Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

This morning we had a visitor in church, she signed the visitor book with an address in Barnes Wallis Way, Christ’s Hospital. Over coffee I introduced myself, assuming she must be connected with the school. It was obvious she didn’t know what I was talking about when I said I’d been at Hertford before the merger.

She lives in a private house. It made me wonder how many private houses with occupants unconnected with the school there are, can anyone enlighten me.

It's nice that you still go to church Katharine. Is it CofE? I still have a lingering affection for the CofE although an atheist. I think perhaps we carry with us an earworm of the glories of the Anglican liturgy - the stirring hymns and the readings from the King James Bible - itself a work of literature which has given us a stack of phrases and sayings to our language.

Surprisingly even Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion quotes Giles Fraser, the ex-Canon of St Paul's Cathedral and a writer on religion, as saying that by taking God out of religion (ie putting the dogma on the back burner and making it optional) the CofE had inoculated this country against the genie of religion fanaticism which has lain dormant since the wars of religion four centuries ago, But, maybe surprisingly for a cleric, he says that he thinks a more serious approach to religion is dangerous.

When I was there BW would sometimes pay a visit. We in Coleridge could see him standing on the HM's lawn chatting to Clarence but your brother in Thornton would have realised when the lunchtime band struck up the Dam Busters' march. He would usually give a talk to a group of boys who were at CH under his sponsorship and who wore the 617 squadron insignia on their badge. He would apparently sign autographs with a resigned sigh. He didn't just invent the bouncing bomb, I believe there was also a massively powerful other concrete-busting bomb which some on the site with more scientific knowledge than me will know about.

Sir Barnes Wallis designed three more bombs. First was Tallboy, which was 21ft long, 38in diameter and weighed 12,622lb. It entered service in June 1944 and was used in action with great success by both the RAF and the USAAF. Second, came Grand Slam, essentially a scaled-up Tallboy, with an all-up weight of 22,000lb (9.8tons), 25ft long and 46in diameter. It entered service in March 1945. Had the atomic bombs not been successful the USAAF intended to use some 100 against mainland Japan. Third was Highball, a development of the original bouncing bomb, which was to be carried by Mosquito aircraft against warships. It was never used operationally.

On another point, someone asked about Sir Barnes Wallis Way. I believe that you will find that it is in a small estate of very modern houses in what used to be a farm, alongside the old swimming pool/gym/armoury and opposite the former Post Office.

David

Out of interest, is there a CCF at CH these days? I imagine it long ago ceased to become compulsory like it was in my day. I used to be able to strip, clean, reassemble and fire a Bren (the machine gun of choice back then), .303 rifles and .22s, drill a squad, do an assault course in battledress including the high wire over the stream, map reading, how to set up a firing position while giving covering fire and how to move quietly over terrain while keeping below the skyline. If you passed you got a bit of cardboard which used to be Certificate A Pts 1 & 2, and later Army Proficiency Test. Actually it was all quite farcical. At one point I remember that we hade to jump over a small stream onto the far bank (with our rifles). But it was a wet day and the stream had become swollen and the far bank a morass of mud. But you had to jump because Killer Fry (in khaki) was keeping an eye on us. So we just jumped and the far bank simply became a anarchic melee of giggling, struggling, mud-caked youths. But I suppose all this stuff is what helped us hold down the British Empire.

"But I suppose all this stuff is what helped us hold down the British Empire". I think that rockfreak forgot to mention the two World Wars, in which, if memory serves me aright, the British Army played a part - Alamein, Normandy Landings, Crossing the Rhine, Kohima, etc, etc. And then, of course, there were the Korean War, the Malayan insurgency, the Kosovo campaign, and the Iraq war, to name but a few post-war actions.
David

Yes, CCF still exists.

Is Foureyes suggesting that only the boarding schools contributed to the British army? When did I say that the army shouldn't exist? My father was on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 doing his bit. He came from a working class background in Middlesbrough and left school at fourteen. But it was a fact that when I was at CH in the 1950s the army was largely involved abroad in trying to put out fires in an empire for which there was no longer any public mandate.

Foureyes wrote: Sat Sep 06, 2025 7:33 pm On another point, someone asked about Sir Barnes Wallis Way. I believe that you will find that it is in a small estate of very modern houses in what used to be a farm, alongside the old swimming pool/gym/armoury and opposite the former Post Office.

David

I asked about Barnes Wallis Way as I thought that was what was written in the visitors book, but I have now found its location. It is actually Barnes Wallis Avenue, according to Postcode finder, note no Sir. There are at least 40 houses. I don’t know the Horsham site well enough, but it is to the north of Christ’s Hospital road towards the railway line.