Old Princethorpians

On the back of coverage in the Leamington Courier in June of the College's Golden Jubilee celebrations a number of past pupils and those connected with the College were prompted to make contact once again. One such person was Patrick Garrett who sent this evocative message to the OPs.

Way back in 1955 when the Benedictine nuns were in residence I was nine and living in Lanarkshire with my family, six of us children and my Mum and Dad. The future did not look bright for us as we grew up with little chance of jobs as we left school so my parents decided to move to that seemingly magic place called England.

Dad who was a farmer and my mother went to England and that even more magical place called Princethorpe to see the Reverend Mother who ran a girls school to get a job on the Priory Farm.

So it came to pass late on 5th November 1955 after an eight hour train ride we stepped onto Rugby Station and was met by a very small bus. We loaded our few belongings one collie and a pet rabbit and were delivered to a small two bedroom cottage on the Oxford Road. A warm welcoming little house withe a fire burning in the hearth and lovely neighbours who had food prepared and who called us not "Wains" but Ducks!

Us younger ones went to school in the village where the head was a nun from a different order (Sisters of Mercy I think) called Sister Clare. I learned basic Latin and served as an altar boy in the Priory Church designed by Pugin that served as our parish church in the Wappenbury parish.

I can never remember a happier time of my life than the few years I spent in Princethorpe, even though the toilet was at the bottom of the garden and all the cottages used the same communal tap down the gardens. To be fair that was luxury compared to some of the places we lived in in Scotland. As we grew up four boys and two girls the house proved too small so we moved to another farm in Dunchurch.

In what seemed like many years later in 1965 when I worked at a removal firm called Sam Robbins I was involved in moving the Nuns out of the Priory. I remember that it seemed ghostly and haunted so I was glad when the MSCs took over and breathed new life into the school.

50 years where has that all gone!

Patrick is now a retired HGV driver and lives in Bilton, Rugby with Patricia, his wife of 47 years.