whom were committed to widening access to classical subjects in the state system. I remain very aware of the difficulties that state schools have in recruiting classics teachers, as well as the shortage of jobs for classics teachers in the state sector. Of course, the two are entirely linked; however, it appears that an impasse has been reached, and without a greater demand for teachers, there will be no increase in teacher training places, and vice versa. This remains a source of great frustration; access to the classical world for children nationally is being restricted.
The desire to get students to love the Classical world and to help them identify their future pathways remain both the motivations for, and the satisfactions of, my job.
After four years at Saffron Walden, I moved to Mossbourne Community Academy, a large comprehensive academy in Hackney, in a role very similar to my previous role, leading and developing a classics department whilst also having an enhanced role with the Sixth Form. I was the Senior Tutor there, preparing prospective early applicants (Oxbridge, Dentistry, Medical and Veterinary students) over the
After five years teaching at Mossbourne, the birth of our first daughter and a house move, I became a classics teacher at St Augustine’s Priory, an independent Catholic girls’ school in Ealing: a big change from my previous experience in comprehensives. However, it also feels extremely familiar: the desire to get students to love the classical world and to help them identify their future pathways remain both the motivations for, and the satisfactions of, my job. Following the birth of our second daughter, I have returned to work as Head of the
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Sixth Form, which also brings an added level of strategic challenge to my role, which I am thoroughly enjoying. Working with young adults often doesn’t feel like work. The dynamism and determination of girls in breaking through into so many different spheres is particularly special – girls in STEM, in politics, in industry. It is a very exciting time to be a part of girls’ education.
ticked the box for me in terms of keeping my options open.
Regardless of the location, the school, or the context, one thing stands out above all others as to why I teach: my days are spent standing in front of interesting young people, talking to them about (hopefully) interesting things and finding out very interesting things about them. No two students, lessons or days are the same and I hope that in ten years’ time, that will still be the case.
Since qualifying as a teacher, I have taught in a range of schools. My first two years in Hounslow were tough and eye-opening, however, I soon fell in love with the busy days, challenges and many rewards you get from working with children. I have since gone on to work at Knightsbridge School where I have been a teacher for the last four years.
However, I didn’t expect that I would love teaching as much as I do. This has given me the confidence to remain in teaching and to broaden my horizons as much as possible within the sector.
Emily Taylor (2012) Early years I have always wanted to be an early years’ teacher, due to the excitement of working with young children as they learn through their play and explore the world around them. So, after leaving Tudor Hall, I went on
Antonia Harington (2010) Teach First Like many of my friends at Durham, I had no idea what I wanted to do after I left university. All I knew was that I wanted to do something fun and interesting that would keep my options open in the future. That’s when I came across Teach First. I saw an advert for Teach First and was really taken by the prospect of learning a new skill that I might enjoy and that would, perhaps, be a good stepping stone into a future career. I saw that many people go on from Teach First into other careers beyond teaching, which
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to study Early Childhood Studies at the University of Gloucestershire. During these three years I completed many placements and, upon leaving, I was delighted to be offered my first teaching position in the Nursery at Carrdus School. I feel Carrdus really captures the individual child - they are all unique - and the school itself has a strong emphasis on outdoor learning, which is something I feel very passionate about. The five years I have spent teaching at Carrdus have been truly lovely and I will always be grateful for my time here. I made the almost impossible decision to leave at the end of this school year, as I feel it’s time for me to explore the world of teaching a little more: I never took a gap year and hope to spend some time volunteering in Africa and working in New Zealand, learning more about their education system. I still want to make a difference, inspire and encourage young people, and hope to have the opportunity to support children less fortunate than myself from all areas of the world in the next chapter of my teaching career.
Eliza Lindsay (2015) Secondary Science I decided to become a teacher at the start of my third year at university. With graduation looming, I was weighing up a few options of what to do next, teaching being one of them. I had always enjoyed tutoring friends at school and working with young people, so ultimately teaching felt like the perfect option. My degree was in Marine Biology and I chose to teach at secondary level so that I could specialise in biology (in primary you teach by year group, rather than by subject). When training as a science teacher, you actually train to teach all three sciences, so for the past year I have been teaching biology, physics, and chemistry in a large state school in Newcastle. It has certainly been challenging at times, but working in this school has given me such a broad experience, from teaching physics (sorry Mr Robinson!), to behaviour management (my largest class is twentynine students), and being a Year 10 form teacher. One highlight from this year was when British fashion model Adwoa Aboah (whose mother is OT Camilla Aboah (Lowther, 1977)) came to speak at school about mental health, something that is so important to me. It was amazing seeing the students engage with it and open up about their struggles. However, things like that are rather exceptional. On a day-to-day basis, there really is nothing better than the lightbulb moment when a student who has been struggling finally understands what you are explaining to them. I feel lucky to work in a role where I am able to support students working towards their GCSEs and A Levels – I remember the pressure of those years myself. R
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HRH The Duchess of Cornwall opens
Tudor’s Teaching Centre On 29th January we were honoured to welcome HRH The Duchess of Cornwall to Tudor Hall to formally open the £6.2 million Teaching Centre and meet pupils, staff and the wider Tudor community. 12 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
The Teaching Centre is the largest and most ambitious addition to Tudor facilities to date and sits at the heart of the school site. It houses teaching space for the core subjects of mathematics and English, as well as specialist facilities for the creative arts subjects of textiles, ceramics, food & nutrition and photography, and will be used by every girl from Todd (Year 7) to Upper Sixth.
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Her Royal Highness had the opportunity to meet pupils from Tudor Hall, Carrdus School, Tudor Hall’s prep school, and William Morris Primary School on Bretch Hill, Tudor Hall’s partner school. After meeting the pupils, Her Royal Highness formally opened the Teaching Centre by cutting a ribbon made specially for the occasion by the school’s textiles department. She then toured the building meeting teaching staff and pupils as they enjoyed lessons in the new teaching space. It has been a long journey from the inception of the Teaching Centre to its completion, and the building would not have been possible without the huge generosity of our community. In total £2.29 million has been raised through philanthropic giving and we are grateful to all our donors. The official opening was a fitting way to mark the end of this journey. R
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TUDOR INTRODUCES…
Emma Bell, Deputy Head
Emma joined Tudor after holding positions as Head of Sixth Form at Stratford Girls’ Grammar School and Higher Education and Careers Adviser at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. 16 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
Time at Tudor: Joined September 2019 Reasons for becoming a teacher: I never imagined I would become a teacher, but having started my career in Strategy Consulting, I found myself drawn to working with young people after helping out with a charity in my spare time. After three years I gave in and made the leap, enrolling on a PGCE course, as the volunteering was a lot more fun than my day job! Best and worst memory from my own school days: I always loved learning, but think I drove my teachers mad with my incessant questioning and tendency to go off on a tangent. I try to bring that same enthusiastic curiosity to my teaching, with a little more rigour. A particularly fond memory of school is of the song I wrote with a friend to mark the end of our UVI – to the tune of Bye Bye Miss American Pie – of course only the edited version was ever made public, but my friends and I still reminisce about the original words! What makes Tudor different: I never thought I would find a school that really enables girls to have it all – outstanding academic success and a genuine focus on wider well-being. Many schools claim to provide this, but at Tudor we are really doing it and it is so exciting.
I never thought I would find a school that really enables girls to have it all – outstanding academics and a genuine focus on wider well-being.
Best advice for girls: I always encourage girls to feel the fear and do it anyway! I have a plaque in my office that gives the best advice I can think of for those who worry about what others may think, or the risks of taking that leap: “There is freedom waiting for you, On the breezes of the sky, And you ask “What if I fall?” Oh but my darling, What if you fly?” ― Erin Hanson
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TUDOR INTRODUCES‌
Kate Simlett, Deputy Head (Pastoral)
Kate joined Tudor from Moreton Hall School where she had spent twelve years in the roles of Director of Wellbeing & Senior Housemistress and Director of Sport & Housemistress. Time at Tudor: Joined January 2019 Reasons for becoming a teacher: I played a lot of sport when I was young and started coaching while I was still at school. I loved working with young people and after finishing University in South Africa, I got a job teaching PE at a boarding school in Scotland and have never looked back.
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Best and worst memory from my own school days: My best memories were representing my school at sport and starting a hiking club while at school. I swam and played hockey both for the school and nationally, making lifelong friends through this. The hiking club took my friends and I all over South Africa and contributed to some of my best life experiences.
Tudor is a school that very much focuses on the individual and allows each girl to thrive in her own way. It is about community and being encouraged to find your voice. runs so strongly through the whole community and is very much the backbone of the success of the girls. From the moment you join Tudor, you know you are part of something unique. Most rewarding part of my role: Knowing that the girls feel they are supported, cared for and have someone in school who they can turn to in a time of need. Hopes for the future: The world is changing at a fast rate every day and it is my hope that we can prepare the girls to respond and be resilient in the face of these changes. A few of my favourite things: Watching sport, swimming in the sea and chocolate...closely followed by listening to music from musicals and a good South African Pinotage.
My worst memory of school was having to take part in gymnastic competitions – and having to wear a leotard. What makes Tudor different: Tudor is a school that very much focuses on the individual and allows each girl to thrive in her own way. It is about community and being encouraged to find your voice. The pastoral care
Best advice for girls: Be true to yourself: get to know who you are and be that person. Make sure you are always kind to yourself and to others. Do the best you can, no matter what that is. Try not to compare yourself to those around you but judge yourself on how hard you have worked. I believe that you can achieve whatever it is you want to achieve as long as you are prepared to work hard, get back up when you are knocked down and ask for help when you need it. Always remember that no matter what, the sun will always rise. R
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TUDOR INTRODUCES…
Debbie Chism, Chair of Governors
Debbie Chism, Tudor parent, awardwinning Family Lawyer, and our new Chair of Governors offers her perspective on Tudor from 2020 onwards Named 2019’s ‘Family Lawyer of the Year’ by Spear’s Magazine, Debbie’s leading national reputation in family law has been built on over twenty years’ experience advising high net worth men and women. Recent achievements include a landmark Court of Appeal judgment secured by Debbie for her client, which has been widely celebrated as a victory for women and for gender equality. She successfully
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fought to overturn the previous court ruling which had failed to provide a wife with an equitable divorce settlement, and in so doing has stopped the ‘floodgates opening’ for women losing out on what they are entitled to in divorces. Having first become interested in studying Law after watching the film The Paper Chase, whilst studying for her A Levels at the girls’ grammar school she attended
in Kingston upon Thames, Debbie went on to read Law at Mansfield College, Oxford. After completing her Law degree, she studied at Law School and progressed to become an articled clerk in London. Her decision to work in family law was inspired by her mentor, Blanche Lucas, one of the top family lawyers of her time and a real character. “Blanche was an extraordinary woman: bright, strong, glamorous and a true feminist,” Debbie reflects fondly. “For me, family law was the most interesting area to specialise in, because it is all about people and helping them to find solutions.”
free to explore and experience things from a very supportive pastoral community with lovely friendships. The single-sex environment is still important for teenage girls as we are not in a place where we can be complacent about girls’ place in society, or the world of work. Girls need the strongest platform from which to go out into the world and, for me, there is no better base for this than Tudor. I am committed to ensuring that our girls continue to flourish, continue to have the opportunity to develop to their full potential, and that, as a school, Tudor continues to be ready for the challenges ahead in the single-sex independent sector. I think this Michelle Obama quote sums up how I feel about my role as a Governor, ‘When you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.’” R
I am committed to ensuring that our girls continue to flourish, continue to have the opportunity to develop to their full potential, and that, as a school, Tudor continues to be ready for the challenges ahead...
Debbie has been a partner at her current law firm, Stewarts, since 2009 when she and a colleague were taken on to build the firm’s family law team. Over the past decade they have expanded from two or three lawyers, to a very well respected, forty-strong team, which Debbie describes as “full of energy”. Somewhat unusually for a Law Firm, Stewarts actively supports a range of charities: “It’s a nice culture to work in – we try to give something back,” Debbie says.
Debbie with her daughter.
So, what made this high-flying city lawyer choose Tudor Hall for her own daughter’s education? What inspired her to commit her time to serve on the school’s Governing Body? And, as the new Chair of Governors, what is her vision for the future of Tudor? “Tudor Hall creates a wonderfully warm and cosy first impression, but the reality is it’s an incredibly dynamic environment. The School’s relatively small size and its focus on the individual ensures that no one gets overlooked and girls really are supported to reach their full potential, whatever sphere interests them. There are so many opportunities for girls to achieve and to give back and nothing to hold them back or dent their confidence: they are
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DEGREE RESULTS Lucy Ayres (2015) graduated from the University of Brighton with a BA Hons in Graphic Design (2:1). Laura Batt (2015) graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA in Fine Art and History of Art (2:1). Daisy Beor-Roberts (2015) graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a BSc Hons in Real Estate Management (2:1). She is now working as a property manager. Tabitha Brooke (2014) graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MA in Classics (2:1). She is now working on a graduate scheme at C. Hoare & Co.
Emily Dunlop (2015) graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a BSc Hons in Real Estate Management (2:1). She is now working as a property manager. Akanksha Goyal (2014) graduated from Newcastle University with an MBBS in Medicine.
Emily Hockaday (2015) graduated from the University of Bristol with a BA in Philosophy (2:1). Serena Holbech (2015) graduated from Durham University with a BA Hons in Music (2:1).
Isobel Green (2013) graduated from the Royal Agricultural University with a First Class BSc Hons in Real Estate.
Emily Lees-Millais (2015) graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a First Class MA Hons in French and Spanish. She is now working as a Civil Servant.
Alice Collard (2015) graduated from Newcastle University with a BA Hons in Politics (2:1).
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Alice Harley (2015) graduated from the University of Oxford with a First Class BA Hons in Anthropology and Archaeology.
Olivia Lochmuller (2015) graduated from the Arts University, Bournemouth with a BA Hons in Visual Communication. She is now working in London as a Graphic Designer.
Alexandra Lockyer (2015) graduated from the University of Exeter with a First Class BEng Hons in Civil Engineering. She is now working in Cyber Security for the MOD.
Lucinda Mills (2016) graduated from the University of Bristol with a BA Hons in History (2:1). She is now studying at Oxford Brookes for the Graduate Diploma in Law.
Chelsea Monye (2016) graduated from the University of Birmingham with a Law LLB Hons (2:1) . She is currently studying for a Masters in Entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge.
Jessica Perrett (2015) graduated from Newcastle University with a First Class BA Hons in Economics & Business Management.
Amy Wang (2016) graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc Hons in Economics (2:1). She is now doing a Masters Degree in Hong Kong.
Adelaide Wickham (2015) graduated from Newcastle University with a BSc Hons in Marine Biology (2:1).
Alexandra Petterson (2015) graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BSc Hons in Physics (2:1). Imogen Reid (2015) graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a BA Hons in Business and Marketing Management (2:1). Florence Taylor (2010) graduated from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA in Creative Producing.
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Boys enjoying the outdoor aparatus.
TUDOR GAP SCHOLARSHIP Lottie Giles (2019) (left) and Charlotte English (2019) were the trailblazers for an exciting new programme that will now be open to Tudor’s UVI leavers each year. Girls who plan to take a gap year after their A Levels will be able to apply to work as a Teaching Assistant at Carrdus for one term. The Gap Scholarship is funded by Tudor Hall and offers a great opportunity for new OTs to learn valuable skills, enhance their CV and earn some money during their gap year. Lottie Giles worked as the Year 4 Classroom Assistant at Carrdus during the 2019 autumn term before leaving to continue her gap year adventures. Alice (left), a Year 4 pupil at Carrdus, talks to Lottie about her time at the School. 24 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
Why did you choose to spend some of your gap year working at Carrdus? Everybody was starting to think about applying for jobs to earn money to fund their gap year and one of my friends was applying for a job as a Teaching Assistant at her old school in London. I thought this was such a nice thing to do, and after having such amazingly happy memories of my own primary school days at Carrdus, the idea of going back and working there was a dream. I was so grateful for my years there and felt that I wanted to give something back, so I took a complete shot in the dark and sent an email to enquire. Much to my surprise they took the idea
on board! Tudor had been such a huge chapter in my life, so it was wonderful to know I was going on to Carrdus and definitely made the transition from school easier. What was your favourite thing about being our Teaching Assistant? I loved being the Year 4 Teaching Assistant – the children had such a great energy and were amazing
fun to be around. I think one of my favourite memories was when I had to look after the class for the day on my own; I think they all knew I found it a bit scary. At the end of the day all the girls clapped for me saying “you did so well”, which I thought was adorable. I loved getting to know each girl better on an individual basis as the term progressed and felt we became a great team.
Supervising outdoor learning with Ms Price and Ms Tate-Davies.
Lottie in a school play at Carrdus.
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Was it easier or harder than you thought it would be? I loved it a lot more than I initially thought I would. I made stronger bonds and became invested in the children so much more than I had expected. I found the transition from student to teacher harder than I had anticipated – it felt weird to suddenly be allowed in the staffroom and to have children calling me ‘Miss Giles’. I sometimes found it hard not to laugh at things children said, which for me were just so hilarious, or felt like a bit of a hypocrite being the one to tell other people not to shout out or chat! I couldn’t bring myself to call teachers who had previously taught me by their first name, it even felt wrong calling teachers who had never taught me before by their first name! In the classroom itself, standing up in front of the class and being in charge was a bit daunting at first, but I soon got used to it - and enjoyed it so much. There was such great support from other teachers which really helped. The Year 4 maths was also VERY hard...
Year 4 girls enjoying autumn sun at Carrdus.
What did you learn from the experience? To be honest there are countless things I have learnt from working at Carrdus. It has helped me significantly to grow up since leaving Sixth Form (I wasn’t always the best behaved student at Tudor, so I think a few of my friends and teachers were slightly surprised that I was going to be a Teaching Assistant). Not only did I have my first experience of having to get to work on time, but I also had responsibility. Responsibility that went from marking homework, to going through maths with someone
Charlotte English working with a pupil during her Gap Scholarship at Carrdus.
and making sure they understood it, to helping resolve an argument over dens at break time. For the first time ever in my life, I would have groups of children coming up to me and expecting me to have all the answers. And I had to somehow make sure that I did have all the answers! For this reason it gave me a lot more self-confidence and helped me to believe in myself. My term at Carrdus has given me so much, I will never forget it and will be forever grateful for the experience. Would you recommend it to other people? I genuinely couldn’t recommend it enough. You feel part of such a special, close-knit community and it was a perfect way to finish my school chapter. It will always have such a special place in my heart and I hope to come back to see everyone very soon. When are you coming back to visit us? Missing you all so much! I promise I will come and visit as soon as I can – can’t wait!! R
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OT PREFECT Sophie LVI As my final year at Tudor drew near, I began to wonder how I would stay in contact with the School once I left. Then, at the start of the spring term, I was made OT Perfect. I wasn’t quite sure what the role would entail at first, but I have really enjoyed it and now realise that even though I will be leaving Tudor in a year’s time, I will still be part of the Tudor community. In my role as OT Prefect, I have been to a number of events where I have had the opportunity to meet a range of OTs and compare Tudor stories with them. It is clear that although the School has changed and evolved over the years, the girls are still the same: kind, confident, and outgoing. I am now certain that I will find it easy to stay in contact with my old school friends, not
If I want to talk to somebody about whether a particular university might suit me, need careers advice, or need help finding work experience, it is reassuring to know that there is a network of OTs willing to offer support. Image: Sophie (second left) on location at OT London Drinks event with Tudor Prefect Team.
only through our own get togethers, but also by taking part in OT events hosted by the School. And if I want to talk to somebody about whether a particular university might suit me, need careers advice, or need help finding work experience, it is reassuring to know that there is a network of OTs willing to offer support. I have learnt so much in my role as OT Prefect and met some incredibly talented and lovely people, who have inspired me to reach for what I am most passionate about. R
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Habeo ut Dem I have that I may give
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One of the positive things that many hope will come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is a change from the ‘me first’ culture that has seemed increasingly prevalent in our society. For Tudorians, giving back is not a novel concept, it is an integral part of who we are and what we do. As a school, we are immensely proud of the role our OT community is playing in rising to the challenges created by the pandemic, using their skills - whatever these may be - to make a positive difference. Some work in a profession where they are playing a vital role, some are giving their time and utilising their skills in volunteer roles and others are quietly supporting family, friends, neighbours and their wider communities in any way they can.
OTs WORKING IN THE NHS ‘The battle against Coronavirus’ is a commonly used phrase, but just how does working in the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic compare to working on the front line in a conflict zone? OT Harriet Charles-Jones (Turner, 1997) served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Afghanistan as part of her ten year career as a Medical Officer in the British Army. Now practising as a GP in Oxfordshire, she shares her insights into the current pandemic. “In military operations, we usually knew the enemy well and had the benefit of months of pre-deployment training and standard operating procedures to follow. I would be involved in the planning and would know what to expect before heading out on patrol. Obviously with the current situation, there are a lot of unknowns.
Here we celebrate just some of the wonderful contributions OTs are making:
Harriet on patrol in Helmand after treating a local. OP HERRICK, Afghanistan 2007.
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The biggest challenge has been a clinical one – learning how to manage conditions under these changed circumstances. As well as learning about a whole new virus, there has been a multitude of guidance published about safe practice within the restrictions; a great deal of new information to assimilate.
For me, the biggest challenge has been a clinical one - learning how to manage conditions under these changed circumstances. As well as learning about a whole new virus, there has been a multitude of guidance published about safe practice within the restrictions; a great deal of new information to assimilate. Dealing with patients’ anxieties, both about COVID-19 directly and the implications to their pre-existing health concerns, can be difficult. However, that’s also a privilege that comes with being a GP.
Oxfordshire has been behind the curve in terms of Covid cases, so we have had a little more time to prepare. At the surgery I work in, my colleagues and I quickly changed the way we work and divided up the workforce to ensure our ‘at risk’ staff were not exposed to the virus and could, therefore, keep practising, albeit remotely. Whilst telephone triage and video Harriet working at her GP clinic.
consultations already formed part of my practice before the pandemic, the NHS generally had been a bit behind with adopting technology, so the current situation has moved things along exponentially. Nearly all of my consultations with patients are undertaken either by video or telephone at the moment, only donning PPE for those that I really do need to see in person. This is as much to protect them from me as vice versa. We also have a team of Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Health Care Assistants carrying out home visits for shielding patients, but everything takes a little longer with all the extra precautionary measures. The practice has been contributing staff to one of the local Covid Assessment, Liaison and Monitoring (CALM) hubs for ‘red patients’ with Covid symptoms who need assessing further, but not necessarily admitting to hospital. This means that we can keep the surgery ‘clean’. I shall be taking my turn next week. With the ongoing threat from COVID-19 and the current lockdown restrictions, my emerging fear is that nonCovid patients in the community who need our help are not presenting. The response to the ‘stay home, protect the NHS’ message has been so well adhered to, which is great, but it leaves some people who need a doctor fearful of getting in touch. I worry for the delayed referrals and the lapse in care of chronic conditions. I think the repercussions will be huge. We are keen for everyone to understand that the NHS is still ‘open for business’ and that there are measures in place to minimise the risks to non-Covid patients across medical settings. Please use your GP if you need to.”
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OT Victoria Bradford (2007), shares her experiences of working as a doctor in NHS Lothian, Scotland, at this challenging time. “This is one of the most interesting and terrifying times of any doctor’s career. I am currently training to be a GP, having previously worked in A&E for five years and spent time working in ITU (Intensive Care) as well. I’m working in a practice at the moment, but am waiting to find out whether I will be moved from my practice back to the hospital if they become short-staffed there. Our practice work is very different right now, as most of my consultations are by telephone and I’m finding it tough to fully portray compassion over the phone, or dressed head-to-toe in PPE.
more responsibility for their own health. There is a lot more respect for healthcare workers generally and the clapping every Thursday feels really emotional. Things are tough – it’s emotionally and physically draining and unfortunately the reality is that this doesn’t end with lockdown for us – the NHS is going to be dealing with the repercussions of COVID-19 for years. We are going to have to pick up the operations that were cancelled, the procedures that were pushed back and the people who have been left with serious physical or mental health problems because of COVID-19. This is just stage one.
It has been great to see how people have been respecting the emergency services. A&E attendances in Scotland are at a record low; people are taking a lot
It is lovely to see how people are currently respecting the NHS and keeping our time clear for those who really need us, but it would be even more fantastic if this change could last.”
Having recently graduated from medical school, OT Akanksha Goyal (2014) shares her experiences of working on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic.
looking into getting tablets from charity money to enable family members to see their loved ones while they are in hospital.
“I am currently working as a junior doctor on a coronavirus ward. It has, of course, been challenging dealing with this new situation. The patients are deteriorating so quickly and it is very difficult to manage when we do not have an effective treatment available. It often feels that there is little that we can do except watch and wait. The toughest part for me is speaking to the relatives; due to the visiting restrictions we are having to have really difficult conversations over the phone, often having to break bad news to them when they haven’t been able to see their relatives during their admission. Our Trust is
There has been a lot of illness among the healthcare team as well - unfortunately I tested positive for the virus last week. Thankfully I had a mild illness and am now fully recovered. However, we are learning more and more about the disease every day. The team spirit on the ward is incredible and we appreciate the support from the public so much. At my hospital we have had everything from Easter eggs to headbands donated and we are so grateful for it!”
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FOOD4HEROES OTs SUPPORTING THE NHS Food4Heroes aims to ensure that all NHS staff are able to access healthy, nutritious and delicious meals whilst dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. This national initiative, co-founded by OT parent John Brownhill and his sister Amanda Guest, works with local caterers and restaurants in each region to provide homemade meals to local NHS hospitals and trusts that require them. When professional caterer Hester Sale (Irvine, 1984), who runs ‘Hester’s Cookery Club’ at Tudor, was approached to lead the Food4Heroes initiative in Oxfordshire, she rose to the challenge. Harriet Granville (Former Deputy Head and President of the OTA Committee) played a key role in sourcing a kitchen for her at Cherrington Village Hall, arriving with a bottle of Prosecco & Limoncello as a mid-morning energy boost. During the first week, she provided 240 meals to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, but demand quickly escalated and she was in need of a larger kitchen. So, over the Easter holidays, Tudor’s teaching kitchens – which form part of the fabulous new Teaching Centre facilities – became a Food4Heroes catering hub, providing 150 meals a day to the Horton Hospital, Banbury (Monday to Friday) and 240 meals a day to the John Radcliffe (Saturday and Sunday). Currently furloughed from her job in London, where she usually works as an interior designer, Connie Sale (2016) has not only been working alongside her mother, Hester, in the kitchen, she has been using her organisational skills to co-ordinate the whole
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operation in Oxfordshire. “I was concerned about how I was going to fill this time, but within four days of being home from London, I was busy and working my normal hours. I am so grateful to be able to be playing a small part in this crisis; it has been an invaluable experience, and one I hope to look back on with pride.” Once Hester and Connie have written shopping lists and sourced food for 1,290 meals, the food is prepared, packed and delivered by a team of OT volunteer families and others. They work on a set day each week to reduce the risk of infection, and thankfully Tudor’s new teaching kitchen is large enough to maintain social distancing. In addition to cooking delicious meals, such as beef casserole, for which the beef has been kindly donated by OT parent Jonathan Jameson,
Far left: Hester and daughter Connie. Above: Camilla, Emma and Starzie Brown. Left: Nurses receiving the food prepared at Tudor. Right: Trays of delicious food ready to distribute.
volunteers package and label the meals. They are then placed in cool boxes and delivered to the hospital by Bob, one of Tudor’s terrific team of minibus drivers, ably supported by Tudor parent volunteers. In addition to Hester’s daughters, Connie and Grace (UVI), the amazing team of Food4Heroes volunteers include OTs Emma Brown (Dickinson, 1985) and her daughters Camilla (2011) and Starzie (2013); Georgina McGrath (Aldous, 1984) and her daughter Lottie (2017); Ku Webber (McGregor, 1976) and her daughters Flora (2014) and Millie Scott (2016); Melissa Barlow (Kimpton, 1985) and her daughter Lola (LVI); Harriet Baring (Irvine, 1985); Polly Shillington (Kennedy, 1989); Harriet Bracey (2014) and her father Mark; Bonny Miller
(2014); Imy Skinner (2015); Katie Ross (2016) and her father Jez; Harriet Miesegaes (2016) and her family; Tilly Rigby (2016); Cicely Best (2016); Lucy Chetwode (2016); Rosie Radford (2017) and her sister Lily; Eliza Lord (2018); Isobel Pougatch (2018), her sister Saskia and their family; Rose Lord (2018) and her sister Anna (UVI); and Kitty Chetwode (2019). “I cannot thank the volunteers enough for their enthusiastic support,” Hester reflects. “I could not have set any of this up without Connie and the amazing help from all involved. It’s wonderful when a time like this brings all OTs back together (no one has changed!). The brave NHS staff are being fed so well by us all, which is the least we can do to help and it is an honour to give back to the amazing hospitals in some way.” R www.food4heroes.co.uk/regions#south-east Insta: @food4heroes1 @hesterscookeryclub
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OT Profile Emma Willis
(1981) MBE Emma Willis’s name is synonymous with the luxury Jermyn Street brand which is a favourite amongst Hollywood A-listers and royalty alike. But this glamourous lady is much more than the name behind a luxury fashion label. Passionate about British manufacturing, she was awarded an MBE for her services to entrepreneurship and received the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award in recognition of her voluntary work. Now, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she has turned the cutting tables and sewing machines in her historic Gloucester workshop to the production of protective scrubs and gowns for NHS hospital staff. 34 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
Time and again, this celebrated businesswoman has used her success to give something back in a way that perfectly embodies Tudor’s motto, Habeo ut Dem (I have that I may give). But for Emma, success didn’t happen overnight; she worked hard to achieve it. She shares her journey to finding a career that ‘ticks all the boxes’ and her advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs. “I have been interested in fashion since I was very young: I drew a lot of purple bell-bottoms and platform shoes during my time at Tudor,” Emma laughs. But her first love had always been the arts, so after her A Levels she
read English at UCL, before transferring to The Slade to study fine art. She enjoyed a busy social life in London and spent much of her free time singing in a band. “Places at The Slade were highly prized,” Emma explains, “and I started to realise that spending a lot of time alone drawing wasn’t for me and I didn't deserve my place there.” So, she left her course and took a temporary job selling clothes door-to-door in order to pay the rent whilst doing portraits by commission and joining a band as a singer-songwriter. The men’s shirts were the clothes she liked the best and she moved from selling these door-to-door to selling by appointment at businesses in
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London – something she found came naturally. At this stage, selling shirts was nothing more than an effective way to make money so that she could fund the creative things she loved: writing, drawing and singing. After a few years spent working for a shirt company which had head-hunted her to establish a direct-selling arm of their business, Emma decided to set up on her own. She discovered a small, bespoke shirt factory in London, which she took on fifty-fifty with a business partner. Having worked on the sales side, this was her first real introduction to the world of manufacturing, and she enjoyed getting to know the people on the production side, gaining an appreciation of the skills and craftsmanship of those making clothes behind the scenes. “Cutters, pattern makers and sewers are so important – it’s not just about the glamour of designers,” Emma says with conviction. The industry was in decline, as the majority of big British brands were moving their production overseas at the time. All of the employees in Emma’s factory were in their fifties and their skills were becoming a dying art. Emma was passionate about keeping shirt-making skills alive in the UK and in 1989, aged just twenty-six, created the brand Emma Willis Handmade Shirts. In order to keep the factory in business, Emma needed to generate sales for her bespoke handmade shirts, no mean feat in the height of a recession. “Getting your contacts right and building your customer base are key,” she stresses. “Then, if you have a good product – something of quality, that you are proud of and that you love yourself – and good sales ability, you have every chance of success.” Her intuitive understanding of her customers helped her business to succeed in the challenging economic environment. She would visit them to measure and take orders, a service which made their lives easier. Referrals played an important part in expanding her customer base; when she sold shirts to someone, she would offer them a 10% discount if they gave her the details of ten friends who might be interested. “Dare to ask”, Emma advises, “but ask in the right way: a successful person is a busy person, you don’t want to be a burden to them.”
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The recession in the UK inspired Emma to apply this approach to selling shirts in New York as well, making contacts through existing clients, then travelling across the pond to measure and take orders. In 1999, Emma opened her sumptuous Jermyn Street shop. Until that point, she had been playing the long game: she enjoyed the challenge, freedom and constant learning process of running her own business, but it was not the career of her dreams. Drawing, singing and writing hadn’t paid the bills; selling shirts had. Opening her shop now offered the perfect outlet for her creativity as well as her business acumen. She designed the shop with fellow OT Penelope Chilvers (1980) to reflect the beauty and craftmanship of her handmade shirts: with a handcrafted shop front,
bespoke cabinetry, antique furniture, fine art and fresh flowers. Her flair for visual art can be seen throughout the shop, “fabrics, textures, weaves and designs all need to work well together and be pleasing to the eye,” she explains. And, more recently, she has taken the same pleasure in developing online and social media spaces for her business, which are equally inviting and visually appealing. Emma is now in a career she absolutely loves and which ‘ticks all the boxes’, but she is keen to share with other aspiring entrepreneurs her belief that she could not have got there without the early years and the hard slog. “Understanding all areas of a business helps you value everyone and their role,” she says. “You earn respect too, if the path has been challenging and you have clearly worked hard to create a business and jobs for others.”
Emma is now in a career she absolutely loves and which ‘ticks all the boxes’, but she is keen to share with other aspiring entrepreneurs her belief that she could not have got there without the early years and the hard slog. “Understanding all areas of a business helps you value everyone and their role,”
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Far from resting on her Laurels, Emma has used her hard-earned success to give something back. As well as setting up training schemes to provide career opportunities for young people - allowing them to ‘earn as they learn’ and, hopefully, keeping traditional English shirt making techniques alive - Emma founded the charity Style for Soldiers. This came about as a result of an interview she heard on Radio 4 in 2007, at the height of the casualties coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, in which two servicemen who had suffered serious injuries talked about losing their jobs as a result and with that their friends, career and their identity. Emma was deeply moved and wanted to do something to help. Realising that one thing it was in her power to do was make a shirt to fit anyone, she began visiting patients at the Military Rehabilitation Hospital every two months, measuring them for a bespoke shirt as a gift of thanks for their bravery and sacrifice. Emma also designed a black ebony walking stick for those that needed one, with a silver collar engraved with regiment and initials. She understood that smart, well-fitting clothing, which ex-servicemen and women could wear for interviews and formal occasions, could help with confidence and building a
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new sense of identity. She approached various English brands to assist; M&S and Reiss have now given over 750 suits, Russell & Bromley over 250 shoes, Burberry 200 trench coats and Lock & Co Hatters 100s of hats. At the moment Emma’s company is making and donating 100s of scrubs for the NHS, to which Benedict Cumberbatch gave £11,000 with the message, “Love my shirts but even more the scrubs you are making.” It is gratifying that this driven and compassionate lady has received the recognition she deserves both for her contribution to British business and for her charitable initiatives: an inspiration for Tudor girls, past and present. R
Right; Nurses of Luton Hospital wearing the scrubs made by Emma's company. Below: A few of the ex-servicemen who've been helped by Emma's initiative. Bottom left: HRH The Prince of Wales visiting Emma's Gloucester workshop.
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PATRICIA HINMAN (Milford, 1939)
Our oldest OT talks Tudor in the 1930s On a glorious afternoon in mid-autumn, Patricia and her daughter, Jane, joined a group of current staff and prefects for lunch at Tudor. The girls were keen to compare Patricia’s experiences at the School almost nine decades earlier with their own. 40 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
Previous page: Patricia doing war work. Left: Patricia (right), with June (centre) and her mother (left) in summer 1938. Below: School picnic 1937.
Patricia joined Tudor with her older sister, June, in 1933. The School was in a beautiful Georgian house in Chislehurst, Kent, which was only a small village at that time. It was her first experience of going away to school. “We settled in quite well, on the whole. Even though we all came from different backgrounds, and were of various ages, it didn’t seem to matter; we all got on very well together. It helped that Tudor was run by jolly nice teachers, who everybody liked – we gave all of them peculiar names,” Patricia recalls fondly. At the end of the spring term 1935, Mrs Kelleher, the Headmistress, had to close Tudor Hall School due to lack of numbers. “Our families were sent a letter with options for alternative schools – one was near Folkestone, I remember, and Nesta Inglis’s school, Southlands, was at Harrow-on-the-Hill. A number of girls went, I believe, to Folkestone but, by sheer luck, my mother chose to send us to Nesta’s.” During the first school holiday at Southlands, Patricia’s mother was away on a cruise, so she and her sister had to stay at the School during the break. They were taken for a day out shopping in Harrow, and she believes it was on this outing that she caught scarlet fever. “I remember feeling really sick and
being taken to the School Sick Bay. Scarlet fever was a highly contagious disease, so I ended up spending six weeks in Harrow-on-the-Hill Isolation Hospital.” By the time Patricia was well enough to go back to school, after the October half term, Tudor Hall had re-opened. Nesta Inglis had agreed to take over as
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Headmistress and had moved to Chislehurst, where she re-opened the School on 1st October. “It was lovely to be back at Tudor. And the School had grown – twenty of the pupils from Southlands had joined and the original Tudor girls all came back – so there were about thirty of us. We had a lovely common room with a radiogram, which was very jolly, and life just carried on rather happily. I remember the Lacrosse matches and the ‘team teas’. There was one school called Farringtons, who we didn’t much like playing, but their teas were the best! ‘Fitchy’, our school cook, also made beautiful cakes and we could choose our favourite for our birthdays. Sadly, mine was in August so I never got my own cake!” Nesta’s influence at Tudor was to make it a more progressive school, following The Dalton Plan – an educational model that aimed to tailor each student’s study to their interests and abilities and to promote independent learning. The girls were given a month’s
Right: Tudor teachers including Miss Fitch, Housekeeper (third from left) and Miss Inglis, Headmistress (far right).
worth of assignments at a time for each subject, which they kept in a satchel. Every morning they had ‘free time’ during which they could select an assignment from their satchel for the subject they were in the mood for, take it to the relevant subject classroom, work at a desk there and then choose another subject to move on to. Teachers stayed in subject rooms and provided help as required. “Either you were very good,
Nesta’s influence at Tudor was to make it a more progressive school, following The Dalton Plan - an educational model that aimed to tailor each student’s study to their interests and abilities and to promote independent learning. Left: The 1938 Lacrosse team. Patricia is far right, top row and her sister June is second from left, middle row. Right: 1938 School photograph. Patricia is second from left, middle row.
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or you would put off your least favourite subjects so that, at the end of the month, you would find you hadn’t completed all of your assignments.” Those who had finished their assignments at the right time were rewarded with a day out, often to go ice skating. “I only got to do it once, I think,” Patricia laughs, “I never quite got there with completing everything. I would often find that I was left with a backlog of French.” The next momentous event in Patricia’s time at Tudor was the School’s evacuation to Gloucestershire in September 1938. With war against Germany seeming increasingly likely, the whole School was evacuated in haste, with some girls, including Patricia, staying at The Bear Inn, Minchinhampton, and some at Prospect House,
Painswick. In the relative safety of the Gloucestershire countryside, the girls’ schoolwork continued pretty much as normal. The School only remained in this temporary accommodation for about a week because on 30th September 1938, the threat of war was allayed. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of the time, went to Germany to meet with Hitler in a last-ditch attempt to avoid, or at least delay, conflict. “I will always remember the picture of him coming down the steps of the aeroplane on his return to London, waving a piece of paper, saying ‘peace in our time’, and everybody cheering. I now understand that everybody was so happy because the Agreement he made bought the country time to build our war capability – aeroplanes, armaments, etc. We had almost nothing at the time.”
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After their brief spell in the Cotswolds, it was back to business as usual. “The School in Chislehurst was only thirty minutes by train from Charing Cross, so the girls were often taken to the West End and that autumn we were lucky enough to see Twelfth Night at The Old Vic, which was to be our school play that Christmas and the subject for our School Certificate the following year. I played the Sea Captain and I think that whole process is how I received a distinction in my English exam!” When the country ultimately did go to war in September 1939, Tudor was well prepared. It had already moved into its wartime location at Burnt Norton, near Chipping Campden, during the 1939 summer holiday. Patricia only had one term at Burnt Norton – she took her exams and was then old enough to leave. “My sister had joined the Wrens. I was too young to go into The Forces, but I managed to get some war work, thanks to a ‘semi’ boyfriend I had at the time, John James. He was very tall and slim and worked as an engineer, so undertook to get me a job testing
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bomb sites for Lancaster bombers at the factory where he was employed.” Not long afterwards, John joined up and so left the factory, but when Patricia was finally old enough to join up, she was told she could not leave because her job at the factory was integral to the war effort. She therefore had to spend the rest of the war working in the factory on the Great West Road, which was an hour’s bus ride from her home in Surrey. On one occasion the bombing came very close to her, “I remember sitting up in this great glass-fronted test room and suddenly the whole thing shook. We all looked at each other. It had completely flattened one of the factories down the road.” She did also have a close encounter with a doodlebug one evening when she was going home on the train, “It came flying alongside us, it was flying quite low and you could see all the flames coming out of the back. There were only a few people in the carriage, but we all sat very still until, eventually, the train turned a bend and parted company with the
device. A few moments later a loud bang signalled that the doodlebug had exploded. It was quite sobering – you think ‘that could have been me’”. As the war came to an end, so too did Patricia’s job in the factory. Her then-boyfriend, James Tilling, asked what she wanted to do next. He suggested that his aunt, Mabel Constanduros – a famous, slightly eccentric, playwright and comic actress – might have an opening for a secretary. “I only vaguely knew how to type and didn’t do shorthand, but she took me on anyway” Patricia tells us gleefully. “Mabel was a really lovely lady who lived in a fabulous house in Hans Crescent, behind Harrods; I used to go shopping for her in Harrods, go out for tea with her and drive her car around. I was just lucky to have got the job and I loved it!” What advice would Patricia have for Tudor girls today? “I wouldn’t have any, other than to be kind and happy” she says emphatically. “I think most girls nowadays have much more confidence, are far more worldly-wise at an earlier age and have a much broader general knowledge of life than we ever had in the 1930s.” R Left: The performance of Twelfth Night.
Below, left to right: Wendy Griffiths, Emilia LVI, Patricia Hinman and Jane Barnes, Patricia's daughter.
Above: Patricia (right) with her mother (centre) and sister (left).
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OTs ON STAGE AND SCREEN Looking back though the School archives, it is clear that drama has always been part of the fabric of Tudor. I have no doubt that the girls involved in the 1943 production of The Blue Bird (left) looked back on that experience in later life with the same fondness that the girls involved in the 2019 production of Oklahoma! will in years to come. The auditions, the friendships growing during rehearsals, the costumes, the smell of the paint on the newly-completed set, the adrenaline of opening night all combine to create a unique shared experience and the sense of achievement that comes from having created something together, bigger than ourselves. 46 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
JUSTINE STEPHENS, Head of Drama, comments: “From day one, my aim has been for the drama department at Tudor to ignite, and nurture, a passion for drama and theatre in the girls. Drama is no longer just about being in school productions, but involves the study and practical exploration of plays, developing a knowledge and understanding of theatre history and key practitioners, not to mention the building of confidence generated through acting and group work. At Tudor, drama provision is inclusive with plentiful opportunities for girls to master the practical elements of the subject, as well as the academic. There is a genuine buzz around our new Drama Studio in which the girls are encouraged to play and be creative, to immerse themselves in new worlds and walk in other people’s shoes. It has been wonderful to see girls’ confidence grow through the years as a result of their theatrical experiences, whether on the stage or behind the scenes. For a small department, we certainly punch above our weight and a significant number of girls have gone on to successfully audition for drama school or pursue degree courses at university. Girls have also participated in the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival, achieved entry to the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and enjoyed success in the National Theatre’s New Views Playwriting Competition. A great many memories for life are made here!”
Here is what a selection of OTs who have gone on to have careers on stage and screen have to say about their work and about their experiences at Tudor.
which co-incidentally was where Pat Caddick, my drama teacher at Tudor, had gone. My three years training there were amazing and it taught me a lot about the craft of acting, developing a character and the tools needed, but not necessarily much about surviving in the industry and how tough that would be.
TORI BUTLER-HART (2002) After leaving Tudor I went on to do a BA in Acting at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama,
Realistically not everyone will be lucky enough to leave drama school and land a great agent and a great job that propels them into stardom, no matter how much
they want it. I learnt that I’d have to create work for myself in order to survive in the industry and to begin to make my mark. I started a small theatre company soon after leaving drama school and through that I met my husband, Matt. We then together started Fizz and Ginger Films – that was ten years ago. Over the past decade we’ve made numerous short films, three feature films and co-produced and worked on several others. We’ve been lucky enough to have had actors such as Ian McKellen, Simon Callow, Conleth
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Emma King, Tori Butler-Hart and Alix Wilton-Regan in The Isle.
Hill and Felicity Montagu star in them and had support from people such as Stephen Fry and Derek Jacobi. In 2013 we were featured as part of Screen International’s ‘Stars of Tomorrow’. Our most recent feature film, The Isle, was one of the few British independent feature films of 2019 to be released theatrically in the US and later in the year was picked up by Lionsgate in the UK. It has sold well both on DVD and on demand and has enjoyed excellent reviews including Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian “modestly and intelligently conceived…hints of Shakespeare and classical Scots mythology.” In the past year we have been able to continue to build our profile, showcase me as an actress and my husband as a director. This has led us to be commissioned to write a book, Full to the brim with Fizz, Ginger and Fierce Determination: a modern guide to independent film making, which will be published in early 2021.
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It was so lovely to return to Tudor last September to talk to the girls about film making, writing, acting and producing. It brought back some wonderful memories of my time there, of being in Todd and being cast as one of the princes in the Sixth Form production of Richard III. Much to Emma Nichols’ and my delight, we got to act with the Upper Sixth, which was SO exciting and we got to miss hockey for rehearsals, which was even better! It was the first of many wonderful productions that I was lucky enough to be involved in at Tudor, learning so much from my fantastic teachers Victoria Ryan, Pat Caddick and Susie Lowe. I was also hugely passionate about dance and loved being involved in many of Bronwen Robinson’s gorgeous choreographies. One of my fondest memories of Tudor was playing Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, when I had the opportunity to combine my physical dance and movement skills with my acting. We had a huge tree made out of scaffolding and Pat
and Bronwen helped me to create a Puck who rather sinisterly glided and slithered up and down the tree, sometimes moving so slowly, it was barely noticeable. Next year we have two fantastic feature films that we’re taking into production: a comedy heist film with drag queens and a biopic about a leading figure in the entertainment industry. Every project we work on teaches us something new and brings with it different and exciting challenges. What I learnt at Tudor absolutely inspired me to be who I wanted to be and create my own work and, it turns out, the learning never ceases. www.fizzandgingerfilms.co.uk
Upon leaving college, I was accepted as a student – on a wage of £1 a week – at the Theatre Royal in York. The Company was directed by Donald Bodley and the cast included Jean Alexander (later to be known as Coronation Street’s Hilda Ogden), Jimmy Beck (from Dad’s Army), Jeffery Dench (brother to Judy), and Carol Coombe (stepmother to Antony Armstrong-Jones).
DEIDRE DIANE DEUCHAR FAWCETT (1957) I think that I caught the acting bug when encouraged by our dearly loved form teacher, Mrs Clothier. As a birthday present to her, I wrote and produced a play for us all to celebrate and my fate was sealed!
Next, a short stay at The Playhouse at Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, then off to Whitby for a summer season of repertory. On to Tyne Tees TV in a multitude of roles before London called. A fun job was as one of the Britvic Cherry B twins at the Ideal Homes Exhibition. I then learned to ice skate and joined the Tom Arnold production of the Walt Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Ice for a year’s tour of the Moss Empire Circuit culminating with the Royal Variety Performance for Her Majesty The Queen at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. Kenny Baker, our smallest dwarf, was later to star as R2-D2 in Star Wars. Then I got married and had two lovely daughters, Sue and SallyAnn, hung up my acting shoes and went on to publish a small book of poems called Siesta and later to breed and show St Bernard dogs.
Left: Deidre Deuchar Fawcett in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with Kenny Baker, later of Star Wars fame.
ROSE HOCKADAY (2011) I am a stage manager, which means I work on a production from the first day of rehearsals all the way through until the final show. It’s my job to make sure rehearsals run on time, and to work with the director and creative team to help bring to life their vision for the production. Another part of a stage manager’s job is prop sourcing; this means finding and buying props for a show within the required budget. Once we get into the venue, I run the technical and dress rehearsals. And then for the run I operate sound and lighting, as well as maintaining the costume, set and props, and looking after the actors’ well-being. I work freelance, which means I don’t work for a specific theatre but for individual shows, so this gives me the opportunity to work on a wide variety of productions. In the
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last year I have worked on shows ranging from Pops at Edinburgh Fringe, to Spiderfly and Wolfie at Theatre503, and next up is a UK tour of The Wizard of Oz. Another recent production I worked on - a modern adaptation of Antigone at the New Diorama Theatre, with just Antigone and her sister Ismene on stage – brought back a lot of memories from studying Antigone in GCSE drama at Tudor. I had played a member of the chorus, and the Messenger who delivers the news of Antigone’s death (spoiler alert). One of the things I most enjoyed about drama at Tudor was the fun we had choosing our costumes for the performances. We would get all the costume rails out from storage and sometimes Mrs Stephens would hire some from Wacky Wardrobes in Banbury. Then we would spend most of the lesson Stage design for Antigone at the New Diorama Theatre.
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Rose working behind the scenes at her computer.
trying on lots of different costumes. One of the most dramatic moments I can remember was in our UVI devised performance when we had to stop the show about five minutes in, as the laptop we were using for projection had stopped working. We took a short but tense and tearful break and then started the show again, this time without
any technical issues. This was a few years before the Drama Studio was built, so we performed in the gym and rehearsed mainly in the squash courts, which became the purposebuilt Drama Studio a couple of years after I left. Twitter: @rosehockaday Instagram: @rosehock
LIZZIE SIMONSEN (Jago, 1981) I had the complete delight of discovering the wonders of the English language through the inspirational teaching of Mr Elsley, Head of English at Tudor Hall during my time there. Through plays, public speaking competitions and regular homework learning Shakespeare sonnets, he kindled not only a love of literature in me, but also lit the spark of theatre, a passion which has stayed with me all my life. After Tudor Hall I studied Drama and Education at Exeter University, followed by several years of working with children and the performing arts around the world. This took me from street theatre in the slums of Delhi, orphanages in Vietnam, and a special school in North Devon, to Spain, Buckfast Abbey,
and mud huts with the Lou tribe in Western Kenya, eventually ending up working with unaccompanied minors in the Rwandan refugee camps in Northern Tanzania, where I met my husband. We settled in Kenya, where we brought up our thee boys, and I set up the Youth Theatre of Kenya A scene from ‘Cabbage Football’.
(YTK) along with a wonderful team of young people. This is a theatre company that offers the opportunity of theatrical excellence to all youth of Kenya, regardless of background. We work with young people from the slums together with the offspring of wealthy politicians, talent and passion being the common bond. Our productions all tell true stories of Kenya and East Africa, written and composed by the youth themselves; theatre giving a voice. One of our first musicals was a show called Kesho Amahoro which means ‘Peace Tomorrow’ in Rwandese and tells the true story of a group of children I worked with in the refugee camps of Tanzania. Over the years we have told the story of the building of the East African railway, the slave trade off Zanzibar, the untold story of the Kenyan involvement in World War One and corruption and land struggles in Nairobi.
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We are currently working on an environmental project with the Apple movie The Elephant Queen, using theatre as a tool for communities in Kenya to work with the issues of human/wildlife conflict in a search for peaceful, sustainable solutions. This last year we performed a particularly powerful production called Matumaini which means ‘hopes’ in Swahili. It tells the true story of youth in Korogocho slum in Nairobi, which is built around a huge dump site, and how their lives are transformed by a classical music programme called Ghetto Classics. This production has now won a place at the International Youth Arts Festival in Kingston UK, so it’s full-on planning and fundraising to take a cast of fifty from Kenya to the UK this summer! I hope Mr Elsley would have been proud. I know for sure that he would have smiled serenely, in his tweed jacket, and told me quite firmly that I was to make sure to spell the word ‘accommodation’ correctly! It was always the first word on the weekly spelling list and whether we were freezing in the cow sheds, or boiling in our green and white striped dresses, we would spell that word with the discipline he demanded. I have never forgotten that lesson – that the key to success in the performing arts is discipline, practice and an unrelenting pursuit of excellence. And of course …. bags of fun! Thank you Mr Elsley x
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shows such as Supernatural (CW) and The Magicians (Syfy) and has most recently starred as Kayleen in a production of Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries at The Cultch Theatre, Vancouver. In 2018 India visited Tudor to attend the first TA-DAs (Tudor Awards for Dramatic Art) where she received the inaugural award for ‘services to drama’ at the School.
INDIA SHAW-SMITH (2013) After leaving Tudor, India went on to study at The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) achieving a First Class BA (Hons) Degree in Professional Acting [2014-2017]. Since graduating she has performed one of the principal roles in a new production with The National Theatre of Scotland, Eddie & the Slumber Sisters, as well as appearing on ITV’s Vanity Fair. India has since moved to Canada where she has been working on TV India Shaw-Smith as Kayleen in ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ co-starring with Éanna O’Dowd as Doug.
India had a wonderful time at Tudor and attributes her continued passion and success to Mrs Stephens and Mr Christopher who always challenged and inspired her. Their tutelage also helped her gain a place in The National Youth Theatre in 2011 [to present]. Some of her favourite Tudor memories include playing the Lion in The Wizard of Oz, Fräulein Schneider in Cabaret and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. She would like to thank Miss Griffiths, Mrs Stephens, Mr Christopher, Mrs Lowe and all the department for their care and support during her time at Tudor and beyond.
FLORENCE TAYLOR (2010) Having completed my MA in Creative Producing, graduating with a First, I’m now working as a freelance producer, as Executive Director of Voices Across Time and as an Events Coordinator for The Royal British Legion - so life is pretty busy. I have two stand-out ‘dramatic’ memories from Tudor. The first is when we, the AS Drama students,
were waiting to go on to perform our final piece. It was a show about Antonin Artaud and it was quite a hard-hitting piece. We’d been off lessons rehearsing all day and had to wait until 9:30pm to perform it. Though we were frustrated at having to wait, we kept each other focused, which really added to the performance. We were a close group and that’s what I love about the outcome of performing with people. The second is the rehearsals and performances of The Wizard of Oz, which was in my final year, and I still perform with Jasmine Faulkner (Dorothy) today Now I run my own theatre company, Voices Across Time, with my two best friends. The company is four years old and we write original stories based around British History and weave in the music and songs of the time. Our latest show, Till The Boys Come Home, was awarded Arts Council Funding and was performed
for three nights in November at Banbury Town Hall. Alongside all of the shows we write and produce we also run an outreach project, which aims to bring theatre to those who might not necessarily be able to access it, looking especially at targeting the fall of arts in education and the threat of isolation in the Cherwell District area. For Till The Boys Come Home, we visited eight primary schools in and around Banbury with our interactive workshops which prepared them to then watch a special performance of the show in the venue at the end of the week. This year we will be writing a brand new show, which will tour in the autumn and also a revival of our 2018 hit Christmas Across Time, which will also tour in December. More information on Voices Across Time and how to get involved and support us can be found on our website: www.voicesacrosstime.com R
The cast, crew and creative team of Voices Across Time’s ‘Till The Boys Come Home’.
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Heather Holden-Brown (1968) interviews Caroline Sandon, owner of Burnt Norton (site of Tudor Hall School 1939–46) and author of the novel of the same name... 54 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
I met Caroline Sandon at her home, Burnt Norton, in the heart of the Cotswolds, on a sunny spring day earlier this year. On her lap was black and white cocker spaniel, Poppy, which seemed apt for a house which had welcomed Tudor Hall School from the outbreak of the Second World War until it moved to the newly acquired Wykham Park near Banbury in 1946. During a recent visit by OTs from that era, Caroline discovered that from their bedrooms at the top of the house the girls had witnessed the German air raid on Coventry on the night of 14th November, 1940, flames high in the sky which could be seen from over thirty miles away. And in the local church St James’s, in Chipping Campden, there is a shining altar rail and plaque as a lasting testament to Tudor’s time at Burnt Norton.
Caroline Sandon
Burnt Norton in Spring.
Caroline (Lady Harrowby) and I had much to discuss – present-day Tudor Hall (where Caroline’s daughter Clemmie Coram James (2005) and step-daughter Emily Ryder (2010) were educated, now a barrister and graphic designer respectively), T S Eliot’s Four Quartets, the first of which was inspired by the breathtaking beauty of Burnt Norton’s gardens and views, and Caroline’s first novel, published in 2013, Burnt Norton. Burnt Norton has been described by Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, as ‘a powerful story, beautifully told, of love and betrayal, greed and tragedy’. How right he is. It was a book I looked forward to getting back to at the end of every day. Caroline’s fascinated and assiduous research into the
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history of Burnt Norton brought to life the story of the Keyt family, who lived at ‘Norton House’ in the early eighteenth century. Tragedy had befallen the family and grief sent Sir William Keyt, MP for Warwick, to seek consolation in the arms of Molly Johnson, his wife’s maid. He built a splendid and costly house for Molly by the side of Norton House but in 1741, mad with lasting grief and drink, he set fire to himself and the
house – hence the renaming of the original manor house as Burnt Norton. Sir William’s son Thomas was also deeply in love with Molly and their son (whose existence remained unknown to him) was one of the children ‘adopted’ by the philanthropist Thomas Coram and brought up in London’s Foundling Hospital before being sent away to sea.
Burnt Norton has been described by Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, as ‘a powerful story, beautifully told, of love and betrayal, greed and tragedy’. How right he is.
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The Baroque temple built by Keyt still stands in Burnt Norton’s magnificent grounds, surrounded by trees which in 1738 cost Sir William the princely sum of 10,000 guineas. The poet T S Eliot first came to the house in 1934 with his friend Emily Hale who lived in Chipping Campden. As he came through the white wooden gate into its beautiful gardens, he was inspired to write in the first of his quartets:
"Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. ... Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. ... Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves I do not know. Other echoes Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow? Quick, said the bird, find them, find them, Round the corner. Through the first gate, Into our first world, shall we follow..."
R
Caroline’s most recent novel, A Paris Secret, written as Caroline Montague, is the story of Sophie Bernot, a heart surgeon training in troubled postwar Paris, determined to succeed in a man’s world. David Watson, an eminent retired heart surgeon who lives locally in Gloucestershire, was a great friend and support to Caroline in her research for A Paris Secret. www.carolinemontague.co.uk Left: Caroline Sandon in Burnt Norton grounds. Below: The two Burnt Norton dogs.
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INTERIOR V A
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By Antonia Stewart (Lazenby, 1994) 58 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
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Antonia Stewart
As I write we are in week four of lockdown. Never before have we spent so much uninterrupted time with our own families. With ourselves. In our own homes. Rumour has it that with time on our hands – and assuming that you don’t have small children – cupboards are being opened and sorted, bursting drawers and wardrobes are being culled and homes are being tidied and spring cleaned to within an inch of their lives! As part of this purge, we are analysing our personal spaces – making lists of things that need mending, furniture that needs replacing or reupholstering, artwork that needs buying. We are looking at our rooms and realising that they now have different purposes to the ones we originally set out for them: kitchens have become multi-hubs for cooking, socialising, art, homeschooling, mess…... spare bedrooms and dining rooms are now offices; children too – now older – are desperate to update their bedrooms and create their own spaces…….they too are tired of their old schemes.
..now with an additional eye to sustainability, perhaps more than ever we could consider supporting our marvellous British industries. Left: Oxfordshire decorative artist and muralist Sarah Blomfield (www.sarahblomfield.com) specialises in hand painted lampshades. This is a pair of beautiful lampshades that she made for me recently to go over the pool table in a Party Barn where she used Moroccan motifs around the base of the shades in blues to match the speed cloth on the table below.
Joinery detail from a library recently completed and installed by Worcestershire company Joinery Classics. The client requested a sloping bookrest to be able to stand to read.
As we start to think about executing our updates, now with an additional eye to sustainability, perhaps more than ever we could consider supporting our marvellous British industries that have taken such a beating recently through no fault of their own. ‘Buying British’ has always been close to my heart, partly because I am fascinated by manufacturing and love nothing more than a visit to a factory or a workshop to see how things are made, but also because where better to start than at home? The UK is at the forefront of design in all forms; furniture, textile and carpet manufacturers are using recycled raw materials, metals and plastics in their processes, carbon emissions are
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being off-set with tree-planting programmes, clients can now take virtual tours through their soon-to-be-built projects through VR goggles, Dyson fans can cool you with purified air free of gases, pollutants and allergens, Norman Foster has a team in his London office who are working out how to build on the Moon‌ And yet, underpinning all these latest advances is our rich (British) history of manufacture and, ironically, our desire to incorporate this into our homes too. Age-old industries are having a terrific resurgence as we look for truth and honesty in our interiors and we push back against cheap imports and question how much stuff we really need. Many of these skills are being practised in small studios throughout the countryside with artists and craftspeople producing individual items with love, rather than profit, at the heart of their manufacturing process.
I found a fabulous wallpaper from Welsh company Knowles and Christou (www. knowles-christou.com) that I wanted to use in the master bedroom in this Oxfordshire project to paper up and into the A frame ceiling. I wanted to keep the room light and bright and to make the most of the natural beam colour and the views out of the three windows. At that time, Knowles and Christou did not produce this paper in a green colour-way. However, as they print to order from their own workshop in Wales, we were able to develop a bespoke fresh apple green for our scheme. Now that green is one of their standard colours for this collection.
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Block printing, for example, has had a terrific resurgence in the last couple of years with artists such as Molly Mahon (www.mollymahon.com) bringing colour and pattern to us from the table in her garden studio in Sussex. Charlotte from CLJ Home (www.cljhome.com) brings a ‘refreshingly disruptive aesthetic’ into our homes supplying fabrics that she has hand dyed using non-toxic dyes and pigments. A look at her instagram finds her dyeing linens with bio waste: Nordic spruce pine cones, avocado or daffodils; the results are brilliant. Lewis & Wood (www.lewisandwood.co.uk) – based in Stroud, have spent twenty-five years bringing out dozens of beautiful wallpaper and fabric designs. Ros Byam Shaw, author of the book English Eccentric, describes their initial “determination to use British talent and manufacturing, and to be adventurous and experimental.” Despite being a small company, Lewis and Wood’s output is both distinctive and breathtakingly beautiful – the reason why I, and many other designers, come back to them again and again for our projects. Another favourite is Soane Britain (www.soane.co.uk) – a furniture, lighting and fabric company widely celebrated for the pieces it makes in the UK. Lulu Lytle, its co-founder, bravely rescued the country’s last remaining rattan workshop from administration in 2011 and, with her new designs, has now breathed life back into this industry and the skills of the experienced weavers who were about to be let go. CLJ Home’s “slow design” as she experiments dyeing with eucalyptus. The results were two very different colours: after 1 hour in the dye bath the fabric turned a soft pink, left overnight fabric from the same batch went a light mustard colour.
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We designed these hand painted wall tiles for a project in London with Douglas Watson Studio (www.douglaswatsonstudio.uk) – a small company, based near Henley-on-Thames, that produces fine, handmade contemporary and traditional ceramic tiles based on traditional techniques. Our client wanted to use blue and white tiles following a trip to Portugal where she had seen the vernacular antique azulejos – and so we incorporated this idea with game larder imagery.
There is one other thing recent events have thrown a spotlight on, the way in which all countries have become dependent on global supply chains. A 98% complete product manufactured in one country may be completely useless without that critical part from another. As the crisis continues and our economic situations worsen, major UK companies are already looking at ways to move manufacturing back 100% ‘on-shore’. Self-sufficiency will give companies more oversight and control of their production processes enabling them to tolerate bumps in the road much better whilst still being able to guarantee quality, delivery and price. And there it is. The nub of the argument. There is no question that – for now – buying British is more expensive: minimum wage, business rates, the tariffs on imports, the high costs on export – but, coming back to where I started, why not, why not buy one beautifully made British product that you will love and cherish and whose heritage you are proud of, rather than spending the same amount on several cheaper, less well made items that have come (fully or partially) from further afield? You will have fewer things but not less – and you will also have more space to live. Think what a premium we put on that. For me at least, the warm feeling that I get from knowing that I have supported not just a small company, but a British company too as I press ‘Add to Basket’ is all part of the shopping experience that I want. R
Antonia Stewart (Lazenby, 1994) runs a small but beautiful interior design studio in London. www.antoniastewart.com 0207 622 9539
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STYLING ssl ey o r C w o Will
with
Based in the Oxfordshire countryside, Willow Crossley (Corbett-Winder, 2001) is an author and floral stylist, creating wild and whimsical arrangements full of colour, pattern and movement. Where does your love of flowers come from? I grew up in a very rural area of Wales, surrounded by beautiful rolling hills and amazing landscapes. My mother is a brilliant gardener; she has grown plants and had flowers in the house for as long as I can remember, so I think it’s been ingrained in me from a very young age. How did you come to be a floral stylist? It wasn’t until ten years ago that I really started working with flowers and appreciating them as much as I do now. Whilst I was working on my second book, Inspire – The Art of Living with Nature, I created a whole section on flowers and when I was writing that, I just felt like I had struck gold; that was my ‘Eureka!’ moment. I had been working across fashion, writing, interiors,
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Left: Easter table setting for House & Garden.
Above: Willow Crossley
spreading myself so thin, and I knew I needed to refine what I was doing and focus on just one thing. I had this wake-up call and decided I was going to stop everything else and just focus on flowers.
course re-affirmed that this was what I wanted to do. It taught me the basics and I’ve learned everything else as I’ve gone along. Floristry is one of those things that the more you practise, the more you learn, the more you work with different people, the more your skills develop, so my advice for anyone wanting to work in this area would be to get as much experience as you can.
My husband gave me an intensive flower course at the Covent Garden Flower Academy and the week-long
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Can you give us some insight into what being a floral stylist entails? Everyone always perceives floristry as a lovely ‘airyfairy’ profession, but it is really physical and a large part of it involves working at a computer – something no one ever imagines. Top left: Willow decorating a wedding venue.
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Left: Staircase arrangement for Saloni.
Above: Staircase decorated for a party.
I do a lot of work with brands including Boden, Bamford, Chanel, Anthropologie, Saloni and Liz Earle. It’s quite varied, ranging from creating floral displays for their press days, to running floristry workshops for their teams. The fashion world is quite close-knit, so my work with brands has grown through word-ofmouth. I also provide flowers for a wide range of events, from large weddings to small family parties.
What is the most challenging design you have been asked to create? Probably the first installation I did at the prestigious floral art show competition ‘Chelsea in Bloom’. You install through the night and I created a carnival piece for the natural beauty brand Liz Earle, which I called ‘CarnivEarle’, and made huge horses out of flowers which had to last for a week in the hot May sun. Keeping all that alive was probably the most
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challenging, because you are playing with nature – you cannot fully control whether they live or die – and you are being judged. But it was also the most fun and an amazing experience. Last year we were awarded a gold medal from the RHS for an installation I had created for Boden, which I was delighted with.
What are your top tips for using summer flowers at home? l Condition your flowers well – let them have a long
drink before you start arranging with them. l Make sure they have enough water and keep them
What do you most enjoy about working with flowers? For me, being surrounded by beautiful flowers is life-enhancing: I find working with flowers incredibly uplifting and love the creativity of working with their different shapes, colours, textures and scents. Where do you take your inspiration from? My work is known for being wild and natural. I walk a lot in the woods and am very much inspired by nature, looking at how things grow and the shapes they create – that all informs my work. The power of nature to improve our creativity, wellness and happiness is something I have thought about a lot in the process of writing my latest book The Wild Journal – a year of nurturing yourself through nature. Where do you source your flowers? I am a huge advocate of working with the seasons and sourcing locally grown stems wherever possible. From May to October I use British flowers – I work with lots of lovely local growers, such as ‘The Land Gardeners’, near Banbury, who grow the most beautiful and fragrant blooms you can imagine. I use local suppliers as much as I can, but for really large-scale events I use flowers from Holland.
out of direct sunlight – they will go over very quickly if they are in a hot space, or if you let them dry out. l Try to buy seasonal and try to buy local. When
flowers are in season they are at their best – healthy and strong – and summer is the perfect time to find amazing locally-grown blooms. You are already a successful author and floral designer; what’s next for you? I would love to do television. I have been doing lots of tutorial videos online and these have been going really well, so television is my next goal. R www.willowcrossley.com Insta: @willowcrossleycreates
Willow is also the author of the beautiful lifestyle books The Art of Handmade Living, Inspire – The Art of Living with Nature, Flourish and The Wild Journal – a year of nurturing yourself through nature.
What are your favourite flowers of the summer season? Solomon’s seal, sweet peas, peonies and, for foliage, wild currant.
Left: The Boden store decorated for Chelsea In Bloom.
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Spectacular plants for dramatic autumn colour By Sparrow Morgan-Grenville (Sparrow, 1980) Sparrow Morgan-Grenville is an award-winning garden designer with a portfolio ranging from cottage gardens to manor houses, parks and estates, to private London gardens and luxury developments. She shares her tips for creating a display of autumn colour in your garden.
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Once the fresh greens of spring lead into summer, there is a perverse part of many of us that looks forward to the chill of autumn and long walks in the woods with the spectacular fiery hues of autumn leaves against clear cobalt skies. Many deciduous trees, shrubs and climbers finish the year in a blaze of fiery glory, but there are also colours from berries, fruit and hips as well as plenty of flowers to keep the garden interesting right into winter. Positioning is key for making the most of bright autumn tinted leaves – ideally they should be backlit by the sun for maximum effect.
Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ has unusual deep red, pink or white flowers on bare branches before the leaves appear. Once autumn arrives these deep purple heart-shaped leaves turn glorious shades of yellow. Crab apples with their colourful fruit and foliage look fabulous for much of the year. Malus ‘Evereste’ is a perfect, small conical shaped tree with pink buds opening to white flowers in spring and orangey red fruit that last well into the winter, long after the coloured autumn leaves fall.
My top suggestions for autumn interest and colour: Amelanchier lamarckii is a stunning small tree that earns its place in any garden, with starry, white blossom as the coppery young leaves appear in spring. In midsummer it is covered in deep red berries (loved by birds and edible to humans) which is followed by dramatic scarlet, crimson and purple leaf colour in the autumn. Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii ‘Profusion’ is also known as the Beauty Berry with good reason – stunning clusters of purple berries in mid-autumn overlap with the golden purple leaf colour and they stay on after the leaves drop. A bit of a one hit wonder – but what a hit!
Above: Malus ‘Evereste’, Crab apples. Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii ‘Profusion’, or Beauty Berry.
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Parthenocissus quinquefolia (or the more restrained P. henryana with pretty white markings on the leaves) will blaze shades of fiery crimson across the north facing side of a house in autumn. Ornamental grasses catch the late summer light and shiver in the breeze, adding movement to the garden in autumn, particularly planted with perennials such as the arching stems of Dierama, the gawky shaped but nevertheless elegant Verbena bonariensis or the late-flowering Agastache. Acers are hard to beat for glamorous autumn colour. Japanese maples such as A. palmatum ‘Sango – kaku’ (coral bark maple) and A. japonicum ‘Aconitifolium’ are reliably exciting even on a dull autumn day. The Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) does get tall – around 20m - but if you have space, the pinkish yellow leaves in the autumn also give off a delicious burnt caramel scent as they fall – walking through them sends up wafts of sweetness.
Above: Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum).
Top and top right: Parthenocissus quinquefolia.
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Right: Acer or Japanese maple.
Ornamental grasses catch the late summer light and shiver in the breeze, adding movement to the garden in autumn.
Above: Ornamental grasses.
Right: Ginkgo biloba.
Bottom right: A Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’.
Another stunning tree when seen against a blue sky is the Ginkgo biloba. The pretty fan-shaped leaves turn rich lemon and gold in the autumn. By contrast, the fruit smell foul, but luckily these are seldom produced in the UK. Several perennials and bulbs produce stunning colours right up to the first frosts – the best of these Dahlias, Salvias, Sedums (now Hylotelephiums) provide a range of vibrant colours. Ceratostigma plumbaginoides combines attractive pale blue flowers with deep red foliage in autumn and Colchicum autumnale with their brightly coloured flowers which open wide before their leaves, when the sun shines in autumn. R
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Horatio’s Garden
By Camilla Hiley (Weatherby, 1981)
A sanctuary of healing and hope I have been designing domestic gardens for more than ten years now, and projects vary enormously. If you are lucky, a project comes along that is very special. My involvement with the first ‘Horatio’s Garden’ at The Duke of Cornwall Spinal Centre in Salisbury was one such project. This garden was the brainchild of teenager Horatio Chapple. His father is a consultant spinal surgeon at the Unit, and Horatio was hoping to follow both his parents into Medicine. He realised the need for
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an outdoor space for the patients to visit whilst rehabilitating at the Centre. Sadly, Horatio was killed in a tragic accident in 2011. As a local garden designer, I was asked to advise the spinal surgeons, NHS staff and Horatio’s family on how to realise his vision. Building on an NHS site is very different to building a domestic garden and is fraught with complexities, from logistics to the make-up of the site. The first thing was
to identify the quality of the garden that was to be built, that would do justice to Horatio’s legacy, and then how, once it was built, it could be maintained for years to come. We realised that a well-known designer needed to be appointed to give the garden and the fundraising the best opportunity for publicity moving forward.
© Clive Nichols
Cleve West, a well-known name in the garden design world having won many awards, including ‘Best in Show’ at Chelsea Flower Show, was chosen to design the garden. He proved a perfect choice, as unbeknown to everyone, he had first-hand knowledge of what it was like to have a spinal injury having had a friend in the Centre fourteen years previously, when the only place to get some fresh air was the car park. I was asked to be Project Monitor, liaising with Cleve and the landscaping team, sourcing materials and plants, as well as reporting back to the family, the Board of Trustees and the NHS on budget and progress. We were working on a concept that had not been tested before but knew that it would make a huge difference to the patients’ recovery.
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Left: A patient at Salisbury benefitting from the garden environment.
Above left: Some of the volunteers who worked on the project.
Above: Camilla (far left) at the summer party held as a thank you to those who helped.
The garden opened in September 2012, and has gone on to receive many industry awards, as well as recently being voted ‘Nation’s Favourite Garden for the South West region’.
This has been the most rewarding project to have been involved with and, when I see how many patients have benefitted from Horatio’s vision, I am truly proud to have been part of it.
There are now four Horatio’s Gardens, each with a head gardener: Salisbury, Glasgow, Stoke Mandeville and Oswestry. A fifth is due to open in Stanmore later this year and fundraising for a garden in Cardiff commenced in 2019. The intention is to have a garden in all eleven spinal units in the UK. None of this is possible without the dedication of the volunteers who give their time tirelessly to fundraising, baking cakes, gardening, helping patients with hand therapy – such as planting seeds and bulbs – which are sold to raise money to provide funds to facilitate patient activities and maintain the garden. This has been the most rewarding project to have been involved with and, when I see how many patients have benefitted from Horatio’s vision, I am truly proud to have been part of it. R www.camillahileygardens.co.uk www.horatiosgarden.org.uk
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Mountain
By Hannah Timmons (Clayton, 2007)
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Hannah Timmons is the co-owner of Mountain Trek, an award-winning fitness retreat and health spa set in the lush nature of Canada. It allows guests to retreat from busy urban lifestyles and truly reconnect with themselves and with nature whilst ‘resetting’ their health. She shares her very personal story about how she came to live and work in this beautiful place.
In my late teens, after leaving Tudor to attend school in Paris, I turned to food to numb my fears and anxieties. But while calorie restriction felt like a means of taking control over a life that felt overwhelming, the lack of nutrition landed me in a dangerous health situation. Doctors warned, “Your organs are shutting down,” and that drove me to seek treatment for my disordered eating habits. Therapy gave me the tools I needed to manage stress without turning to food, and while years went by where I was seemingly living healthily, my body had taken a beating. In my twenties, I was told that I had the hormonal chemistry expected of someone nearing menopause. Devastated by being told I was ‘infertile’, I realized I had to make some more major lifestyle changes. I quit my city-based job and headed to the mountains, where I know I feel most grounded. I became a ski patroller at Squaw Valley, California, because skiing and helping others is what brings me joy, and it was while I was patrolling that I met my husband, Alex.
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Mountain Trek changed my life beyond what doctors thought possible. With Alex around, the thought of not being able to bear a child increasingly tormented me, and I turned to a retreat in British Columbia, Canada, called Mountain Trek to rebalance. During the program, I reflected on how little sleep I was getting, and how I was pushing my body too much in my new job on the marketing team at The North Face, which had its headquarters in San Francisco’s pressure cooker. Sure, I was healthy weight-wise, but I learned I actually wasn’t eating nutrient-richly. I maintained much of what I learned at Mountain Trek about stress management, sleep, nutrition, detox and fitness, and within four months, I was pregnant. Shocked, thrilled, and pregnant. Mountain Trek changed my life beyond what doctors thought possible.
Top left: Hannah with her family. Left: The sauna at the Mountain Trek retreat.
Above: One of the nutrionally balanced meals on offer.
Top: Sunset at the Lodge.
To add to the shock and thrill, the same day we learned I was pregnant, we were presented with the opportunity to become partial owners of the retreat. Alex, Eloise Scout (born August 2019) and I now live in Nelson, British Columbia, doing anything we can to help the program transform the lives of more people.
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To learn more about Mountain Trek and the experience that forever changed my life, please feel free to get in touch. I would love to see fellow Tudorians reset, reboot and refuel with us. R alex@mountaintrek.com www.mountaintrek.com
Top left: A yoga class at the retreat.
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Left: One of many mountain hikes.
Below: The outdoor spa at the lodge.
San Francisco An insider’s guide to
By Teresa Fitzherbert (2005)
When my husband first told me that he’d been offered a role at his company’s headquarters in San Francisco, I cried. It was October 2018, I was nine months pregnant and baking a carrot cake to pass the time. I think the technical term is ‘nesting’. The news wasn’t completely out of the blue – he’d been working in tech for a few years and we had talked excitingly about moving to Silicon Valley. What an adventure! I could go freelance, we could drink deactivated charcoal smoothies every day and do couples yoga. Yet I couldn’t help but weep into my cake’s cream cheese icing. Was my baby really going to have an American accent? I also had no idea what the West Coast was really like. I had an image of San Francisco as the technology
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capital of the world; a gleaming metropolis where everyone travelled by Segway and supermarkets scanned your retina for payment. I thought the high streets would be populated with luxury shops selling $300 leggings, Google glasses and boat-sized inflatable flamingos for all those wild pool parties in Napa. But as our new family of three emerged from the airport into the dazzling Californian sunshine, that was not the city we saw. In reality, San Francisco is like a sleepy seaside town. The air is fresh and smells of the ocean and the streets are filled with quirky independent bookstores, speciality cheese shops and curious taxidermy boutiques. It’s incredibly beautiful. The houses are painted in a kaleidoscope of ice cream colours – vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, mint – in a hodgepodge of styles. Many of the streets are so steep that cars have to park at ninety degrees to stop them rolling away. On the upside, the views are breathtaking and my postpartum bottom has never been tighter. On the downside, I once forgot to strap my daughter into her pram and she toppled face first onto the pavement.
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Above: One of the many steep streets. Below: Brightly coloured houses are common place.
Top far right: The Castro neighbourhood of San Francisco.
Bottom far right: One of the many murals in the Mission neighbourhood.
Every neighbourhood has a unique persona. Visit Nob Hill for some glitz and glamour, Mission for colourful murals and trendy cocktail bars or Northbeach for Italian delis, bursts of brilliant bougainvillea and flocks of lime-green parrots chattering in the trees. While we were searching for a permanent home, we stayed in the Castro, the gay Mecca of the United States where pavements are painted with rainbows
and nail salons have names like ‘Hand Job’. Miss Godfrey would be shocked. The restaurants here are some of the best in the country. Brunch is big (Plow, Brenda’s French Soul Food, Comstack, Tartine Manufactory, Outerlands) although they do dinner exceptionally well too (Foreign Cinema, Che Fico, Zuni Café, Liholiho Yacht Club).
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At weekends we like to wander to one of the city’s many farmers’ markets (The Ferry Building is our favourite) before taking a boat to Sausalito, the little fishing village over the Golden Gate Bridge, where you might spot sea lions, humpback whales and the occasional great white shark. We are a world away from London’s bustling streets and vibrant theatre scene but it’s a charming place full of character and contradictions. Despite the fact that Silicon Valley is leading the world into the 21st Century, everyone still pays by cheque. I tried to use contactless in a toyshop recently and the woman laughed at me, saying, “that technology hasn’t reached us here”. There are more billionaires per capita than anywhere else on the planet, but you are just as likely to bump into a nudist on the bus, naked but for a tiny knitted sock on his private parts.
Below: Sea Lions at the Pier 39 of San Francisco.
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Above right: Crissy Field.
Even the weather is conflicted. On many mornings we wake up to a city cloaked in fog only for it to burn off revealing a cerulean sky by midday.
Even the weather is conflicted. On many mornings we wake up to a city cloaked in fog only for it to burn off revealing a cerulean sky by midday. I love to spend my afternoons walking along Crissy Field, a park in the shadow of the Golden Gate. Kite surfers launch themselves over the waves between its vermillion towers and there are tidal pools teaming with heron, sandpipers and brown pelican. At that time of day, the light bathes everything in a warm, subtly saturated glow. It’s mysteriously nostalgic, like wandering through a faded photograph; a place frozen in time. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Yes, you won’t be disappointed if you visit San Francisco. When you do, please pop in and say ‘hello’. I’ll bake a cake… probably not carrot. R
Right: Teresa with her daughter.
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Trying to make healthier food choices? Delight your taste buds and feel great with the latest offerings from our
Foodies TUDOR
Asparagus, broad bean & ricotta spring tart with watercress dressing by Anna BurgesLumsden (1995) Food Stylist, Food Writer & recipe developer This is a zingy puff pastry tart adorned with creamy ricotta, flavoured with lemon zest, grated parmesan, mint and basil and topped with griddled asparagus, broad beans and watercress. It celebrates all the joys of the new season of British spring
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vegetables. Tiny broad beans add a lovely pop of colour. Make sure you remove their outer skins to reveal the beautiful green jewels below as this will ensure they are perfectly tender. English asparagus has a very short season, so it is definitely worth snapping it up when you see it, as it has a highly superior flavour to the imported asparagus available the rest of the year. It is best to use all-butter puff pastry if you can find it. It is a little more expensive than the ordinary puff pastry, but it has a lovely buttery flavour so it is worth the investment. This can be made as one large tart perfect for a relaxed al fresco lunch or as six individual ones for a starter. Makes 6 individual tarts or one large one to serve 6 Takes 30 minutes to make Takes 15 minutes to cook INGREDIENTS FOR THE TART 375g ready rolled all butter puff pastry 200g thin asparagus, ends trimmed 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 100g crème fraîche 2 tbsp finely grated parmesan 1 lemon, finely grated zest 200g ricotta small handful basil leaves, finely chopped 2 sprigs fresh mint, leaves picked, finely chopped 150g baby broad beans small handful watercress, to decorate 30g feta, crumbled
INGREDIENTS FOR THE DRESSING 30g watercress leaves, stalks removed 3 tbsp olive oil squeeze lemon juice METHOD l Preheat the oven to 200°C. l L ine a flat baking sheet with
baking paper and unroll the puff pastry sheet. (It is easier if you remove the pastry from the fridge 10 minutes before you need to use it, otherwise it might crack a little when you unroll it.) l C ut the pastry sheet into six evenly-sized rectangles. Then score a border around each pastry sheet with a small sharp knife. Be careful not to go all the way through. Then prick inside the strip along the edge with a fork. This will stop the middle rising as much and the edge will rise up to make a border to hold your filling in. l P lace the pastry cases into the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden and well risen. If you are baking one whole tart it will take about 15 minutes until it is golden. Remove from the oven and press inside the border with your fingers to create a border. l W hile the pastry is cooking, trim the asparagus discarding any woody ends, cut the stalks in half, drizzle the asparagus in olive oil, salt and pepper. Place a griddle pan over a high heat and, once hot, add the asparagus and griddle for 3-4 minutes or until just tender. Remove from the heat and set aside.
l M ix together the crème fraîche,
ricotta, finely grated zest of half a lemon and parmesan, chopped herbs and season well to taste. Spread this mixture over the base of the tart cases. Divide the griddled asparagus between the cases. l B lanch the broad beans in a pan of boiling salted water for 2 minutes, drain, refresh in iced water and slip off the skins with your fingertips to reveal the bright green jewels beneath. Scatter the broad beans over the top of the tarts. l P lace the watercress into a blender with 3 tbsp olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper and blitz until smooth. l D ecorate the top of the tarts with a few sprigs of watercress, scatter over the crumbled feta and just before serving drizzle with the watercress dressing. www.linkedin.com/in/ annaburgeslumsden anna@annabl.com
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Roasted red cabbage steaks with salsa verde and butternut squash by Starzie Brown (2013) Chef, private catering available on weekends. For anyone wanting to eat a little more sustainably, thickly sliced wedges of roasted cabbage make a satisfying meat-free dinner – served on a bed of butternut squash mash and topped with a fresh and fragrant salsa verde. Serves 4 INGREDIENTS FOR THE RED CABBAGE 1 red cabbage cut into 4 x 2cm thick ‘steaks’ 2 cloves garlic 2 tbsp olive oil 1 pinch sea salt Freshly ground black pepper
12 tbsp good quality olive oil Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper INGREDIENTS FOR THE BUTTERNUT SQUASH 1 butternut squash 1 pinch sea salt 1 tbsp olive oil 100g butter INGREDIENTS FOR THE GARNISH Seeds from half a pomegranate Toasted hazelnuts, lightly crushed METHOD l H eat the oven to 180°C fan/gas
mark 6. l S tart by cutting the butternut
INGREDIENTS FOR THE SALSA VERDE 1 bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley 1 bunch of fresh basil 1/2 bunch fresh mint 1 banana shallot, finely diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp capers, roughly chopped 1 red chilli, finely diced 2 tbsp red wine vinegar 6 anchovy fillets (optional) 1 tbsp Dijon mustard (optional)
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squash in half, scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard. Drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. Place onto a baking sheet face side up, and roast for 40-45 minutes until the flesh is tender enough to mash. l S lice the red cabbage into 4 x 2cm thick ‘steaks’ and put onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bash 2 cloves of garlic (leaving the skin on), drizzle with
2 tbsp olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put into the oven for 40 minutes, turning over halfway through. If it starts to colour too much, cover with foil. l I f you have a food processor, put all the ingredients for the salsa verde inside and pulse until it has a dropping consistency. If you don’t have a food processor, finely chop the herbs, mince the garlic (or use a garlic crusher), and finely dice the shallot. Put into a mixing bowl. Add the chilli, anchovies and capers. Mix together, and slowly add the oil. Add the red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Trust your palate! Add a touch of lemon juice for some sharpness, but not too much as it will discolour the herbs. l S mash out the seeds from half a pomegranate and set aside. Toast the hazelnuts for 4–5 minutes. Cool, and crush lightly between some baking paper with a rolling pin. l M elt the butter in a pan or in the microwave. Remove the butternut squash from the oven.
When it is cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and put into a bowl. Making sure the flesh is still warm, slowly start pouring in the butter, a little bit at a time and mash with a potato masher. You might not need all the butter.
Season and cover the bowl with cling film. l R emove the red cabbage steaks from the oven, pierce with a skewer, making sure it goes through easily so you know it is cooked. Drizzle over the salsa
verde, and top with the hazelnuts and pomegranate. Serve with butternut squash mash. 07769 846922 starziebrown@gmail.com
Asian Chicken Soup by Hester Sale (Irvine, 1984) Caterer, B&B owner and founder of ‘Hester’s Cookery Club’ at Tudor. This is a favourite recipe from ‘Hester’s Cookery Club’ – both the Tudor girls and I love it. We cook fresh, seasonal quick recipes, which I know the girls will be able to make for themselves wherever their lives take them. The ingredients in this recipe are fresh and light, give plenty of colour, and combine to create a healthy dish. You can even make your own stock left over from a roast chicken for extra nutrients. Add as little or as much chilli as you like and play around with the quantities of specific ingredients to suit your tastes; that’s the joy of this type of recipe. Serves 4
INGREDIENTS 1.4 ltr fresh chicken stock 300g cooked chicken pieces 1 large bunch coriander 250g fine French beans 3 lime leaves Juice and zest of 1 lime 1 x 10cm piece of root ginger 2 red chillies 1 tbsp fish sauce 2 lemon grass stalks 2 large handful beansprouts 150g chestnut mushrooms 2 tbsp rice vinegar basil leaves for garnish METHOD
l P ut stock, coriander stalks, lime
leaves, half chilli and lemon grass into a pan. Leave to infuse over a medium heat. Steam French beans until al dente, then refresh. Chop chicken, slice mushrooms, zest and juice the lime. l A dd the chicken, mushrooms and beans to the stock, bring to simmer. l A dd the rice vinegar, lime zest and juice, fish sauce and adjust the flavour to your taste. l S erve in four large soup bowls, garnished with beansprouts, coriander leaves, remaining sliced chilli and fresh basil.
l C hop the coriander stalks, set
leaves aside. Peel and finely slice ginger. Finely dice lemon grass and slice 1 chilli.
www.minehillhouse.co.uk insta: hesterscookeryclub
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Just the tonic Lucy Warhurst (2006)
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With the low- and no-alcohol trend sweeping the drinks’ market, we talk to Lucy Warhurst (2006), founder of Percival & Co, an independent drinks’ brand creating premium, lightly alcoholic drinks – low in sugar, gently sparkling and utterly reinvigorating. I started working on Percival and Co., a new independent drinks brand, whilst bored and disillusioned by my career in finance. During this time, I became very aware of a gap in the market for high quality drinks with lower alcohol content. After long days in the office I would be gasping for something refreshing and reinvigorating, but without the high alcohol, calorie and sugar content of the usual offerings. It seemed crazy to me that my healthconscious friends and colleagues would spend huge amounts of money on gym membership and organic food, obsess over calorie counting and completing 10,000 steps a day, and then destroy all their virtuous doings in the pub without any consideration as to the units of alcohol and hidden calories they were consuming. The phenomenon of ‘healthy living’ has dominated almost all other food and beverage markets with natural, low calorie and low sugar
products becoming extremely popular. Why had this barely entered the alcoholic drinks industry?
Below: Lucy Warhurst
I set out to work on creating a drink that would tick all of these boxes. Growing up on a farm, where we had religiously made elderflower cordial every summer, the hedgerows seemed like the right place to start. My drinks have come a long way since I started making them all in my kitchen to sell at music festivals and other events. Although delicious, I often felt like I was playing a starring role in The Hurt Locker, with bottles blowing up at random due to a problematic fermentation process, and others having to be detonated in my kitchen to avoid explosion at a later date. However, the recipes are now perfected, and the result is our range of botanically infused Hard Tonics. These have an ABV of 4%, are low in calories and sugar, gluten-free, vegan friendly and made from 100% natural ingredients for sophisticated and distinctively British drinks without compromise. We launched in July 2018 and have since secured listings at Selfridges, Daylesford, Ocado, 31 Dover, Soho House and more. R www.percivalandco.com/shop lucy@percivalandco.com
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Y K S r I e t H a
W
W e Th f Life o
By Peter Mayne (Head of English, 1991–2007) So what else would an ex Tudor Head of English and housemaster do after retiring but go and edit a definitive whisky guide? Well, apart from teaching for eight years at a girls’ grammar school and tutoring in London. Perhaps ‘Teachers’ and ‘Bells’ (puns fully intended) had something to do with it. Whisky, in Gaelic uisge beatha, ‘water of life’ has been distilled in Scotland for hundreds of years. Some will claim that it was introduced by monks, but the process could have been chanced upon by Highland farmers – you take your pick. However, we don’t have a written record until 1494 in the Scottish Exchequer Rolls. It is essentially fermented grain mash, which may be malted (if it is, don’t call it Scotch – just Malt or Whisky). The grain may be barley, corn, rye or wheat depending on where it was made and whisky is distilled on every continent except Antarctica. To be whisky it must have spent at least three years in cask before bottling.
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To many people whisky is purely ‘Scotch’ – a Scottish product. They may be dimly aware that there are different styles – smoky peat infused island products. They may know that some whiskies are called Single Malt, made from malted barley. Others ‘Blends’. Oh yes, and the Irish, they make whisky too don’t they? But they add an ‘e’ as in whiskey. Bourbon, is that whisk(e)y? Absolutely it is. And, to tell the truth, until recently the above ‘facts’ were about all I knew. Am I anything approaching an expert now? No – absolutely not. So why are you writing this article Mayne? Good question. A few years ago, I began editing the annual Whisky Bible for a friend, Jim Murray, his book being described by The Sunday Times as “regarded by connoisseurs as the most authoritative whisky guide.” Almost certainly Jim has visited more distilleries than anyone living, tastes and reviews 1,250 different whiskies each year, 20,000 in total as of 2019 and records his (very) personal opinion of each in his book. But this is not an article about him, just some of the things I have picked up along the way of our association.
The first time I was given a lesson in tasting it was twenty minutes before a drop was allowed to pass my lips. Now that kind of restraint is not for everyone, certainly not for me, but learning to appreciate the style, the craft and the skill that has gone into producing a particular whisky does deserve more than a brief ‘down the hatch’. After all, you wouldn’t do that even with the least pretentious wine. Equally, despite David Beckham’s ‘Make your own rules’ advertisement, urging you to add as much water or ice as you like to your whisky, I tend to think that such advice needs careful thought. How much water? Where from? Containing what sort of minerals? It occurs to me that if a producer is happy for you to drown their product then either we are talking a fairly indifferent blend or an organisation more interested in profit than quality. Yes, profit is vital – I get that – but so is the product. However, that is just my very personal opinion and if you like your drink that way, who am I to deny anyone their personal preference or, for that matter, a company a legitimate marketing strategy?
a glass of Slovakian whisky during the first half (light and delicate) and a glass of Penderyn Welsh whisky during the second – well two really because Wales won.
As mentioned earlier, whisky is distilled worldwide, India, Australia, Japan, Taiwan among many others. All produce some excellent whiskies. I remember fondly watching with Jim as Wales played Slovakia at football. We enjoyed
My favourite? That’s impossible to say as I have about 19,800 to catch up with my employer and obviously will never do so, but I am looking forward to putting a slight dent in his lead. R
You will have realised by now that this is not by any means a scholarly article, but an attempt to show that I have enjoyed my limited education in the subject. Whisky was made to drink though nowadays it is increasingly being bought and sold, sometimes for huge prices, as an investment. That seems a shame to me as an awful lot of really enjoyable spirit will never get to fulfil its proper function. But again, who am I to judge?
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OTs today
Emma Bray (Hamilton-Russell, 1986)
Molly Arbuthnott (2005)
A friend once told me that you have to use your imagination, or you lose it. I took these words of wisdom quite literally and embarked on an MA in Children’s Literature at Glasgow University in September and have been busy working on two new books too, Oscar the London Cat and Angus the Robin. The school and library visits haven’t stopped either (well, at least until Corona hit!) and have seen Oscar and his growing family touring up and down the country and, I hope, bringing lots of pleasure to people old and young. Oscar the Ferry Cat has just received a Bronze award from the Wishing Shelf Book Awards Illustrations by Agnes Treherne.
(thanks largely to Agnes Treherne’s exquisite illustrations) which was a happy boost in otherwise more tricky times. Do look up: www.mollyarbuthnott.co.uk to keep up to date with Oscar and his friends’ adventures.
During her time at Tudor (1979-86), Emma used to enjoy running in the annual cross-country event as well as taking part in both the 800m and 1500m during athletic competitions – always in her fetching green gym knickers! This year, at the grand old age of 51, she has been fortunate enough to have been offered a place to run in the London Marathon for the first time, supporting the charity Hospice UK: a wonderful cause which helps hospices all around the country. After losing a relative last year, who was given wonderful care at the Isabel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City, she is delighted to be raising money for such an amazing charity. Having started training she is realising that she is no longer a teenager at Tudor, but she is gradually building up the miles and is determined to make the most of this amazing opportunity. justgiving.com/fundraising/ emma-bray12
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Georgina Brewer (2002)
She is now living in Hong Kong covering Asia, the coronavirus and the protests but still managing to enjoy her new adventure with her mask, husband and dog, Olive. Twitter: @Georginatvprod
Camilla Brown (2011)
A history lover, it’s no surprise perhaps that Georgina went on to become a journalist. She studied History at Durham. After a few fascinating years on the management trainee scheme at L’Oreal, Georgina decided to study for a postgraduate degree in Television Journalism at City University in London.
Camilla started her buying career on the Fenwick Graduate Scheme in 2016. Beginning on the shop floor, she swiftly climbed the ranks into the Buying Office where she took on the buyership of Cookshop. After a shock restructure, she decided to pursue her dream of fashion buying and managed to move across to the Menswear side of the business where she now buys men’s denim. The glamorous side of buying includes travelling to Fashion Weeks in New
York, Copenhagen and Florence, viewing the collections six months in advance and meeting lots of exciting people; the not-sochic side is endless analysis of spreadsheets, tough negotiations and an even tougher retail climate. Having said that, it’s the dream career – who wouldn’t want to spend their days surrounded by beautiful clothes?
She joined ITV News as a producer and after following the royals – covering multiple tours, weddings, babies and jubilees – she was appointed International Affairs Producer. She was in Brussels for the Brexit referendum and nominated for a BAFTA for her coverage of the migrant crisis. From there she was appointed US Bureau Chief, and moved to Washington DC, where she covered the President Trump election campaign and first two years of his Presidency.
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Alice Clark (Irvine, 1993) Alice owned and managed The Willow Nursery in Clapham for years before opening The Willow On The Farm Nursery near Hook Norton. Set on her working farm, she has just been awarded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted - an immense achievement under new Ofsted inspection regulation. Passionate about the importance of early years learning on a child’s confidence and future mental wellbeing, Alice believes in reconnecting children to the outdoors and nature. At Forest School they explore the natural environment, learn to take risks safely, solve problems, develop imagination, meet the animals and go on tractor and trailer adventures! As Ofsted stated ‘the children benefit from a wonderful range of aweinspiring learning opportunities’.
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www.willowonthefarm.co.uk alice@willowonthefarm.co.uk 01608 730143
Alice Collard (2015)
Alice will be running in this year’s Edinburgh Marathon, both in memory of her father, Peter, and to raise money for Katharine House Hospice where he was looked after in his final weeks.
Alice’s father was diagnosed with composite lymphoma in late 2017, and succumbed to the disease in June 2019. Although his disease took a severe toll, both physically and mentally, Katharine House gave him as much comfort as possible during his time there, and in the last few months he found a new burst of energy, living his final days in full, as he had his entire life. Katharine House Hospice cares for almost 300 people at any one time in their homes, in care homes, at their hospice or in the hospital, and they are available to a population of 155,000 people in North Oxfordshire, South Northamptonshire and South Warwickshire. All their services are free of charge to patients, but the Hospice is facing significant budget deficits. www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ alice-collard
Annabel Eynon (Hunt, 2003)
Little Kitchen Social is not just the business name; it describes what they do. There is no formal class setting. Parents muck in with cooking and childcare while Annabel guides the cooking session and adds an extra pair of hands with the babies.
All the recipes use fresh, seasonal ingredients, so parents know exactly what is going into their child’s food. The recipes introduce little ones to new foods, textures and flavours, and provide parents with a friendly and safe environment in which to chat and ask questions. Healthy, home-cooked food for our babies is so important, but so is a mum’s mental wellbeing. Cooking for little ones can be a lonely and boring chore. Each session has a homely feel, like spending an afternoon in a friend’s kitchen and at the end, everyone leaves with plenty of food, the babies have socialised and all the parents can go home feeling positive and happy. www.littlekitchensocial.co.uk
Katharine Landale (1987)
Katharine founded Bold New World Recruitment after experiencing the challenges of returning to fulfilling flexible employment after a career break following a career in Investor Relations in the City. Bold New World offers fabulous, full time, part time, employed and charitable roles for experienced people: Returners, Rethinkers, Rebalancers and Retirers. Katharine only lists roles she’d like to apply for herself and works with a large number of exceptional employers who realise the potential of experienced candidates and understand the benefits of employing people with unrivalled experience who are reliable, work hard and bring a fresh perspective and diversity to a company. www.boldnewworld.co.uk
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Molly Nicholson (2016)
Helen Seymour-Smith (Cathie, 1993) Helen studied architecture in Glasgow and Paris, graduating in 1999. After a few years working on a variety of mostly Londonbased projects, ranging from large mixed-use developments to small refurbishments, she decided to focus on private houses and set up her own practice in the Cotswolds in 2005. The practice’s ambitious design approach and rigorous environmental ethos first came into the public eye when one of her projects, which was the first certified passivhaus in England, featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs. The project had been granted planning permission under what is now NPPF paragraph 79, a policy giving special dispensation for new houses
Molly is a singer, songwriter and producer from Oxford, she encompasses a minimalistic and adventurous style built upon haunting and ambient foundations. Over the years she’s been honing her craft by writing music in her bedroom and multiple studios. She enjoys practising covers of songs from her favourite artists which has undoubtably sculpted the way she approaches song writing and performing. Her performances are always unique and lively, with humour playing a big part.
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in open countryside which are considered to be “truly outstanding and ground-breaking” and to reflect “the highest standards in contemporary architecture”. Since then, the practice has specialised in paragraph 79 projects, which it undertakes alongside some domestic refurbishment and extension projects. www.seymoursmith.co.uk
Mary Browning, (Head of Art, 1961–74) Mary Browning taught art at Tudor Hall for thirteen years and inspired a generation of Tudorian artists. Still a practising artist, she works from her Northamptonshire home producing exquisite pastels of dogs and horses. During her career, which spans more than five decades, she has enjoyed many highlights, including exhibiting with The Society of Equestrian Artists and receiving several royal commissions for her work - including one for HM The Queen’s corgis. It is no accident that animal portraits have been her speciality: from the goldfinch she rescued and kept as a pet at Art College, to the horse she was gifted by a racehorse owner and cherished for many years, her natural empathy with and love of animals is clear. And this really helps her to capture the essence of the animals she draws so beautifully. R
Above: Mary with a Jack Russell painting and the subject. Right: Mary with her pet goldfinch. Below: A painting donated to the Italian Greyhound Rescue Charity.
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Former Staff
Wendy Griffiths, Headmistress, pays tribute to four long-standing staff members – Amanda Brauer, John Field, John Jackson and Clare Macro – who we said goodbye to at the end of the 2019 school year.
Amanda Brauer, PE Teacher and IIIs Housemistress (1999–2005), Registrar (2005–2008), PR Parents and Community (2008–2019) In recent years Amanda Brauer has become well-known among parents for her kindness, care and consideration, as the person who has welcomed them to everything from informal concerts to whole school musicals in her role as Parents and Community Coordinator. This is a position that has been a perfect match for her skill set: organised, efficient and
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totally charming. Parents regularly referred to ‘wonderful Amanda’ – an opinion shared by all who have worked alongside her over the last twenty years.
Todd netball or inducting senior girls into the fitness room. She simply wanted to pass on her enthusiasm for sport but also her belief in sport for life.
This role extended beyond parents’ events to the organisation and coordination of our Outreach Programme which aims to share Tudor facilities and staff expertise with the local community. Amanda liaised with primary and preparatory schools, Heads of Department at Tudor and our support staff in catering and maintenance. Every event was organised meticulously and feedback from pupils and visiting teachers was always hugely positive. Amanda has also been the school Registrar, another role which made good use of her excellent people skills, efficiency and ability to make everyone feel welcome. However, she was not convinced that this was for her and despite my pleading she changed direction.
To the girls she will be remembered by the phrase ‘Stuart can do it’ which was introduced into Tudor parlance during her time as Head of House. Amanda led Stuart House for twelve years and coordinated house activities for most of that time. We all became familiar with the sight of Amanda in her Stuart hoodie, clutching the Stuart mascot wearing a matching ensemble at all House events. We also remember how much she wanted them to win!
Amanda trained as a PE teacher and this remained a very important part of her time at Tudor despite her taking on many different roles. She was equally happy teaching
Her final job for the first half of the autumn term took her back to the beginning of her time at Tudor. She returned to the boarding team and was a temporary Deputy Housemistress in the Sixth Form. Amanda has always focused on the care of the girls, whether as a tutor of Todd and IIs in recent years, or in the boarding team, as Housemistress to the IIIs which is when I first met her. At that time she exuded a quiet confidence which
led to total trust from parents and I realised I had someone I needed to keep. What has characterised her service to Tudor beyond everything else is loyalty to the School. On many occasions I have asked Amanda to step up and help us when we have had a staffing difficulty and she has never let me down. From returning to Registrar when the post holder left with no notice, to taking on the LVI House for the 2019 autumn term, to standing in to travel to South Africa at short notice, she has only ever said yes. This is unique in my experience. We
are so sorry to lose Amanda but she was determined to do something
different. She goes with our sincere gratitude for all she has done.
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was passionate about poetry and was recognised for this outside education, regularly being invited to attend poetry events such as the TS Eliot Awards and the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival to comment online.
John Field, Head of English (2007–2016); Director of Digital Learning (2016–2019) John Field joined Tudor in September 2007 as Head of English. John already had wide-ranging experience in education when he arrived but what set him apart on first meeting was his extensive knowledge of English Literature, his love of teaching and his sharp suit. The latter accompanied with red braces characterised John’s twelve years at Tudor. John quickly earned the respect of the girls. His lessons were innovative and interesting. He always had time to give an individual the extra help needed to understand the nuances of a text or to grasp the intricacies of English grammar. He inspired the girls by living out his mantra ‘If you want to write, do it.’ He wrote for himself when he had time and always had something he was working on. He
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John quickly built an excellent reputation with colleagues. He was a go-to person on teaching and hugely creative in his use of IT in the classroom. It was therefore an obvious next step that he should join the leadership team as Director of Teaching and Learning in 2013, a role which he relished. However, it quickly became clear that he was spending a large proportion of his time focusing on IT in teaching and this, combined with the speed of change in the IT world, meant that his role became Director of Digital Learning in 2016. Within this role he informed the Governors not only on the daily challenges the School was facing but the longer-term issues that had to be addressed. This is an area where he has left a significant legacy.
Outside the main remit of his roles John took on many additional responsibilities. His interest in pushing the girls academically and his determination to encourage our students to aim higher led him to coordinate the Nanette Godfrey Memorial Lecture programme, bringing speakers such as Lord Robert Winston and Professor Alice Roberts to challenge the girls’ thinking. He coordinated the Oxbridge programme, ensuring all candidates had the specialist support they needed as well as general preparation required for the interview. He was responsible for the introduction of the Literary Festival which has, over the years, allowed the girls to hear from a prestigious list of speakers, starting with Germaine Greer in 2009 to his finale with Louis de Bernières in 2019. The festival took on many guises from crafting the Tudor Tribune to producing a programme for Radio Tudor. Whatever form the festival took, it was guaranteed to be stimulating, exciting and fun.
John’s commitment to Tudor went way beyond what was expected and he gave outstanding service in all areas with which he became involved; he will be missed. We will miss his sharp mind, his dry sense of humour, his fountain pen with green ink and his guitar playing in the staff band (the removal of his suit jacket being the only concession made in his appearance for this occasion!). He was lured by a new challenge at Norwich School and the opportunity to return to leading an English department. They are very fortunate to have him.
John’s lesson that day was observed by the then Head of RS, who could be quite intimidating. It did not get off to the best start as he was unable to find his reading glasses. The atmosphere in the room became a little frosty, but John was not fazed and just beamed in his characteristic way. At this point one of the students whispered “they’re on your head”. He was not destined to be the Head of RS but I knew he had been led to us for another purpose. The rest as they say is history.
them sometimes on a daily basis over months and years and for some continuing this support way past their time at school. It is no surprise that he officiated at the weddings of three OTs last year alone. From that first RS lesson the girls have trusted him and consequently shared their deepest concerns and anxieties. They all adored him. He was also held in the highest regard by parents; past and present, they too have leant on him when needed.
John’s services at Tudor Hall were always characterized by his impassioned preaching; he was brought up a Baptist and it showed. He did not shy away from the tricky issues. His message was always relevant, and the girls listened. We had some exciting services with new initiatives such as the candlelit advent service, which would have been lovely were it not for the fear amongst some staff that the girls (all holding lit candles) were about to set themselves, other girls or indeed the whole school on fire.
This is only a small insight into John’s ministry at Tudor. It has been a privilege, but also – as John would say – ‘a blast’ to work with him.
John Jackson, School Chaplain (2004–2019), Houseparent, with his wife Judy (2005–2009)
However our abiding memory of John will be as the pastoral rock who held the community together at its lowest points. Many of us remember times when the worst had happened and we picked up the phone to say to John ‘I need you now’. His care for, and commitment to, the whole community was evident to all. John supported staff and girls alike. There are girls who will be eternally grateful to him for being there for
John was one of the first people I employed when I arrived in 2004. He had responded to an advertisement for a head of RS. On the interview day everyone who met him liked him immediately. He was hugely engaging, and we were all drawn to him.
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Clare Macro Deputy Head (2011–2019) We were all thrilled when Clare Macro was appointed as Head of Edgbaston School for Girls. However, it was a sad day too as we knew that we were going to be saying goodbye to someone who had become a valued part of the essence of our Tudor community. I remember meeting Clare at her interview and being impressed by her on many fronts. She presented as a highly qualified professional who showed the steely determination which is needed in senior leadership. She also demonstrated a measured and circumspect approach to problemsolving and decision-making. Indeed, it has been easy to delegate to Clare as I knew she would give every task all the time and
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consideration needed to achieve the best solution.
as many hours as were needed to resolve any issue.
Her commitment and belief in singlesex education for girls was evident to all. Her advocacy of our values as a school was communicated powerfully to prospective parents, our existing parent body and our students. She spoke informatively about issues faced by young women in her regular assembly slots and did not shy away from topics which challenged the audience. The pupils’ impersonations of Clare were undoubtedly informed by the signature purple coat and her enthusiasm for running, but she was also their go-to person when they had academic concerns, a mentor for those lacking motivation, someone who offered excellent and candid advice, even when it was not what they wanted to hear, and finally, as an outstanding teacher of RS. She gave endlessly of her time to the girls. Indeed, it was rare for there not to be a student waiting in the corridor outside her office either for a scheduled meeting or for an impromptu chat.
Clare was familiar to parents who knew her through her many engaging and informative presentations, but also through meetings where they sought her out on an individual basis for advice and support with all aspects of their daughter’s education. For boarding parents she was always at the end of the phone when they needed reassurance. Such was their respect for Clare that they, like their daughters, accepted her decisions.
To her colleagues she was a committed, rigorous, knowledgeable educationalist. She led the academic Heads of Department through significant change and two very successful Independent School Inspections, taking it all in her stride. Clare never shirked responsibility and was always on hand when a problem arose and would put in
Clare had a great sense of humour and did not take herself too seriously. I doubt that she had any idea when I appointed her as Deputy Head that she would be required to perform at the School Birthday or the Vs’ Christmas Party as a Spice Girl, a monkey, a punk or one of Snow White’s dwarfs to name but a few – but she threw herself into it with enthusiasm because the girls loved it. When Clare left Tudor in July 2019 she had been in post for eight years and in that time had taken on challenges ranging from the support of an individual girl to whole school academic reform. Everything she undertook received her characteristic dedicated, tenacious and loyal approach. She will be missed by us all but we know we were lucky to have held her for as long as we did. R
Bespoke stainedglass windows for the School Chapel A lasting gift from our 2019 leavers The tradition of leavers giving a gift to the School was continued in style by the Class of 2019. The parents of last year’s UVI contributed towards the cost of two beautiful bespoke stained-glass windows for the school’s Chapel to mark their daughters’ time at Tudor and to honour Dr John Jackson on his retirement. Dr Jackson describes how he felt when he learned of the honour: “My experience attending Mark Reading on Leavers’ Day turned out to be very emotional, and still is when I think back on it. This was not only because of all that was said, but also because of the surprise of learning about the gift of stained-glass windows for the Chapel. I had, from time to time, dropped hints that it would be a
good thing to have stained-glass in the Chapel, but never expected the UVI leavers’ gift to the School to be just that. The windows are perfect, not only because they were designed by Tudor girls, but also because they represent Tudor’s unswerving commitment to giving, and its foundation in the Christian faith. The image of hands giving and receiving perfectly reflects the School’s motto, Habeo ut Dem, which is never taken for granted at Tudor, nor relegated to the past as if it were merely some historical relic. Giving is taught, it is lived, and the girls are better for it. The water speaks of God’s work of cleansing and renewal, from the flood, to God miraculously providing water for the Israelites in the desert, to Jesus
submitting himself to Baptism and on to our own baptism into the faith. The windows are a truly beautiful addition to the Chapel.” The windows were designed by Molly and Cassia, both in this year’s UVI. Molly has been working on fragmented images as part of her Fine Art coursework topic and Cassia has been studying swimmers in water. They amalgamated their ideas and designed a joint image of water running through hands, a single hand in the act of giving and cupped hands receiving the gifts. Molly turned Cassia’s study of water into a more fragmented image to suit the stained-glass technique. The girls’ design was brought to life by a local stainedglass craftsman. The Bishop of Dorchester, who has officiated at Tudor confirmation services for many years, will bless the windows before he retires at the end of the year. The blessing had been planned for the summer term and we look forward to welcoming the Bishop once circumstances allow. R
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Tudor archives
First Lacrosse Team Photo circa 1956 From Ann Curwin (Hellings, 1957)
of padded apron/waistcoat and padded gloves, poor girl!
“After almost half a century there are still certain things about playing lacrosse at Tudor that I remember. We wore skirts together with dreadful green knickers, as shorts were deemed to be ‘unladylike’. Some of my generation are now duchesses, so maybe every little helped, as they say. We had absolutely no protective gear – even the goalie only had a sort
I vividly remember the feeling of coming back from a freezing cold January practice on the distant sports field to the long serving table in the dining room, where large roasting tins piled with hot beef dripping toast awaited eager hands! We had wonderful homemade food from the kitchen of Miss Doorbar every day.”
Prefect’s badge from 1957
From Susan Oliver (Worsley, 1959) “This is the Tudor Rose badge which I was given in 1957, when I was told that I would be a Prefect. Imagine what interest that caused. I was not particularly bright, not very sporty – didn’t really like horses – and wanted to be a ballet dancer. Something was wrong somewhere; I could not really be the sugar plum fairy at my size and weight! I expected that I had been given the job of being a prefect to stop me smoking and behaving badly. I found out later that it was neither of these things. My one fear was losing the badge – how would I ever explain that?”
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After keeping it safe for all these years, Susan has kindly donated her badge to the School archive. Interestingly, Tudor’s Prefect badges have changed very little over the years – the same supplier still makes them for the School seven decades on.
OT gifts portrait of former Headmistress Margaret Blyth to Tudor From Emily Saner (Tunstall-Behrens,1980)
whose parents were friends of the Tunstall-Behrens family.
OT Emily Saner and her sister have generously donated a portrait, oil on hardboard, of former Headmistress Margaret Blyth (1969–1983) to the School. The portrait was painted by their mother, artist Romi Behrens, in the summer of 1976 when Margaret Blyth was visiting the family of OT Emma Slack (Glossop, 1970),
Romi Behrens (1939 – 2019) was born in Wiltshire and began painting when she moved to Cornwall in 1959, on marrying her husband. Inspired by her love of Matisse, Picasso and Van Gogh, she was largely self-taught. Romi’s talent was to instinctively capture the subject in a vibrant blaze of
energy and colour. Her work has been exhibited from Cornwall to London, including the Royal Academy and the Arnolfini in Bristol. It was wonderful to have the picture on display for our ‘Maggie’s Girls’ reunion lunch on Saturday 29th February and we look forward to finding it a permanent home at Tudor. R
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News
BEAUTIFUL BALLROOM Tudor’s Ballroom has always been a beautiful space but, for a number of years, it has been looking a little worn and in need of refreshing. So, in advance of the official opening of the Teaching Centre by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, in which the Ballroom would receive our honoured guests for a drinks reception to thank benefactors who had supported that major project, the redecoration began. With guidance from School Governor Nicky Wilson we created a contemporary but sympathetic scheme using Lotus design 110 . ROSE . SPRING 2020
wallpaper with a combination of slaked lime and lead white paint. The heavily varnished floor was sanded back and re-surfaced in washed lime to lighten it. The improvements were finished off with new brass radiator grills, simple ceiling roses round the chandeliers and subtle gold lining on the door frames. Restored to its former glory, the Ballroom has already been the setting for a range of School activities, including a very special OT reunion for Maggie’s Girls (those who attended Tudor Hall when Margaret Blythe was Headmistress). We look forward to many more memorable events taking place in this fabulous space – hopefully in the not too distant future.
TUDOR IN THREE CONTINENTS - SOUTH AFRICA 2019 Now in its eighth year, Tudor in Three Continents continues to provide LVI girls with a rich and challenging taste of life beyond their normal experience. Whether they travel thousands of miles to far flung countries or remain in the UK, they are able to step out of their comfort zone and put Tudor’s motto ‘Habeo ut Dem’ (‘I have that I may give’) into practice. One of the teams travelled to South Africa to visit our old friends at the Sparrow Foundation School in Johannesburg, where disadvantaged children with learning difficulties receive an education and skills for life. This year the Tudor girls worked in Sparrow’s newly upgraded multi-sensory room, running activities based around the theme of Healthy Eating, and honing their drumming skills alongside the children in preparation for a special performance. Members of the South Africa team reflected: “Our time at Sparrow School was a life-changing experience which we will never forget. It is an incredibly inspiring school with passionate teachers wanting the best for their students, and the children are so hardworking and eager to learn. It was so nice to see how Tudor has helped Sparrow grow and we could see this through the new facilities.
In the Media Centre, we were working with students of all ages. The children were very appreciative, and we feel we really made a difference by being there. We also spent time in the children’s music
lessons, working on drumming skills which we then performed on the last day in an assembly to the whole school. All the children were so excited, and it made us realise what a special trip it had been.”
LICENSING SERVICE FOR REVEREND ALISON RICHARDSON q
For the staff and pupils present, none of whom had ever attended a licensing service, it was a wonderful opportunity to share in this very personal occasion and to formally welcome Alison to Tudor Hall.
The Right Reverend Colin Fletcher, Bishop of Dorchester, joined fellow clergy from the Deddington Deanery, family and friends of the Reverend Alison Richardson, and Tudor staff and pupils for a special service at which he licensed Alison to carry out her duties as our new School Chaplain. During this simple but very moving service, representatives of the School community presented Alison with symbols of her ministry, after which she pledged to care for the whole community and to lead them in their Christian discipleship. The Chamber Choir sang two beautiful settings of the Benedictus and The Lord’s My Shepherd and Bishop Colin gave a short homily.
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EMILY'S WAKEBOARDING SUCCESS! ď ´ Emily in the IVs (Year 10) has had a fantastic year pursuing her passion for wakeboarding. In the UK Nationals, held at Thorpe Park, Emily competed in the Junior Women division (15-18 years) for the first time this year, and did brilliantly to come second. She then went to the Big Air competition held near Birmingham (the other major UK wakeboarding event); Emily again competed in Junior Women and this time was placed first! She is now the highest ranking individual in her division in the UK this year. Huge congratulations Emily for this outstanding achievement.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK! ď ´ A Level students of art and photography travelled to Manhattan in October half term for five days of research. The Metropolitan Museum was the highlight for many studying history of art, who were thrilled to find so many paintings under one roof. Others loved walking along the Highline, a disused railway line regenerated into an artistic walkway of green space and art. As well as the must-do attractions of the Empire Sate Building and the Statue of Liberty, the girls were grateful to have visited Ground Zero and understood from a different perspective the atrocity which happened the year they were born.
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© Andrew Yarme
PROFESSOR ALICE ROBERTS On Wednesday 20th November, we welcomed Professor Alice Roberts to Tudor Hall as part of our NG Lectures Series. Alice is a medical doctor and went on to become a university lecturer, conducting research into human origins and disease in ancient skeletons. She taught human anatomy to students and doctors
OTs TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT TUDOR’S CAREERS NETWORKING DINNER Our programme of ‘Careers Networking Dinners’ provides girls in the Upper School with fantastic opportunities to learn more about sectors they are interested in from professionals who are successful
before becoming Professor of the Public Engagement with Science at the University of Birmingham; a position she has held since 2012. Having made her television debut In 2001 as a human bone specialist on Channel 4’s Time Team, Alice went on to present a number of other television series including Coast, The Incredible Human Journey and several Horizon programmes. Alice returned to our television screens to present Series 8 of Digging for Britain, with the first episode of the new series being screened on BBC2 the day she visited the School. Alice spoke passionately about the history of known civilisation
is those fields. In addition to giving a short talk to the girls, our guest speakers join the girls for a special supper, providing an opportunity for more informal conversation about the careers in question. We were delighted to welcome a full house of OT speakers for our ‘Careers
Left to right: Camilla Hiley, Helen Seymour-Smith, Antonia Stewart
in Britain and shared insights, anecdotes and behind-thescenes stories from her personal journey to explore Britain’s past. We were taken on a journey that spanned thousands of years, with Alice explaining the process that archaeologists take in order to uncover stories by retracing the steps of our ancestors. The audience were left astonished and intrigued by an Iron Age discovery of an incredibly preserved chariot burial, complete with standing horses. Judging by the questions posed at the end of Alice’s talk, it is clear that the next generation of archaeologists and anthropologists has been inspired!
in architecture, garden design and interior design’ networking dinner: HELEN SEYMOUR-SMITH (Cathie, 1993), owner of SeymourSmith Architects, a design-led architectural practice that delivers considered, contemporary, sustainable buildings; ANTONIA STEWART (Lazenby, 1993), owner of Antonia Stewart Ltd, an interior design practice specialising in high-end private residential projects; and CAMILLA HILEY (Weatherby, 1981), owner of Camilla Hiley Garden and Landscape Design – providing a bespoke service to create gardens that enhance clients’ lives as well as their properties.
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OTs RECEIVE GOLD D of E AWARD Congratulations to our OTs who have recently collected their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards. These are an outstanding achievement, showing commitment, resilience and a very Tudorian spirit of adventure. Jess Carter (2018) shares her account of the day: “Going to Buckingham Palace to collect my Gold award was such a lovely way to end the five years of D of E I’d done. We had the chance to share many of our stories on the day with Sophie, Countess of Wessex, as well as the singer and songwriter Ronan Keating. Mine however, was much more eventful than the rest as Poppy Clark and I somehow managed to capsize our canoe and had to go to A&E with suspected hyperthermia! Regardless of this minor incident, I would highly recommend D of E to anyone. You take away so many skills and memories from all of the volunteering and expeditions.”
Above: Jess Carter (right) is pictured with fellow OTs Flora Ayres, Minna Barker and Jasmine Banister.
OT MARY ECKERT’S DEBUT SINGLE RELEASED Singer-songwriter Mary Eckert (2018) is making her mark on the music world, with the launch of her debut single, Do You Even Feel. At just 19 years of age, she has found her voice and it is clear that Mary is writing music from her soul, achieving a sound in the sweet spot between indiefolk and modern soul which is both trendless and timeless. Mary tells us the song is “about reminiscing an ex and the experiences shared with them. The idea of singing about unrequited feelings occurred when I bumped into someone I was seeing at the time with someone else. The next week I had a song writing session with some course mates and Do You Even Feel was written. This song really made the situation rather comical for me, however, it is sung with some bitterness.” R
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Events Decades Reunion 2019
The Hurlingham Club in London proved a fitting venue for our annual Tudor Hall Decades Reunion in May last year. The sun shone, the grounds looked immaculate, and the clubhouse made a wonderful backdrop for the event. Around seventy Old Tudorians, former and current staff and sixth formers gathered at the Club with the Classes of 1989, 1999 and 2009 being well represented. Decibel levels were high as former classmates reconnected and reminisced, and school and team photos from those years provoked much amusement. You can see more photographs from the evening by visiting the Galleries in the ‘Events’ section of our website: tudorhall.alumni-online.com
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Goodbye to John Jackson, Clare Macro, Amanda Brauer and John Field. At the end of summer term last year, we were joined by OTs and parents to bid farewell to some of our wonderful staff members as they headed for pastures new. A sunny summer’s day and a delicious meal prepared by departing Head Chef Darren provided the perfect setting to give thanks and share memories of their combined forty-six years at the School.
Nesta’s Girls Reunion We were delighted to welcome seventeen of ‘Nesta’s Girls’ back to Tudor Hall for a very special reunion on 8th June 2019. Nesta’s Girls are OTs who attended
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Tudor between 1939 and 1960, and for some, it was the first time they had revisited Tudor since leaving fifty years ago. It was fascinating to hear tales of Tudor from times gone by, and for our OTs to see for themselves how much has changed at Tudor over the years, while making sure the heart of the School remains the same.
Leavers’ Day 2019 The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for Leavers’ Day 2019. After celebrating the diverse achievements of the girls at Mark Reading, families picnicked together in the glorious summer sunshine. The moving Leavers’ Service was followed by the day’s finale: the Leavers’ Ball, with fabulous food, dancing, dodgems and fireworks.
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Tudor on Tour: Oxford A lively gathering of Tudorians met at the Oxford Wine Café on the 21st November 2019. OTs, parents, staff, students and friends of the School gathered for another enjoyable evening celebrating our shared community.
Recent Leavers Drinks in London An entire floor of The Admiralty, Trafalgar Square, was taken over by OTs (2005-2019 leavers currently studying or working in London), staff, former staff and Sixth Formers, who had gathered on a brisk February evening for this informal networking drinks event. The buzz created by more than 100 Tudorians was fantastic and it was a joy to see so many OTs and teachers sharing such pleasure at being reunited.
Tudor on Tour: Nottingham An increasingly popular destination for Tudor leavers, Nottingham was the latest destination for our ‘Tudor on Tour’ programme of events. The Alchemist was the perfect destination for this intimate gathering where OTs currently studying in the city caught up with their Tudor teachers.
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Maggie’s Girls On Saturday 29th February, Tudor hosted one of the biggest ever gatherings of Old Tudorians for a very special reunion lunch. It was a delight to welcome over 100 of ‘Maggie’s Girls’ (OTs who studied at Tudor under Margaret Blyth, 1969–1983) back to school for a day of joyful reminiscing and catching up. Following a delicious lunch, guests were taken on a tour of the School, to see how much has changed here, and how much remains the same Tudor they knew and loved. R
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Announcements BIRTHS 2019
2ND MAY to Annabel (Ballin, 2000) and Sam Waley-Cohen a son, Alexander (Xander) Samuel Bernard, a brother for Maximilian and Scarlett.
12TH JULY to Georgina (Hogarth, 2000) and Peter Harries, a son, Zachary. 10TH AUGUST to Hannah (Clayton, 2007) and Alex Timmons, a daughter, Eloise.
23RD AUGUST to Emma (GrahamCooper, 2004) and Ben MounseyHeysham, a son, Hector Giles Alexander, a brother for Mima.
10TH MAY to Juliet (Buchanan Jardine, 2005) and Chris Travers, a daughter, India Pandora. 29TH MAY to Cleo Barbour (2004) and Fred Findlater, a daughter, Indigo Diana. 4TH JUNE to Henrietta (Martin Smith, 2005) and Scott MacLennan, a daughter, Ada Rosie. 8TH JUNE to Hermione (Shirley, 2001) and Edward Crisp, a son, Robert John Simon, a brother for Rose. 9TH JUNE to Davina (Combe, 2005) and Toby Flaux, a son, Henry Michael Hansard.
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22ND AUGUST to Joanna (Howard, 1995) and Tom Cross, a daughter, Josephine Alice Lucy (known as Josie), a sister for Tabitha and Phoebe.
28TH AUGUST to Charlotte (Wills, 2000) and Piers Edgar, a daughter, Ziggy Miranda Annie, a sister for Hubert. 21ST SEPTEMBER to Georgina (Bovill, 2007) and Angus Bailey, a daughter, Coco Nancy Quinn.
1ST OCTOBER Emily (Falkner, 2005) and Oliver Campbell, a son, Nicholas (Nico) Robert Campbell.
13TH DECEMBER to Sophia (Brudenell, 2003) and Charles Dale, a daughter, Serena Venetia Charlotte, a sister for Harry.
2020
31ST JANUARY to Camellia (Buckmaster, 2006) and Harry Ingham, a son, Leo Henry. 6TH FEBRUARY to Elizabeth (Davidson, 2001) and Mark Krempley, a daughter, Alexandra Macleod.
14TH FEBRUARY to Emma (Sturgis, 2005) and Nick Hardie, a son, Rye. 21ST FEBRUARY to Katie (Grimshaw, 2005) and George Henderson, a son, Percy Ewing Hope. 2ND MARCH to Rosanna (Sewell, 2007) and Arthur Crutchley, a daughter, Ida Sybil Daisy.
9TH OCTOBER to Louisa (Houldsworth, 2005) and Cuthbert Hopkinson, a son, Reginald Hugh. 22ND OCTOBER to Lettie (Blackett, 2001) and Charlie Stagg a son, Sholto Beauchamp Walter, a brother for India.
ENGAGEMENTS
SEPTEMBER Lucy Warhurst (2006) to Edward Sandys
JANUARY Elizabeth Colegrave (2005) to Nick Sinden
MAY Olivia Fairbank (2010) to Oliver Morley
OCTOBER Phoebe Goddard (2009) to Alastair Allan
Alice Tyser (2010) to Felix St Aubyn
Isabelle Ledger (2007) to Simon Marsh
Poppy Morant (2009) to Charles Cooper (right)
JUNE Lily Buckmaster (2008) to Mungo von Halle
NOVEMBER Patience Wootton (2007) to James Jackson-Stops
JULY Flora Merton (2010) to James Briant
DECEMBER Poppy Henderson (2009) to James McKay
2019
AUGUST Eleaonor Buckmaster (2005) to Charlie Duffell
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MARRIAGES
Victoria Bradford (2007) to Michael Hodgson
Josephine Kendall (2007) to Sam Goddard
Harriet Drinkwater (2007) to Hamish Davison
Bronwen Robinson (Head of Dance) to Charles Garrity
2019 APRIL Francesca Bradshaw (2007) to William Eaton Alice Hobhouse (2009) to William Crone MAY Florence Houston (2007) to Geordie Naylor-Leyland Rosanna Sewell (2007) to Arthur Crutchley
JUNE Harriet Ashton (2008) to Henry Colburn
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Picture (below) shows Harriet Ashton with her Tudor girls.
Sophie Twiston-Davies (2008) to Thomas Sinclair
Camilla Hicks (2005) to Alexander Ford
Celia Pelly (2008) to Thomas Kelly
Laura Houldsworth (2005) to Rory Normanton
JULY Millie Allsopp (2008) to Constantin Nagel Ruby Laing (2006) to Sam Barrow AUGUST Rosie Holland-Hibbert (2009) to George Peck
Katy Bradshaw (2009) to Laurence Flaux
Olivia Ingleby (2009) to Tom Hanson-Smith (right & below). The ceremony was performed by Dr John Jackson and was the last wedding in which he will be able to actually officiate. (He is still able to have a role in OT weddings and is looking forward to a couple that are already in the diary).
Picture (below) shows Olivia Ingleby and Dr Jackson with the Tudor girls.
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Sophie Tyser (2007) to David Jenkins (left) OCTOBER Rosanna Carson (2007) to Adam Masojada (right) Zoe Manners (2008) to Jack Copley DECEMBER Isabella Proby (2009) to Michael Corker
2020 FEBRUARY Davina Mulford (2000) to Christiaan Faberij de Jonge
OBITUARY 7TH DECEMBER 2019 Susan Pakenham (Lever, 1954) Susan passed away on 7th December 2019 at the age of 81. The eldest of three sisters, each educated at Tudor Hall, she was a Queen’s Guide at Tudor under Miss West. Susan had two children – Dermot and Caroline. She was a hardworking volunteer for many organisations in Hampshire and London. Sadly, she suffered ill health in her later years, but remained courageous throughout. R
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Your chance to shape our alumnae programme We are very fortunate at Tudor to have a well-established alumnae programme. For many years the OTA maintained contact with OTs via a series of alumnae events and communications. Since the establishment of the Development and Alumnae Relations Office, this programme has increasingly been delivered by the School and now we would like to know whether what we offer is what you want. This autumn, Tudor will, for the first time, undertake a
number of important topics and will be your chance
comprehensive research project to establish how OTs
to influence how we develop alumnae relations for the
view our current alumnae programme, and to explore
future. Your participation is important and we will read
ways of improving it. This will be your opportunity to
every questionnaire submitted.
provide us with feedback on the things we do – events we host, communications we circulate and the other
Research findings will be reported back to us later in the
services we offer. The research is being undertaken
year and we will share key learnings in the next issue
by WeSurvey on our behalf and will take the form
of Rose magazine. Do look out for the survey in the
of an online survey. The questionnaire will cover a
autumn – we look forward to receiving your responses.
If you would like to participate please ensure that the email address we hold for you is correct. To update your contact details, please email ota@tudorhallschool.com ROSE . SPRING 2020 . 125
