Captain’s log star date twenty eleven or something, Editor Gale has tasked me with a reconnaissance mission into deepest darkest Suffolk to reveal the hidden gems that adorn the east coast. If I accept the mission my sandwich will self- destruct; so I pack my marmalade message into my briefcase and set off for the east coast, not knowing what to expect, only knowing that, somewhere along the line, I had my classic TV introductions mixed up.
Colin Mumford describes what he found when he visited one of East Anglia’s finest schools
T
hey say it is better to travel in anticipation than to arrive in hope. When I travelled recently, it was late spring and most of the country was caught in the midst
of an unseasonal drought. I was expecting nothing but brown parched fields at my destination, so I didn’t arrive in hope, I arrived in Holbrook instead, to meet Tim Parker, the Head Groundsman at the Royal Hospital School (RHS), which was a green oasis, and that was without using water. The Royal Hospital School is a leading independent full boarding and day school for approximately 700 pupils. It was founded in 1712 as part of Greenwich Hospital, a ‘charitable institution for the aged, infirm or young’. The school moved to its present site in the heart of the Suffolk countryside in 1933, because a bigger campus was needed to meet the increasing demand for places at the school. The school is located on the peninsular of the river Orwell and the Stour estuary, meaning it can be very windy and exceptionally cold in the winter months. From the school, you can see Harwich on the far side of the Stour estuary, and the cranes of Felixstowe port on the other side of
the Orwell. The whole site is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the view to the Stour estuary and Shotley peninsula should be an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), especially in the winter when the wading birds on the mud flats take flight and give spectacular aerial displays before they settle down for the night. The site is approximately 200 acres in size, and comprises roughly 100 acres for buildings and surrounding grounds, and 100 acres for sport, of which five acres account for non-turf sports areas. These areas include a parade ground, a tarmacadam hard court surface with six tennis courts and six netball courts, and a floodlit, full size sand filled artificial hockey pitch that doubles up as a further nine tennis courts in the summer months. Tim Parker was born and bred in Guildford, Surrey. Sports mad, he left Read School in Cobham with five O- levels and decided to go to Merrist Wood Agricultural College to do the National Certificate in Agriculture, during which time he worked one day a week on a farm in Farnham, Surrey. After completing his National Certificate, he then worked a further two years on farms in Chichester and Bury St
“We work with the indigenous grasses that have adapted to the conditions of the maritime exposed south facing site, rather than interfering with the natural ecology by trying to introduce industry standard grasses”
Tim Parker, Head Groundsman, Royal Hospital School
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