Vanbrugh Castle School

The Vanbrugh Chronicle - Introduction

The Chronicle was a publication produced by the boys which began in 1963. It was published at the end of each term to keep parents and other interested parties informed of the goings-on at the school. It was a simple typewritten un-glossy magazine and was sold for pence.

These editions show that life at Vanbrugh Castle School in the 1960's and 1970's was a world away from the that in earlier years.

It became a preparatory school for boys aged 8 to 13. There were many activities to interest the boys and keep them occupied, and they seemed to enjoy themselves.

The boys left here to continue their education at several other schools with which the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund had arrangements - Kingham Hill, Reed's, Royal Wolverhampton, Salesian College and others. In the OLD BOYS sections of these editions of The Chronicle there are many references to these schools.

To give an idea of the look of The Chronicle, thumbnail copies of the pages from one edition are shown below - the front and back pages were usually in a pastel colour (this edition had a loose sheet of LATE NEWS stapled to the front cover). For this website the editions have been digitised and transformed into HTML to make them suitable for viewing in a variety of browsers and electronic devices. A liberty has been taken in colouring all the pages, in a particular edition, the same colour as the two outer pages.

The many references to C.C.F. at Kingham Hill School is the Combined Cadet Force (Army & Air Force) which all boys had to join.

The later editions of the Chronicle were produced primarily by the headmaster J.H.Corner. He seems to have become exasperated by the effort it took to produce and the lack of appreciation of it by the mothers.

Corner retired in 1972, and the Vanbrugh Chronicle died.

---

Facsimiles of the pages of one edition.