Waste not, want not

Austerity is a word back in common use these days, so it is interesting to see how The Leys School managed resources back in the Depression years of the 1930s and 1940s.

School librarian Alison Lainchbury recently came across a small official notebook called a “detriments book” in which breakages by pupils were recorded.

The strictness of the system is evident in one note about the loss of a table spoon in the dining hall, for which the culprit “owned up by his own accord and signed at once.” The timing of the minor disaster was recorded to the second.

The abject tones of apology reached satirical levels on some occasions, as when H M Rollinson gave “Gross Negligence” as the reason for the loss of a fork on March 3, 1943.

“The book must have been kept close to the kitchen,” said Alison. “At some point someone started writing recipes in it.”

The book is one of a number of interesting items which have come to light in the school’s archive. Old school uniforms and chamber pots are included in the collection, and a small quantity of crockery bearing the school crest is now on display in Common Room.