Mowden Hall School

Leading Co-Educational Independent Prep School For Children aged 3-13 Years

Mowden Archives club

Mowden Archives club

Though the ‘Archive Club’ members have tried copying some of the exercises, using ink and nibs, from P.P. Harris’ ‘Writing and Dictation Book, 1936’, and hunting down their Mowdenian family members, the ‘Mowden Archive Project’ is in its infancy. Items of interest have included the Inspector's report from March, 1940, hoping that the 'headmaster would continue to have the courage of his convictions and would carry on the good work he was doing'. Discovery of the observatory and tunnel (over which the children have been running in the woods) on an original map; the World War Two school menu from Falbarrow (described by Mr Marchbank, the Headmaster, as a 'funk hole in case Hitler got tough' and the school's new home when the Air Ministry took over Mowden); and the 1982 fire, have created the biggest buzz so far. The oldest document unearthed, is an accounts book from the ‘Christmas Term 1935’ (the year the school began, as a result of a bridge party in Gosforth ), when ‘D.S Bennett, from Middlesbrough, boarded @30 guineas, not inclusive of Extras’. Our long-term aim is to create a display trail around the school, so that we all become more aware of the history and stories behind the house we are lucky to live and work in.