“Willingly to School!” The Rowland Years.

 

“Willingly to School!” The Rowland Years.

Put together by Trev Teasdel.

Robert Vickers Rowland Headmaster 1961 - 64

In the last issue of The Boarder (School magazine No3 July 1961) the editors wrote - 

"We look forward to a new period in the school's history. A period which will be inaugurated when Mr R.V. Rowland takes over the headship in September. He has already spoken of his keenness to come to the school, and our best wishes go to welcome him."

He had big shoes to fill with the death of Mr RT Morris but was already up for it  -  Alison Rowland told me -

" In terms of the social history, the development of a local authority version of a public school education was part of the whole post-war 'levelling' process, and something my father (Bob Rowland) was very interested in. He was from a very modest background, but had won a scholarship to Solihull School, and went on from there to build a successful academic career. He was passionate about learning (and couldn't pass a bookshop, whether new or second-hand, without buying something), and wanted a good education to be available to all."

The Boarder, in the same issue as above, interviewed Mr Rowland in July 1961 as he visited the school to have a look around and meet some of the boys.

Profile of Mr RV Rowland

"With the death of Mr RT Morris, an era in the history of our school ended; with the coming of Mr RV Rowland, a new age begins, the exact outlines of which will not be visible for some time.

Mr Robert Vickers Rowland is of welsh extraction and attended school in Solihull. Soon after leaving school, war broke out and he joined the RAF and he became a pilot. When the war ended, he studied at Birmingham University and took a degree in German. Afterwards he did  postgraduate work at Oxford and in Germany.

He taught in a number of schools, the most recent being Prince Henry's school in Evesham and Wolverstone hall. The latter is a boarding school run by London County Council and is similar, in some respects to our own school.

When I asked him for his first impression of the boys, he said it was their neatness which was most notable. He said he was impressed by the tidiness of the school and also by the general politeness he met whilst walking around during his visit to the Founder's day cricket match.

With some trepidation, I asked him if he had hopes for the school. He smiled and in a loud voice said "Good gracious, yes.". He went on to say he wanted new buildings and to make sure the school maintained its good record. He also expressed the wish to cultivate new interests in the school and was keen in furthering the development of the social committee." 

M. McAvoy  form Upper 1V

It's interesting that he wanted buildings, and shows he was keen to build on some the initiatives of RT Morris in developing the capacity of the school, but he also had some of his own ideas.

In 1963 a photographer and journalist from the Coventry Express came to the school and also interviewed the new headmaster, who by then had been in the job nearly two years. I personally remember this as I was in my first year at the school as the photographer came around taking photos, some of which, the published ones, you'll see below.

WILLINGLY TO SCHOOL  - Coventry Express 1963.

"We are not fighting pictures or the telly every night" said the tweed suited teacher. "Extra evening study is always done, and willingly!" He was talking to me in the masters' common room at the City of Coventry Boarding School where 170 Coventry boys live in a wild and beautiful part of Shropshire.

This school, a cluster of buildings on a hill overlooking the small village of Cleobury Mortimer, a few miles from Kidderminster, could be the poor man's Eton. But a public public school is the best description. A place where boys from the ages of 11 to 15 (16) live a genuine classless existence. It offers some of the best qualities of the traditional public school without its drawbacks. It makes no difference who your father is or what kind of car he drives. Motorcycle combinations and E type Jaguars stand side by side on visiting day. There is no fagging and the results speak for themselves.

The City of Coventry Boarding school, which has been open since the summer of 1940, is the boarding school of the Coventry education Authority. In the blitz it was used as a receiving centre for boy evacuees.

Buildings
And suddenly from the experiences of these boys the education people realised that living in a friendly community with hundreds of boys of the same ages developed a strong spirit of self reliance. And that is why Coventry Boarding school is still operating today. A new school building programme is on the drawing boards. The headmaster has had to turn down hundreds of requests for places each year. There were almost 75 per cent GCE passes last year.

Parents pay according to their means. Tuition is free and the boarding fee less than the actual cost to the Authority. Parents may ask for an assessment of the actual fee which is £100 a year. The London County Council run the same kind of school at Woolverstone Hall but the fees at Woolverstone are much higher, up to a maximum of £240. The boys at Cleobury Mortimer, in the regulation navy blue blazers and grey flannels, are well spoken, well mannered and able to stand on their own two feet.

The 15 year old school Captain, David Holmes, of 62, Northumberland Road, Coventry, told me "There is little or no bullying by the upper school. If the younger boys are upset about anything they go to their housemaster. He is like a father to them. I take my GCE's in the summer and then I hope to become a draughtsman. I think the education here is of a higher standard than the normal secondary school. The classes are smaller and get individual attention."

TELEVISION
"Although we have television here, it is not a distraction. This evening most of the upper school will be studying without supervision. Not because they have to, but because they want to."

The 42 year old headmaster, Mr Robert Rowland was senior housemaster at the LCC's Woolverstone Hall.

This is his third year as head of the Coventry School. He lives with his wife and three children Susan (13), Alison (9) and Jonathan (6 months) in a cottage in the school grounds. He has attempted to bring new ideas to the school. If a problem comes up, he gathers the House Captains together and discusses the problem with them. And in most cases he yields to their wishes. The boys flock to his small crowded study with their requests and problems.
"I hope before long to achieve a limited range of sixth form courses. To give the boys a chance at University places." He told me.

He spoke about his big problem, homesickness on the first day.. "This shows itself immediately and the boys make it worse by not taking any interest in the things going on around them. But we are soon able to get to the root of the problem, and then they settle in happily."

Eleven year old Gordon Talbot, of 172, Lockhurst Lane, Coventry, started at the school in September. He said : "When I first came I thought I wanted to go home again but then I made friends a few of the other new boys. Now i love it here. The hours of sport are terrific." The boys are allowed to watch television for a few hours each evening if they want to.

GIRLFRIENDS
There are the usual school societies in the evening, and on Saturdays the boys can go down the village to the cinema, or go cycling in the lovely countryside. Sport in the healthy Shropshire air takes up only the usual part of any school curriculum. Equal emphasis is placed on the arts and the sciences.

"This is not a monastic life" said Mr Rowland, "Some of the older boys have girl friends in the village. This is not frowned on, the only stipulation made is that the girl's parents know of the relationship. I would like to organise school dances. But there are just not enough girls in the nearby area."

City of Coventry Boarding school pupils go out into the world with something the secondary modern or comprehensive cannot give them. They go with a sense of independence and ruggedness, a thing not easily cultivated."

I almost got in this photo - behind the last boy seen in the photo! Of course, we were posing!

Left to right - Malcolm Carroll, Michael Burns, Frankie Fasulo,, ?, Hughes. This was Mr Chopping's Chemistry class in the old science lad.

Matron (Miss Richards) and Mrs Barbara Rowland

Nr and Mrs Chinn (Director of Education with Mr and Mrs Rowlands 1964.

Mr Chinn and Mr Rowland on sports day.

David Partridge, One of the pupils in the early 60's remembers him fondly " Mr Rowlands had been a student at Gottingen University before the war and then a bomber pilot in WWll, difficult time for him I think. He was very good news, and he also taught French rather well."

Alison Rowland (using her maiden name) adds - 
" Somewhere, I have a full obituary for my father which appeared in Janus, the school magazine for Woolverstone Hall, the school where my father taught before becoming Head at C of C. My father won an exhibition to Cambridge, but did not take this up because of the outbreak of war. Following his war service first as a pilot and then in intelligence, he attended The University of Birmingham where he obtained a First Class honours degree in German. He went on to do a teacher training qualification, winning the Cadbury Prize for Education, and then spent time studying at Gottingen University (not Heidelberg, as mentioned by one of your contributors), before beginning a career teaching modern Languages.

My mother, Barbara, continued to live in Cleobury Mortimer after my father’s death, until she died in 2001, aged 79. She is buried, along with my father and my sister, Susan, in Neen Savage churchyard – a place full of memories. My mother forged a long and lasting friendship with my father’s successors at the school, George and Margaret Parker."

And here it is - 

http://www.whs-archives.net/docs/janus/sn/def.htm

It's hard to access Mr Rowlands's progress on these ideas as his tenure was cut short but it has been mentioned that he campaigned vigorously for new buildings and it is notable that work began on the new school building - variously referred to as The Senior block or later Forest Lodge, in 1965, a year after his death. There will be more on the new block in another post.

Inside the new block 1966

The idea of developing the social committee maybe never happened but that would have been a good development, sadly though the school magazine ceased to exist, for whatever reason, in 1961 and I think that would have enhanced any new social committee. He had the idea of creating school dances - these did emerge, at least briefly under Mr Parker, in 1967, just before I left and at least one other.

Rowland wanted to develop a sixth form too, to enable some pupils to access higher education. This never came to fruition although some of us did go on to get degrees, often as mature students but an A' level pathway was never developed at the school. Had he lived a six form might have come to fruition at the school.

There was seriously some good potential under Mr Rowland but as Rosemary Webb-Rehill, the bursar's daughter reports - a large part of that potential was never realised - 

"Sadly he died February 28th 1964 - Rosemary Webb Rehill recalls " Bob Rowland had been visiting a boy who was in jail. He was on the M6 and rear ended a broken down lorry. The big scandal was that he was "over the 8". The sad part was that Barbara Rowland had just had a baby (Jonathan)......Bob Rowland had three children, Sue, Allison and Jonathan. He came to City of Cov. after Mr.Morris had a heart attack in the assembly hall during a play. I think? it must have been early 60's. late 50's. Sue was the same age as me. After Bob died in that tragic road accident. The Rowlands moved down to a house in the vicarage in Neen Savage. Barb. Rowland bought land from Jim Davis (I'm guessing insurance money) in the village and had a small house built. Sue was killed in a tragic road accident a few years later in Kinlet.."

His former school Woolverstone Hall, remembered him via The Rowland Memorial Prize -

" A new prize, the Rowland Memorial Prize, will be competed for for the first time this term. The fund from which this prize will derive is made,up,of contributions from members of the teaching and administrative staff who worked at Woolverstone Hall with the late Mr. R. V. Rowland, and from the Old Boys' Association. It will be awarded to the winner of an annual essay competition, set by the deputy Headmaster on a subject of general rather than specialised interest." http://www.ecoates.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/janus/whj/w64j.htm

He was also remembered at Solihull School, Birmingham,  where he was a pupil -

Robert Rowland was a pupil at the Solihull School - a British Independent school situated near the centre of Solihull, West Midlands, England. 2010 saw Solihull School celebrate its 450th anniversary since its foundation in 1560.

He was mentioned in their Silhillian journal -

You can read more about that school on an earlier post on this site https://wyrefarmed.blogspot.com/2011/09/robert-vickers-rowland-headteacher-to.html

In the 17th century Solihull school became a boarding school and the number of pupils grew. The school became more notable and well thought of due to the involvement of several prominent families. Much of this development came under the Headmastership of Rev. Richard Mashiter who, in 1735, was famously elected ahead of Dr Samuel Johnson, the celebrated author, essayist, and lexicographer.

From the 1962 School Brochure