Shute After The War

A Memory of Shute.

My sister and I were at Shute between 1949 and 1952, and I hardly recognise some of the memories here! For us it was a happy place, where we rode ponies and made dens in the woods. We learned about wildflowers - Mrs. Clapp was very particular about that, and I still remember their names - we climbed the magnificent cedar tree, we played rounders on the lawns, were coached in tennis by Mr. Roupell and there was a craze for roller-skating in the gym. We used to crash through the rhododendrons on the Beacon and shiver at the haunted Lady Walk. We were always looking for secret tunnels and were thrilled when we found what we thought was one in the outside wall of the church. Yes, the food was not great, but it was not long after the war and it was just about adequate. We were sometimes cold, and I did get chilblains.

I remember Mrs. Clapp telling us that the King had died and how sad we all were.

We were all staunch Conservatives and there was a club called the Vermin Club, after some pronouncement by the Labour Party. Depending on how many others you enrolled you could become a Vile Vermin or even a Very Vile Vermin.

If you were naughty you were sent to Mahdi's beautiful office in one of the old drawing rooms of the Georgian house, We had to lie on the floor and study the Adam ceiling, and again I vividly remember all the swirls and garlands and the Four Seasons in the corners. As punishments go it was not a bad one!

One of the great features of the house was the theatre, a miniature theatre complete with stage and backstage, proscenium arch and four or five rows of tip-up velvet-covered seats in the auditorium. All sorts of productions went on there, and Gilbert & Sullivan was a favourite: Trial by Jury, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado, in which I played one of the Three Little Maids. When I went back to Shute, many, many years later, I was deeply distressed to find that the theatre had been destroyed when the house was converted into flats, as had the Secret Stairs. However, the conversion was sensitively done on the whole and the fine hall and splendid staircase remain, as do the grounds.

Incidentally I also had a pash on Helen Wroth (see Anne Moon's memory). I wonder what happened to her?