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BACK TO NEWSLETTER 1997 CONTENTS
Articles
Enfield visited
"Why doesn't somebody find out about the original Clayesmore building, situated somewhere in Enfield? A few pictures would be nice for the Centenary Newsletter and perhaps a note about what happened to the building after Lex moved the school to Pangbourne". It then occurred to me that I live in North London, not very far from Enfield, perhaps that Somebody should be me?
Where to start? What would Spinney have done? "Look for the clues, boy" he would have said. I duly set off one Saturday morning in the direction of Enfield. There were a few buildings I knew of that resembled the drawing of the original Clayesmore House in Spinney's book. All over the Ridgeway, Enfield Town, Chase Side I searched, I spotted a few possibles, but had no luck.
Next stop, the following Saturday I went to my local reference library (in Barnet) and after spending a couple of hours looking at various books on famous local buildings, the assistant came over to me and asked if she could help. When I explained what I was looking for she suggested that I go to the Local History Department over the road, where they knew all about such buildings.
Sure enough, over at the Local History Department there were several wise
men all keen to help but none of them had heard of a Clayesmore House. They suggested I go
to the Local History Section in Enfield, (why didn't I think of that?), and they gave me
the address, which was also part of a library. Off I set towards Enfield, ploughing
through heavy Saturday lunch time traffic only to find on arrival, that the library was
surrounded by scaffolding and the Local History Section closed for refurbishment!
What rotten luck! I nearly gave up, (is anyone really interested anyway?)[Yes: Ed.] but I
noted down a telephone number for enquiries displayed below the "Closed" sign.
A few days later I rang up and spoke to someone who was in fact in the Local History Section, (they were ensconced behind all that scaffolding after all).
Yes! They knew of Clayesmore House, and went on to say, "That's off Clay Hill, isn't it? Wasn't there a funny school there once, run by an eccentric crackpot and catering for drop outs or misfits?" What!
Undeterred, I brushed these quips aside and spoke at length to a very helpful lady called Kate, who not only sent me a copy of an O.S. sheet of 1898 showing Claysmore House spelt without the "e", but also an up to date O.S. .sheet of the same area. Kate also sent me a photocopy of a photograph of the building, taken in 1928, but she couldn't remember if the building was still standing.
At last I had located the original Claysmore, and armed with the O.S. sheet I set off to visit the Clay Hill site the following Saturday.
At the approach to old Claysmore, Claysmore Lodge still remains, and it is still named Claysmore Lodge ,without the "e", as in Lex's day, as per my photograph. It is easily recognisable from a photograph taken in Lex's time, which Enfield Library also supplied.
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The long narrow driveway leading to the building was clearly marked "Private Roadway", but undeterred (when was a Clayesmorian ever deterred by a "Keep Out" sign anyway?), I drove up towards the house and stopped a respectable distance away. Sadly, the original Clayesmore House was not there, only a modern, rather plain building in its place, but there was a splendid fir tree still standing which appeared in the 1928 photograph. I got out of my car and took some photographs, and was then startled by, "Oi! What you doing then?"
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I explained my mission, whereupon this country gent related all sorts of interesting historical facts, not so much about Clayesmore House, more about old Reggie Bosanquet (ITV newsreader in the 70s), whose great great grandfather rented Clayesmore House to Lex! The Bosanquets still run a riding stables behind the house, ( the Whiplash Stables , I think he said) although with Reggie gone, the landlord of The Rose & Crown saw business drop dramatically. I had learned that the old building had been burnt down in about 1930 and had been demolished.
I made an appointment to call in to Enfield's Local History Unit to see the original photographs, and upon arrival the Staff had already set out a number of books on Clayesmore House, including Alex Devine's biography and a number of pamphlets on Clayesmore School, including a Jubilee booklet for 1946! They showed me a collection of photographs and I persuaded the man in charge Mr Dowling who was very helpful, to obtain copies of some of these for the OC. newsletter.
I stayed for a least an hour or two, and listened to Mr Dowling relate the entire life history of Clayesmore House and Alex Devine. I promised him I would get him a copy of Spinney's book for The History Section. His final comment was "I think Lex vacated Clayesmore rather hurriedly, did he owe money to anyone?" - I bid my farewells with that.
If any OC has read this far, well done! Here's to the next 100 years, when I expect some other loony OC will be hunting out a building in a remote Dorset village, to see if it is still standing.
Stuart Henley