Barnsbury Boy - Paul Kenealy - 1958-1963
Marchant’s Hill Adventure Course
Sadly, my Mum and Dad couldn’t afford to send me on any of the trips, even to the Isle of Wight.
I was, however, enrolled on the Marchant’s Hill Adventure Course trip in January, 1962; along with Johnny Pearce, the late lamented Peter Stechman and one other Barnsbury Boy whose name a sadly forget.
The trip was organised by the L.C.C. to give Inner London boys a taste of the outdoor life. Mr. Richards was also there as one of the P.E. instructors. We had to go on cross country runs, had lessons on map reading, compass reading, bivouacking, and tent rigging. The course lasted three weeks. We lived in dorms with about twenty boys to a dorm. Richards was the master in charge of my dorm and I well remember him catching one of the boys doing something out of order, chasing him through the dorm and felling him with a perfect flying rugby tackle.
We went on night hikes through the Devils Punchbowl. The three weeks were rounded off with a three day, two night stopover hike in pairs. My pair was the Barnsbury boy whose name I have forgotten.
Each pair of boys was given an Ordnance Survey map with one mile square cut out. A different square for each pair. We had to make our way from the camp through map reading to the missing square destination, and then draw a sketch map showing the roads, signposts, churches, post offices, trig points, etc., on the map. We were given letters of introduction to farmers, landowners, houses with gardens, etc., so we could ask permission to camp. In our case, one of the farmers allowed us to sleep in the barn, and his wife provided us with eggs and milk for our breakfast. Another farmer allowed us to pitch our tent between two haystacks on the understanding that we wouldn’t light a fire.
On the last day of this three day adventure, we were told to make our way to a village called Isington (not ISLINGTON) and make a drawing of the Medieval cross on the green. We also had a letter of introduction to the owner of the main house called Isington Mill. We had no idea who lived there, but we knocked on the door and were shown into a kitchen where the man housekeeper made us tea and toast. We noticed there were photos on the wall of King George VI, President Eisenhower, Stalin, Rommel and, of course, Field Marshal Montgomery. After asking some questions we were told that it was Montgomery’s house, but sadly he was away. The man who was his housekeeper had been his batman during the war and Monty had kept him on.
We finally made our way to the missing square on our map, but luckily bumped into two more pairs of boys who had adjoining missing squares on their maps. So we found a bus shelter to sit in out of the snow and carefully copied down details of the missing squares onto our individual notebooks. We were a couple of hours early for the arranged coach pickup time, so sat in the bus shelter. Then one of the boys suggested we should knock on the pub door opposite to ask if we could go inside. The landlord took one look at us and said we could earn the warmup. We cleared the fire grates, chopped firewood and lit the fires. In return he gave us hot soup, fresh bread and butter and darts for the dartboard. We stayed in the pub for a couple of hours, then sat in the bus shelter to wait to be picked up.
The whole idea of the Adventure Course was to help us make our way in the world, it certainly worked for me and more.
A postscript to this story: Listening to the reports following the passing of the HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (April 9th, 2021), I reminded myself of taking the Duke of Edinburgh (D of E) Award. Griff Lewis and I were in the Boys Brigade, and were encouraged to try for the Award. We did camping, climbing, canoeing, etc. We even went camping and canoeing for the weekend with dear ol’ “Rozzer” Richards in Chertsey.
When I attended the Marchant’s Hill camp in 1962, I was awarded my Duke of Edinburgh Award Bronze medal, but Griff still hadn’t done enough to qualify. Sometime later, Griff and I went on a three day hike. Train to Broxbourne, walk through Broxbourne Woods, camping overnight, up Ermine Street to Hertford and back on the train to Finsbury Park. This three days hike gained Griff his Bronze medal.
Sadly, my Mum and Dad couldn’t afford to send me on any of the trips, even to the Isle of Wight.
I was, however, enrolled on the Marchant’s Hill Adventure Course trip in January, 1962; along with Johnny Pearce, the late lamented Peter Stechman and one other Barnsbury Boy whose name a sadly forget.
The trip was organised by the L.C.C. to give Inner London boys a taste of the outdoor life. Mr. Richards was also there as one of the P.E. instructors. We had to go on cross country runs, had lessons on map reading, compass reading, bivouacking, and tent rigging. The course lasted three weeks. We lived in dorms with about twenty boys to a dorm. Richards was the master in charge of my dorm and I well remember him catching one of the boys doing something out of order, chasing him through the dorm and felling him with a perfect flying rugby tackle.
We went on night hikes through the Devils Punchbowl. The three weeks were rounded off with a three day, two night stopover hike in pairs. My pair was the Barnsbury boy whose name I have forgotten.
Each pair of boys was given an Ordnance Survey map with one mile square cut out. A different square for each pair. We had to make our way from the camp through map reading to the missing square destination, and then draw a sketch map showing the roads, signposts, churches, post offices, trig points, etc., on the map. We were given letters of introduction to farmers, landowners, houses with gardens, etc., so we could ask permission to camp. In our case, one of the farmers allowed us to sleep in the barn, and his wife provided us with eggs and milk for our breakfast. Another farmer allowed us to pitch our tent between two haystacks on the understanding that we wouldn’t light a fire.
On the last day of this three day adventure, we were told to make our way to a village called Isington (not ISLINGTON) and make a drawing of the Medieval cross on the green. We also had a letter of introduction to the owner of the main house called Isington Mill. We had no idea who lived there, but we knocked on the door and were shown into a kitchen where the man housekeeper made us tea and toast. We noticed there were photos on the wall of King George VI, President Eisenhower, Stalin, Rommel and, of course, Field Marshal Montgomery. After asking some questions we were told that it was Montgomery’s house, but sadly he was away. The man who was his housekeeper had been his batman during the war and Monty had kept him on.
We finally made our way to the missing square on our map, but luckily bumped into two more pairs of boys who had adjoining missing squares on their maps. So we found a bus shelter to sit in out of the snow and carefully copied down details of the missing squares onto our individual notebooks. We were a couple of hours early for the arranged coach pickup time, so sat in the bus shelter. Then one of the boys suggested we should knock on the pub door opposite to ask if we could go inside. The landlord took one look at us and said we could earn the warmup. We cleared the fire grates, chopped firewood and lit the fires. In return he gave us hot soup, fresh bread and butter and darts for the dartboard. We stayed in the pub for a couple of hours, then sat in the bus shelter to wait to be picked up.
The whole idea of the Adventure Course was to help us make our way in the world, it certainly worked for me and more.
A postscript to this story: Listening to the reports following the passing of the HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (April 9th, 2021), I reminded myself of taking the Duke of Edinburgh (D of E) Award. Griff Lewis and I were in the Boys Brigade, and were encouraged to try for the Award. We did camping, climbing, canoeing, etc. We even went camping and canoeing for the weekend with dear ol’ “Rozzer” Richards in Chertsey.
When I attended the Marchant’s Hill camp in 1962, I was awarded my Duke of Edinburgh Award Bronze medal, but Griff still hadn’t done enough to qualify. Sometime later, Griff and I went on a three day hike. Train to Broxbourne, walk through Broxbourne Woods, camping overnight, up Ermine Street to Hertford and back on the train to Finsbury Park. This three days hike gained Griff his Bronze medal.
