Educational Establishments
Presentation ranks highly “
The main school building with borders and beds maintained by Melvyn Kirk
The main part of the school is on high ground which suffers wind damage in autumn and winter and, as the sportsfield is at the bottom, we get run off problems when prolonged heavy rain occurs
courses, including Chainsaw CS36 and PA 1 and 6 pesticides, First Aid at Work, Health & Safety, Working at Height; strimmer and hedgetrimmer risk assessment, dry stone walling and an excavator licence for 360% up to 10 tonne.” Phew!
St George’s School, Ascot, is a thriving boarding and day school for girls aged eleven to eighteen. It was founded in 1877 by The Reverend Herbert William Sneyd-Kynnersley as a boys’ Prep School with just forty-one pupils. Sneyd-Kynnersley is listed on the Plantagenet Roll as being of Royal Blood and was the son of a Birmingham magistrate. From 1882 to 1884, Winston Churchill was a pupil, starting at the tender age of seven. He refers to the school in his book, My Early Life, as “one of the most fashionable and expensive in the country.” It modelled itself upon Eton and aimed at being preparatory for that Public School. It was supposed to be the very latest thing in schools; “only ten boys in a class; electric light; a swimming pond; spacious football and cricket grounds; a chapel of its own.”
In 1904, it became a finishing school for girls and has remained a girls school to this
100 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014 Peter Thompson (left) with Melvyn Kirk
day, now accommodating over 300 students. Whilst Peter is the sole groundsman, he can now count on assistance with the gardens from Melvyn Kirk. “He is the school gardener (aged 52) and has been here for two years. I am required to write out a weekly worksheet that he has to plan his work around, but he is a great help to me. Until he was taken on, I had to tend the gardens myself. He worked at several National Trust properties on short term contracts prior to coming here, so enjoys the work, as the quality of the flower beds testify.”
The site covers a total of thirty acres, of which 2.7 hectares is sportsfields, two acres are gardens, lawns, amenity and play areas; the rest is woodland which is left as a conservation areas.
Three lacrosse pitches are provided in the autumn and winter which are converted to a 400m running track, shot, discus, javelin for the spring and summer. There is also a long jump pit and four rounders pitches. The
school also hosts summer camps in the holidays.
There are also two blocks of tarmac tennis/netball courts which Peter maintains. These are due to be resurfaced this summer as they are wearing badly.
Peter continues; “the main part of the school is on high ground which suffers wind damage in autumn and winter and, as the sportsfield is at the bottom, we get run off problems when prolonged heavy rain occurs.”
“The soil profile here is quite poor with a thin layer of topsoil and low pH levels. I have been told by several people that I do well to get grass to grow at all! We have to apply lime once a year to help get the levels up, but it’s a slow process and, to be honest, probably something we are going to have to live with.”
“I use industry agronomist Corrin Beaney. He is always ready at the end of the phone with advice if I need it and can put me in touch with any help I may require.”
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