Fires...

With no mobiles or twitter back then, I remember turning up at school finding that it’d been semi-cremated. I asked a policeman how long we’d get off school and he said several weeks! Oh the joy…

Our elation was short lived, as word soon got out (the old-fashioned way) that some of the pupils had been helping with the clean-up. Oh, how COULD they?!

I think it was about a week later when we returned to our classrooms (ours being so close to the event that we all stunk of bonfires by the time we went home).

I remember there was a lot of fuss over not being able/allowed up the stairs (the ones next to the chemistry & biology rooms) while the rebuilding work was going on, and I think that Stour house had to be mended.

Approximately 4 months after this fire there was another (possibly in the chemistry lab). Clearly, Sudbury Upper School was quite flammable in those days!

Stairs...

Long before J K Rowling created the fabulous moving staircases at Hogwarts, SUS pupils struggled with the almost bizarre levels and stairs inside a school which is built on a hill. On entering the front of the school at ground level you can climb a set of stairs, continue walking to the back of the school, and still exit at ground level!