Here are some recollections of Longdon by David Wall (Aston 1960):

David Wall in 1964

"I've always had a great affection for Longdon - even whilst I was there and trying to avoid duties like peeling the spuds or mucking out the pigs, I was enjoying myself. That week we had picking spuds in the field opposite was probably the worst, as I am now 6' 8" tall it was hard bending down all that way. We had 'projects' to do whilst we were there and I chose to map the local area out as far as the partly demolished (as it was then) Beaudesert Hall. Even then however it was still easy to imagine the opulence, and the semi circular wall surrounding one of the pools was amazing (to a 15yr old). I had great fun walking the country lanes with my tape measure and calculating the gradients.

One of the pictures (possibly on the Friendsreunited site) shows one of the huts and likens it to Stalag Luft V - when I was there, it wasn't used as a classroom, but we were able to do indoor sports there such as table tennis and badminton.

There were only six beds in our dorm.

I am now resident in Sydney, Australia and actually last evening, my brother (12 years older than me) and living in Southampton - spent over two hours on the 'phone - with us both going through your and the Friends sites looking at the pictures and having fond memories. My brother - Richard Wall - was at KEGS between 1949 and 1955 or so he tells me and he took great pleasure in reading about the teachers (mostly of his time) but some of them were more in my time. I well remember Harry Tyson "It's in your notebook" was his catchphrase in my time. And the two Ernies.

Again - probably on the Friends site - there are two pictures the same but identified as being Longdon L4 Winter 1963 and also Spring 1964. I can well remember the bloody snow and the roaring fires in those pot belly stoves in the classrooms - it was definitely the Winter of '63, as my Mom had passed away in the February and I suppose Longdon was getting me away from all of that."