Welcome to the Goldings Guest Book ** We APPROVE all messages before they are posted ** Add a message : back to Goldings.org : Search There are now 5745 messages in our guestbook. <<< 1 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 1149 >>> Viewing messages 4226 to 4230. Dave Many thanks once again for your help Jon.If you live local to Hertford we would be delighted to see you at our re-union.I don't know if you are aware that me and Fred Barnes meet up regular with the view of compiling a book on Goldings to be published (Fred spent many years researching Goldings and he is a wealth of information)and he is friends to another old Goldings boys? family in Birmingham who own a large printing company that due to Goldings he related his success.You are welcome to any information that we hold that would help you providing it doesn't invade their privacy! I have many articles on the early years which have not yet been put on the site!! which may take your interest along with the war years era which is very interesting.The book due to the large amount of information will be in 4 volumes,and the covers are ready, titled..."The Beginning" 20's, "The Gathering War Clouds" 30's - 40's, "A new Dawn" (the arrival of Mr Wheatley)and "The Final Curtain" 50's 60's and the close.My address is Mr D.Blower, 103 Mellish Road, Walsall, West Midlands. WS4 2DE. Many Thanks Jon. 2 September 2008 - Getting ready for the re-union jon | parsons@coldashby.fsnet.co.uk Dave, I wish I had the information you seek, because I feel that Barnardos were never very good at realizing the value of their assets. Most of their buildings were given or sold to them at reduced prices by benefactors, when they are no longer needed they often lay empty, and then eventually redeveloped as flats, old people's homes or as building plots with someone else making the profit. At Goldings they only got £10.10s for the sale of the old organ. Each year Barnardos published an Annual Report - this was a sort of publicity, fund raising booklet - surprisingly not printed at Goldings. I only have one - the 71st for 1936, but there are articles about each of the homes, acquisitions and disposals, and the usual poignant stuff about Barnardo Child made good plus forms on which to send donations. There is a day timetable for WBTS in that issue. If you send me your address to my email I will happily loan it to you to copy what you need. Similarly if you or others have other issues, I would like to borrow them. 1 September 2008 Dave Jon,if you have such information on their accounts,what did Barnardo's get for the sale of Goldings to H.C.C because I don't seem to be able to find out other than speculation! some are saying a £1-00 but surely that isn't true,as that would be sacrilege.I have the set of accounts when H.C.C.took over the building and I quote...The Department of Education and Science agreed to recommend loan sanction for the purchase of Goldings for future use as a Teachers Centre.It was proposed in the early years due to restrictions on capital expenditure to house 110 students of Hatfield College of Technology? until such times that capital will be available. Estimated running cost's (including debt charges)30s per sq foot £46,000-00. Estimated cost per student accommodated £137-00 year 1967. Food for thought? 31 August 2008 - seeking the facts Jon The articles written by Mr Wheatley on this and the other site really show that he was an educationalist way ahead of his time, totally dedicated to his task. He writes somewhere about how the dining arrangements do not prepare any boy for eating in normal society and it sounds as though he intended each house to eventually have its own dining room - one of his few visions not achieved. You are right, I am sure, that Barnardos did not realise what it had and purely looked at the balance sheet and saw what an expense WBTS was. However there is a fault in DBH method of accounting. In their annual accounts - I have the ones for 1936, the expenditure for each home is listed and WBTS is the third most expensive after the two villages and ahead of Watts & Russell Cotes. These costs will include all the leather, wood, metal etc for the trades and the larger number of staff needed to train young people. The financial benefit to DBH in shoes, shoe repairs, articles made for other homes is not listed. The fees for performances by the band and gym squad are presumably lumped in with other donations. Of all the homes, I would imagine that WBTC was the only one that did anything major to create an income and if that had been taken off the cost it would have appeared a lot less costly. All the young people there were at the older end, and would naturally cost more to feed and clothe, and as all the children were taught on site there has to be the salaries and costs of education to consider. As someone outside the organisation it strikes me that within a home, there was no one able to argue against an unjust decision on an individual, and similarly no one able to argue against an unjust decision about a home. 30 August 2008 Dave Many thanks Jon for showing such interest about Goldings. Druids Heath when it was in use is about a mile up the road from my house. Regards the staff at Goldings coping with it being a Borstal or Approved School, I personally doubt if they could have as the majority of them would have been unable to "Wield the Big Stick" as I recall their characters, but advice on the matter they held a wealth of experience in controlling young men and boys without the need of "The Big Stick" so from that point of view Barnardo's lost a wonderful team, and this I feel was a missed oportunity by them, or perhaps Barnardo's was that out of touch at the time they wasn't aware? As I would like quote our last headmaster Mr Embleton "I only met Barnardo's hierarcy twice! once for my interview for the post in 1945, and the next time was to tell us in 1966 about it's iminent demise! so draw from that what you may! Until I received my "records" of time in care I wasn't aware that Mr Wheatley continued to monitor my career twelve months after I had left Goldings, and continued to badger Walsall Social Services to encourage me to set my sights much higher than what they were reporting back at the time!! how many schools did that I ask? Talking to David his son, he is convinced that the early death of his father (69) may have been partly bought about knowing all his, and many others on his staff the many years of hard work was to continue no longer! Progress!! 30 August 2008 - rose tinted spectacles <<< 1 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 1149 >>> You can search this guestbook by: Message : - Name : - All : Please type some text: - Guest book sponsored by PC Home Help (01922) 626 366 - http://www.pchomehelp.net -