During the 2nd World War Dôl Llys Hall became the home for St Wilfrid’s Boys School which was relocated from Seaford in Sussex, and which housed between 50 and 60 boys under their headmaster George ‘Pip’ Pearson. We’ve been very pleased to hear from former pupils about those years and their comments are reproduced here. One St Wilfrid’s ’old boy’ Mr Omar Malik very kindly provided us with an old school tie and a couple of photographs from the period, which have subsequently been framed and are now displayed above the fireplace in our drawing room. Similarly Mr Greg Randall generously sent copies of the school’s magazine published between the years of 1940 and 1945. Any donations of memorabilia from the Hall’s past are of course gratefully received and will be cherished for posterity.
A feature that several correspondents have mentioned is the large pond to the north of the lawn. Clearly a source of pleasure to the pupils it provided a venue for model boating, and the older students were allowed to fish there for perch and roach. We are indebted to Mr Humphrey Platts for providing us with this image from 1941
Due sadly, so the story goes, to some later injudicious dredging by the council, the pond’s clay lining was disturbed, and consequently when the water table drops in the summer months the lake dries out and disappears until the late autumn. Unfortunately, the co-operative does not have the funds to resolve this as much as we would like to. However, it still provides us with some fine views, as this picture, taken in February 2019 demonstrates.