HERTIAGE
The heavy snow falls in early winters brought added
enjoyment. Our fathers had to dig paths out of the brick
hut staff housing and, to our delight, the green bus from
Newcastle failed to get us to school. The long icicles from
the hut roofs provided walking sticks, swords or merely
trophies, while the lawn in front of Keele Hall proved an
ideal slope for sledging.
The small size of the university (only 19 academic staff
and 157 students in 1950) meant that everyone knew
each other and parents were happy for their children to
roam across the campus. We scaled the scaffolding of the
buildings under construction, dared each other to walk
across the spillway between the first and second lakes,
walked nervously through the partially collapsed tunnel
leading to the grotto and leaned into the wishing well to
drop pennies for luck. We survived and we were happy.
Relations with the students
Keele was a community. We treated the students as part
of our big family. They built bonfires for Guy Fawkes Night
and helped with the Sunday school set up by Mary Glover.
They organised big Christmas parties and the Coronation
event at Hawthorns House, where we all wore red, white
and blue. We particularly enjoyed watching the students
perform The Tempest (1953), As You Like It (1954) and
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1955) in front of the first
lake and Romeo and Juliet (1956) in the courtyard of the
Clock House. The students were a very positive part of our
life at the university and we gained a lot from them.
The Keele Wives
Some wives worked; Helen’s mother lectured part time in
the Economics department. With little access to outside
entertainment, the wives were also central to creating
a social community at Keele, holding dinner parties for
visiting academics and frequent informal parties for
staff and students. They also established a flourishing
Brownie Pack for the children. In addition, they were
prominent in the Keele Players; a staff group that
produ