I was one of those boys, not sexually abused but routinely physically abused, primarily by Mr Clements, for whom I have no sympathy whatever, but also by others. Because he was an important critic of Marxist thought, he has generally been lumped in with What Popper did and didn't say about the paradox of intolerance, Big increase in number of Lib Dem local election candidates, The Other Side of Soho Carnaby Street, Broadwick Street, Golden Sq.
I seem to have done the world a favor and ridded it of one less peado.
He threw a heavy brass school-bell at one of my friends that smashed a glass-fronted bookcase in the library and I was once despatched on an errand by Wraight to see a bemused and red-faced Ernie Cooke (in his little room filled with Dubonnet bottles) with the message 'Go and tell Mr Cooke that he's a little clockwork bastard and I'm going to knock his head off'. Browse all resources Move Planner Find a mortgage Property valuation Conveyancing Post a Job Find the best broadband See tradesmen blacklist. I was greatly influenced by a school trip to Stratford to see Taming of the Shrew, um- the event rather than the play itself. He was a systematic, violent, sex abuser who inflicted considerable pain on me whilst he violated me. Do you remember that half term though? He was absolutely belting them with the chain.Another was Maurice Lanyon. English was taught by a Mr Ryder and French by a Miss Robinette. I remember woodwork being taught by the likeable Mr Bakewell who doubled as the school handyman, PE in the stable yard - now the site of the new opera house. I also remember rather good food and that FSP always ate with the boys. His dog did bite me once though :-)I agree that Clements was not pleasant. I was at Nevill Holt from 1956 to 1961 (or thereabouts). Griz worked with me when I did the reading at the church in Melbourne for the BBC christmas concert. I even had to go to his funeral in the chapel. He then quietly walked into our dorm and checked to see if anyone was awake (I was awake but pretended to be asleep). 'Bobby' was an amazing remote controlled monoplane built by a boy called Wallace. I remember DAVID Phillips meeting his wife to be and how glamorous she looked . I feel I have to put on record what happened to me.I was at NH from 1968 to 1975. So Philips gave him a good reference to go and work in another nearby prep school. dinner, Mr. Hollingsworth who (quite reasonably) threw me out of his carpentry lesson for throwing sawdust around, several very patient matrons including Miss Webb, and one other amazing Maths teacher whose name I apologetically cannot recall, but who has my eternal gratitude for introducing me to the idea of Dungeons & Dragons (which I should not have pursued in his Maths lessons).I wonder if the current owner would allow guests at his opera events to wander the halls? piercing pale blue drunken eyes! However, get on his wrong side and you really knew it!! When I went back to NH after leaving (I must have been about 19) and went to see Fred and Miss Graham in their pad built in the walled garden he scared me then! Mr Clements is still living in Eastbourne.
He also sent me a letter when I scored a 100 against Shrewsbury . Worst was, from what I now understand were a couple of perverted individuals, to the naked arse, and once when completely sans vtements. I was, like others before me it seems, just googling for old images of the school. After that DP took me off late night dorm inspections, so I left the school more or less in one piece. Back in the early '50s, through my leaving in 1958, it was an exceptional school (FSP excepted), which got great academic & sporting results - envied by our peer schools. One of my friends tried the trick of putting a mirror on the floor to see up her skirt whilst we were having our malt extracts. The building by the early 90s was deteriorating quickly, I remember one particularly bad storm had water gushing through several window frames and everyone had to decamp to the library to sleep. DCSP was a brilliant athlete, great rugby coach & a great Latin teacher. Terrifying stuff if you are 7 years old. I remember a kindly old vicar who came and took the Sunday service about once a month - does anyone remember his name?Also I clearly recall Robin Peverett - whose previous role had been in the Pestalozzi Childrens Village - who I believe came to replace Mr Ridings and lived in a gatehouse. Sadly on the day we went to an opera production, the house was full of sponsors so the tour was not possible, but I did peek in to as many windows as possible! Looking back, the quality of the education was very good but much of it was lost on me at the time. The model club, of which Mr Wraight (Ratty) was supervising master used to fly this and other craft around the Warren. The Victorians were less Victorian than we imagine. Wraight was a vicious psychotic whose taste for small boys was legendary. I am very aware that many pupils had far better experiences than me at the school even during those years. His departure preceded that of the inspection team. I remember distinctly the quiet sobbing that came from that bed for sometime after. The police entered the breakfast hall and shortly after my copas ran out, shortly after the school was covered with police, dogs and helicopters. Today, the way Copas behaved would create alarm. It had just been sold to Mr. Cellphone.It all seemed so much, much smaller than I ever remembered.Lucky to have gotten out when we did, apparently.Deepest sympathies to the victims of the abuse. Only now I learn that I was cheated out of a proper education by Frederick Serille-Phillips. )DCSP - great teacher, I excelled at Latin and he was a brilliant rugby and cricket coach. met the man behind the Nevill Holt Opera Festival. No I wasn't Miss Pickering I was Miss Viney but I was only there for one term in your first year, so you may not remember me. coming down in the evenings. Nevill Holt Opera planned to perform Verdi's La traviata and Mozart's Don Giovanni in their award-winning new theatre (which opened in 2018) for the 2020 season. Does anyone remember Miss McRonald's two assistant matrons? I taught art at NH for one term in 1968, covering for maternity leave I think. Ratty (Mr Wraight) was in a car crash during one school holiday period and it was after that he turned violent towards the fabric of the school building and instilled fear into boys like myself who dreaded his approach to evening homework forms during prep. Very sorry to hear what happened to you and others. I never suffered at his hand but he had a temper and a half.Deas, Cooke all very good teachers I have them to thank for the success I've enjoyed since leaving. He drove a big Humber. I was at NH from 58-64 and remember P Oakey very well and more distantly Pappa Clegg as he calls himself. I am appalled to read these accounts of what happened in the 80s and 90s, and I feel very sorry for those involved.Luckily for me, I missed all that, since I was at NH in the early/mid 60s, when it was, I think, a good school - although the food was revolting, and, as others have said, FSP was a vicious bully. I remember Mr Deas (bit Like Joe Wicks very hearty and bossy), and a very fussy little man who used to steal tuck from the boys, not quite sure why. I remember the bell hurling incident to this day and also recall him punching holes in the oak panels that lined the passageways. Going away to school at 8 is tough. May there be a special place in hell for those that would take advantage of children. The gardens at Nevill Holt contain elements of their 17th-century structure, but were restored in the early-21st century in the form of three walled gardens, including a kitchen garden and an Italianate garden. The house dates originally from the late-13th century. It was a death camp, I was also there tortured childhood caned on the back of my legs chalk board rubber thrown at my head dragged around wasnt the best school by any means things as a adult would never forget. I'm afraid mine went years ago. Since 2005, Nevill Holt had been hosting touring opera productions, so having its own opera house was a natural next step. My abiding memories of the school though are of freezing temperatures (it was a blessing that there was a fire in the Great Hall, which also served to help melt our air gun pellets as well as warm our chilblain-ed toes), a beautiful building (was the ceiling in one of the dorms really by Robert Adam? Does any one else remember Clements' dogs? We reported it to DCSP and Mr Wright disappeared from school. United footballer. I am sure there are many others like me who have not been part of a formal investigation. But I can certainly vouch for some of the scary antics he was later responsible for, especially during evening prep - surely a direct result of the crash he was in. He died in 1982 Swansea-born Frederick Phillips changed his accent and pretended he was a graduate from the Sorbonne to get a job teaching French at Nevill Holt.He had, in fact, only attended summer school at Besancon university, France.In 1927 he adopted the double-barrelled name Serille-Phillips and claimed he was the son of a gentleman (his father was a wheelwright) to secure a bank loan of 12,000 to buy the Grade I listed 13th century school building.He said he was 30, to substantiate a lie that he was a former squadron leader, secret service agent and medal-winner in the First World War. He has left me with a passion for history. Nevill Holt lies roughly one mile north of the Northamptonshire border. I did my best but was only 18 myself and totally unqualified. I ran into an old boy in London who had also attended (but was several decades my senior)and our stories of the place where virtually the same.it was clearly in a time of its own.I think I would have been too young to understand much about the types of abuse that happened but I was terrified by Clements and recall being hit by the black board rubber or being hauled out infront of a class and whacked across my rump or the backs or my legs - not great in the summer term with shorts on. Establishment Nevill Holt School URN: 120315 Other independent school Download establishment data This establishment closed on 10 August 1999. There have been many alterations and additions in the 14th,15th,17th,18th,19th and 20th (and now 21st) centuries. Probably why I always dropped my first rugby passes (hands ripped apart by FSP )! Overview. As he made me masturbate him over pornographic hard core images (I was 11 and 12 at the time) he would play out his sadistic fantasies of how he wanted to torture women. A headteacher who faked his name, age and qualifications to run a boarding school in Leicestershire for 40 years has been exposed as a fraud by his son.Frederick Phillips cheated parents, pupils and his bank manager into believing he was a qualified French teacher and aristocrat with military honours in order to buy and run Nevill Holt preparatory school in Market Harborough.
All-round, he was probably the best teacher I ever had.I don't think I approve any more of that kind of boarding education for children at such a young age. Pushing pupils down the stairs from his classroom, getting smacked round the head during lessons or grabbed by the ear and pulled around.As far as Copas is concerned - I was in Venetians dorm (fire escape practice out of the window!) Old Serrill Phillips used to beat selected children at whim, and beat them again if they cried. My strongest memory has always been the sound of the dormitories, the first night of term -- the sound of little boys crying for their mothers has stayed with me my whole life. Better than being bathed by the formidably ugly kitchen server Miss Crombie! I know he threw a lot of chalk at boys (like bullets). I gave up music as soon as I could. It was probably the best school I ever went to - although at the time i used to do as much as possible to break the rules and thus was caned almost every week!! Why was Nevill Holt School the scene of a child abuse scandal? I was a pupil at NH from 84-88. Yes, it is simply unbelievable than nobody adult knew what was going on there. As an 8-year-old I thought everyone had to go to a school like this. I personally did not like him. View details But there's never been any doubt in my own mind that the headmaster and the overwhelming majority of the staff were decent and caring people. Wright stamped on it. Whilst there were a few teachers who scared me a little I always found the Phillips's and Mr Copas to be really nice people. He had me doing calculus but when I got to Uppingham it was all about modern maths which I really didn't grab and my academic career went into freefall!I have fond memories of Nevill Holt and even find myself humming the School Song on occasions! Anyway, the coppers found Copas to be a pedophile, hence why he shot out the breakfast and hung himself. But not sure what to do and only think I'll truly accept this memory if im in any way able to talk to someone from the same time I attended NH. I steered clear whenever he was around; he did make me feel uncomfortable. You rescued me when I was accused of stealing a 'nozzle' from a drinking fountain (why would I ??). Mr Lanyon with his external bag for wee, Mr Moorhouse and his treats for boys - CDMs given out to the quieter, prettier onesI remember the pretty female art teacher and also the irish nurse. I am sad to hear that he was an abuser. The coincidence of having two geography masters exhibiting the same tendencies, one after the other is extraordinary. All done for effect i'm sure. Mr Wooley always gave me the creeps with his suggestive comments. One of the few girls admitted to th school, from what I can remember so that Phillip's daughter could legitimately attend the school. I was at NH from 71 74. Or geography?
the carpentry master, who used to slam the top of a bench with the flat of a saw if he wanted quite; the snooker and billiard room; the swimming pool with the mangle; outdoor swedish exercises in the quad; the rifle range; catching moles and skinning themFilms, at the end of which we had to say "Thank you very much sir"Just thumbing thru' the brochure I still have of that era.. there appears to be an absence of a list of teachers which is v odd. I was there up to 1960 and never got my confiscated knives back.I remember E.E.C. But all in all I had some of the best memories of my life at that place, I still keep in touch with people to this day form there. Was chatting to someone recently about NH. I think there was quite a drinking culture at the top and it was clear that FSP and Miss Graham who became FSPs second wife were part of a serious drinking club that included EEC at weekends. A single spec of mud could result in being dragged to the sinks and having your hands scrubbed raw with those rock hard brushes.