Scenes from Boarding School Life - 2I was reminded by the News that 17th October was the 50th anniversary of the opening of Britain’s first Nuclear Power Station at Calder Hall in Cumbria (or Cumberland as it was then)
I was there!
The whole school attended the event; I believe we actually went in coaches - a rare novelty (is that tautology?) as we would often traipse along the Cinder Track on Sunday walks, from the village almost to the boundary wire of the power station (known to us just as 'Sellafield')
Opening of Calder Hall 1956
It was the school's misfortune that the power station was built virtually on its doorstep - well, about a mile away further up the coast. This was to have a detrimental effect on school numbers, and a nuclear accident in 1957 hastened the school’s demise.
The village expanded considerably during the late 50s, estates being built to house the ‘Boffins’.
The word Boffin summoned up a picture of a mythical being, something akin to a Hobbit (which is probably why there is a family so named in Tolkien's books)
Presumably these boffins were hard at work in their labs whenever we ventured out to the village to play hockey at Bottom Pitch (which we shared with the local team), and they must have been tucked away in their little boffinish houses when we processed along the road to Church on a Sunday. (Boffins surely would be sceptics, wouldn‘t they?)
Because all the time I was there I don’t think I ever saw one; I was sure that I would recognise one if I did.
No, I never once saw a Boffin.
No comments:
Post a Comment