Justin Morley remembers.....

Mud, tuck, sport and memories.

Ah yes, Durlston Court circa 1970’s. I remember the start of term and lugging my big blue trunk with Morley 18 written on it up to my new dorm at the start of term. The smell of polished floors, mud and disinfectant.  We had to go in via the smelly boot locker room that was next to the Jubilee entrance, it stank of mud as that was where we kept our “gum boots” as they were called. I used to be full of dread when it came to going back to school  as it was then a boarding school.  Being settled into your new dorm, then finding your standard issue metal bed and saying goodbye to your parents, often a quivering lip and a tear or two. Watching their car driving away down the long drive that seemed to stretch for miles. Then catching up with holiday news from your school chums and swapping sweets and getting back to boarding school life and gossip.

We had long velvet grey shorts in the winter that stopped at your knees and grey socks that came to your knees. Your legs got quite cold in the winter so we used to stand against the radiators (when they were turned on) to keep warm, “you will get chill blains” the teachers would shout at us. We also had a summer uniform and were allowed to wear “Muffti” as I think it was called? on Sundays. These were dungarees and were classed as “casual clothes” although we all wore them and they were blue. We used to make underground camps and climb trees in the school grounds, which were a lot bigger in those days where the new housing estate now stands. 

I remember runs along the cliff at Barton On Sea and playing Rugby in all weathers, rain or snow, well I stood there shivering and looking at the ground often to be screamed at to “wake up Morley”. I hated all sport and was a bit of a “wet blanket “as they used to say in those days, during cricket I would day dream in the long grass as fielder plotting my escape, only to be screamed at to run after the ball.  PY, the school vicar was the best teacher and used to give us peanuts and soda stream drinks in return for doing small tasks around the school such as picking up litter or cleaning the chapel.  I remember the feared headmaster who put terror into every boy. He used to wear brown plastic glasses, sports jackets with arm patches on the elbows where the material had worn out and red Doc Martin shoes that squeaked when he walked down the corridor. They acted as an early warning alarm that he was coming, he also smoked a pipe so you smelt him first then saw him arriving. We all had our own pegs in the changing room with our school number above them and kept our slippers next to our bedside tables.

The terms seemed like years to us boys and I remember always looking forward to weekends at home that only came 2 or 3 times a year, we did however have very long summer holidays that could last 7 weeks or more. It was not all hard times, although the food was really awful we had Tuck (a Mars bar and Polos) and a cooked breakfast of sorts on Sundays, (a cold fried egg and maybe a sausage) we were also allowed to watch TV sometimes, classics from the 70s such as The Professionals, The Guns of Naverone, Tales of the Unexpected or Saturday Swap Shop etc often watched in PY’s shack. This was where he lived and it was a wooden hut in the school grounds near the school chapel.

The school was a harsh environment by today’s standards but it did us good. It taught you right from wrong and I think it installed a sense of “others” rather than just the self that seems to be the sad vogue these days. Many of the teachers worked at the school for 20 years or so and gave everything to it. Although I hated it at the time, I had some good friends and missed the place when I was later dispatched to a public school that was the big wide world and an even harsher environment in which to cope in. Durlston Court was like a strict but loving parent that looked after you but also told you off when you were wrong. I am now convinced that we can all learn a lot from that these days. About the only thing I learnt was how to do hospital corners on a bed, polish my shoes so they shone and good manners, I suppose good learning by many standards. I will not forget my time there albeit only 3 years!

Justin Morley Durlston Court circa 1970’s.