Memories

A universal truth about the Cooper’s Hill Campus is that it has a deep and long-lasting effect on all who have been lucky enough to stay there. This site was created to preserve a great place of shared learning and personal discovery for the many hundreds of students who passed through its gates.

During the creation of the site, the author encountered many folk who had studied and lived during Shoreditch Technical College years, and it was incredible how many traditions transcended both education tenures and how fond everyone was of their time there.

Since launching, the site has received many messages from alumni of all ages, and from all around the globe, which reflect this. If you have have a memory to share, or photos, then please do consider sending using the form here.

172 thoughts on “Memories”

  • Tom, just got your FB message tonight. This is a fantastic piece of work, I could spend hours on this site. I’ve lived in Reed, Scrivens, College and Bradley Halls between ’89 and ’93 and this will help preserve my fond memories for years after the buildings are gone. I’ve poked my nose around the campus (without permission) a couple of time since then, but I’ve not had the selflessness nor the ability to document it in the way you have. Bravo.

  • Fantastic work Tom. You have done something which I’m sure will touch anyone who lived on Runnymede Campus. I was almost entirely a Bradley boy for my whole 4 yr duration (1988-1992) with the exception of summer time lodgings in College, and a few special nights in Scrivens and Marshall. It was a fantastic time in my life and your site is bringing it all back. Thank you.
    Just a thought, but I know many people have some excellent photos of their time on campus. It would be great to see a section where we could archive images of students around the campus. Tasteful ones obviously.

    Thanks again.

  • Hey Steve – lovely to hear from you. Exactly the reaction I was hoping for! I’d love you get word out to JT, Max, Jim Burley and the other B300 regulars if you’re in touch.

    Photo galleries are a common request, and i’m already looking at options to offer that. I could either host them here, or link to your own galleries on Flickr, Picasa etc, whether tasteful or not. I’d love to see some of the Bradley parties again – fire up your scanner and send them my way.

  • Jason – you win the ‘first comment’ award – congratulations! Lovely to hear from you, and thanks for the kind words. It’s reactions like that that I was hoping for, and kept me going through the long nights stitching all the photos together.

  • Nice work Tom.

    This brought back so many great memories of “Bunnymede”.
    It will alway be a special and magical place for me, nice to have this as a reminder of the way I remember it.

    A fitting tribute to the Place, the People and the Parties.

    Cheers
    Neil

  • My uni! Oh, wait, it wasn’t….well if feels like it was, especially seeing the pictures again. Well done Tom!
    xxx

  • Fantastic work Tom – good to see we all share the same enthusiasm for the old place. Very fond memories indeed. Looking back now we were very lucky to be resident in a country house with a golf course thrown in for good measure! Of course it was just ‘normal’ for us at the time! I agree with Steve (Hi Steve btw), it would be brilliant if we could share our own photos as well…

  • Wow Tom, this must have taken sometime to put together, its very impressive..

    PQ if you read this and anyone else – its 20years since some of us left Brunel,time flies………. we were thinking about some kind of reunion – possibly Runnymede based for any who was there around 20 years ago (give or take) autumn time? PQ you had had a beer but I think it would be a good idea to try and sort something somewhere.

    Miss the old place – a great four years!

    Sharon McCarthy 1988-92

  • Hi Tom

    Brilliant site, bringing so many fond memories back for me. At the time you take Runnymede for granted, but since leaving in 1992 I have missed the place and what you have done will bring many a smile on many faces.

    I agree with Gavin and Steve, I’m sure I could dig out some photos of many happy times there, and so could other past students. One particular memory springs to mind in the first year when we all made solar water heaters and tested our contraptions outside President Hall. I’ve got a photo somewhere in the loft!

    I can see I will be visiting this site on many more occasions. Hi to all who remember me.

    Lawrence (Loz) Sneary 1987-1992

  • Excellent work my good man, photos look great. I sometimes have to go to Egham for work so have popped in a few times to poke about. I still remember the shopping trolley through Scriven first floor windows (thanks Jon Rose) and stucking the comedy hands on to the President clock. Anyone remember being hauled up in front of Caroline “forty” Watts for some terrible misdemeanour about the place? Pretty sure the refectory roof is the only one of its type still standing? I still do a bit of work for Brunel at Uxbridge and it just isn’t the same…

    Good job, great site

    Lyndon Buck 1987-91

  • Tom this is amazing! Thank you so much for all your hard work and efforts to make something so special that we can all enjoy and remember the wonderful times we had together!
    Thank you x

  • Thanks Tom. Fantastic to see my old room in President Hall, the one above the cellar hatch…and the walks where I shuffled through beech leaves as diversion to the ever increasing piles of project work I was avoiding…now I am shuffling through these pages as diversion to the massing of furniture awaiting restoration in the workshop…guess things never really change…

  • Thank you so much for doing this Tom. Such happy memories of a really wonderful place and fantastic friends. It’s a great thinkg for us all to access as we get older and wrinklier!

    1991-1995

  • Tom
    What a fantastic piece of work! Well done. I was one of the first year to be housed in what were the new hostel blocks(1962) and the paint in my room (just over the bridge over the main drag)was still wet.
    Three happy and glorious years of hard work and hard play, we had no bar during my time and had to leg it down to the Barley Mow for last orders!
    I lost touch with what was happening to the site in the early 1990’s but then visited by chance while in the area in 2010–shock horror is the only was to describe it! The rest is history.
    Again well done on a brilliant piece of work
    Aidan Fisher
    1962 – 65

  • A great job bringing back many memories of happy times (1966-1969). I see there are now doors into the tunnel under Marshal block. I remember getting up one snowy morniing to find both ends of the tunnel completely blocked by snow walls at both ends. Strangely there was now nearby sign of where the builders got the snow from! Thanks again.

  • I attended dear old Shoreditch from 1952 to 1954 and there enjoyed the most memorable and wonderful two years of my life. In those days I worried that, perhaps, I would not qualify for entry as my interview with Mr Scrivens did not go that well. However, he did take pity on me and said “See you in September”. Things have changed quite a bit as I now hold a Masters Degree in Computer Science and a couple of Diplomas to boot. My kids still think I am an old Dork. I daresay that quite a number of my colleagues have passed on since then and that their ‘Final Jobs’ went with them.

    My ‘job’ is still in the Glasshouse and I look at it with tears in my eyes. I remember that a few of the examiners shared the same feelings in 1954. There are a few of us left and we keep in touch and share those precious memories from time to time. I am approaching 82 and am still working a two hour day. Quite exhausting! Well if any of your readers remember me then pass on the Email address please! My wife came to see me and my other Brokers man buddy, Robbie Walker, in the 1954 Pantomine, and she is still with me. she is only 80. Bless you all!

  • Brilliant work. Thank you very much. Fantastic memories.

    I was a Shoreditch Student from 1963-1966 and then a Brunel Lecturer from 1992 until site closure during 2004. So your work means a great deal to me.

    Great to see some of the names that are already appearing on the guest book.

    I’ll obviously pass the site link to lots of my friends.

    Best wishes to all

    Les

  • 76 year First year rep, Boat club captain, 2nd year resident of ground floor Bradley Hall. Third year off campus in Egham married to Mary. Five years teaching in Lincolnshire, before returning to first occupation engineering. Last years travelling to and fro, between England/Germany/France for automobile component manufacturers. Names that come first to mind Ian Jowitt(best man at wedding), John Coffin, Fraser Budd, Pete Bymolen (took some photos of wedding). No doubt loads more if I dig out the year photo, especially from Bradley hall.
    Was staggered to discover just last year that the campus was closed and had been sold off to developers. Slump in the market which mothballed it a godsend. I remember running up from the boathouse after getting a dunking in the river, while canoeing in January. Through the Kennedy memorial, up through the wood past the golf course and into hall where after a very long shower I was still cold.
    I would have loved to see some internal shots! What happened to all the equipment I wonder?

  • Congratulations, Tom. This really is a fantastic piece of work.

    I was sent the link to the site by Les Porter. I too was at Shoreditch as a student, 69-72, and later an Associate Lecturer on the PGCE course, 1988 until its closeure.

    The place has obviously very special memories from both my student and working time there and it is so good to have such a comprehensive archive of what was a very unique place.

    I will pass the link on to others who spent many enjoyable years there.

    Regards

    John

  • Hi Tom

    Congratulations on establishing this great site. As I am organising a re-union for ’65 year students it couldn’t have appeared at a better time! We are having a weekend stay (26th – 29th April) at The Savill Court, which is in Bishopgates Road, a stones throw from the Shoreditch/Brunel Campus. It’s 50 years since we started our teacher training at the ‘Ditch’ so we are looking forward to doing some serious catching up. The great pictures you have taken of the College will jog quite a few memories I’m sure, so I’m sending emails to everyone with a link to your web-site.
    Thanks again and keep up the good work!
    regards
    Ray Rappel

  • The photos bring back lots of good memories. I was there as a so called mature student (24) from 1974 – 1978 and can only remember 2 bad days. The second day I was there it poured down and I was miserable and there was a day in BEd year too which I try to forget. But the rest of the time it was like a holiday camp and I had a grant as well. I feel sorry for students these days. I still have some of the work I made. Retired from teaching nearly 2 years ago and don’t regret doing so and I look back to those 4 years at ‘Ditch with great affection. Happy days!
    Stuart Fairlamb

  • Shoreditch College 1977 -80. Fantastic site, would be really interested in the internal shots and ways in which personal photos could be shared. Looking forward to future developments. Many thanks for the hard work that has been done to date.

  • ’69 yr. Have just spent 3 hours reliving memories. A fantastic piece of work. Thank you. I hope this can be seen by all who “served time” at “Ditch”!!!!

  • Shoreditch College 1997 – 1980…. I agree with the rest of the folks here, what an unbelievable piece of work. I have explored quite a bit since I first visited the site last night and what a lovely experience! It makes me feel very nostalgic, I have never been back to, or seen the campus since I left in 1980 but I have taken a great interest in how things have developed. There seems to be a lot more greenery than I recall, I thought we used to play a bit of drunken rugby between Reed/Rowan and Bradley/Marshall Halls, I don’t think you could do it now for the shrubs and trees? I would also like to thank John Williams for sending the link to the mailing list from http://www.shoreditchcollege.org they have been doing a great job there for a number of years. It would be a nice idea to share some of the ideas from both sites and I am certainly looking forward to seeing some of the interior stuff (My 17 year old daughter calls me sad but so be it!). I know this is a guest book but I hope we can make further comments in the future?
    Great Job……..Derek (Griff)

  • Four of the happiest years ever (1970 – 74) and such a beautiful place. Lovely to see it in it’s finery, as it was then, and not as it is now; overgrown and forgotten. Thanks.

  • Thoroughly enjoyed looking at your site – an enormous project – but what memories! Thanks for all your hard work.

  • Shoreditch College 1977-80 A wonderful piece of work. The photos bring back memories of the college at its best. I stopped by briefly last summer and it was sad to see it in present state. Thanks John Williams for passing on this link.

  • A brilliant piece of work. Thankyou. I attended the College between 1970-1973 and was lucky enough to live in President block for all the 3 years (much to ’74 year irritation! On reflection it was a pretty selfish decision we made all those years ago wasn’t it!)

  • This is amazing! Thanks to Les Porter for telling me about it and well done Tom for creating it. I was at The Ditch from 1963 to 1966 and had 3 of the happiest, most fun filled years of my life there. It’s sad to see the place so neglected, especially the workshops covered in corrugated iron but the pictures are reviving good memories. I’ve never been back and struggled at first to identify the accomodation blocks from their names. They were called Block A, B, C, etc. back then. During my time, the name of the college changed from Shoreditch Training College to Shoreditch College of Education. For my last year, I lived in a double room over the tunnel.

  • A fantastic job done here. I was in 74 Year and I now have a record of where I had three superb years and met lots of wonderful people. What a beautiful place it was. Thanks Tom.

  • A wonderful memory jogger. I was at Shoreditch from 1967 to 1970 and this site has enabled me to recall many a face and occasion. I’ve even managed to locate people I haven’t seen for well over 40 years. Thank you so much for your efforts.

  • Three happy and productive years ’63 to ’66. Shoreditch Society President ’81.
    A wonderful record of a very special place. I taught THE subject from ’66 till it all
    went wrong with the National Curriculum then shifted to Science.
    Inspired by a Pitfield St Ditch man it was the only place to go and served
    me and many others well. Perhaps they should open a ‘New Shoreditch’ on
    the site and start teaching the subject properly again?

  • Congratulations Tom on producing a first class archive. It must have taken you hours!
    I was at Ditch from ’69 to ’72 and enjoyed every moment of it. My year group (72 year) actually spent all 3 years on campus as at the end of our first year we voted to change the living-in arrangements so that first year students lived out and second and third lived in. Selfish or what! The archive brought back so many happy memories of the old place and the amazing people I was there with. I look forward to the possibility of posting the photos I’ve got of Shoreditch at sometime in the future.
    Also I must thank Jim Dunkley (also 72 year) who forwarded the link to me.

  • Fantastic idea. Photgraphs brought back so many memories. I studied 🙂 there between 1975 and 78. Great time. Still teaching. Enjoyed there so much my daughter studied there during the Brunel years. I look forward to photographs being added in the future. Well done!

  • 1961 Year. Great web site, thanks Tom. Good to see shots of the place before it became ‘built-up’ and when it was more of a ‘Gentlemen’s Club’!! I spotted it from the Lewis episodes on TV too. I think they must have been shooting this about the time of our last visit in 2008 as there was TV stuff lying around in the Pillar Hall at the back. In retirement now there is often time for reflection and reminiscing about the past times at The Ditch. Where have all the years gone?

  • Many congratulations – what a fantastic effort. I was one of the original Shoreditch students at Coopers Hill and later on the staff.

    Alan Marshall

  • Good work! This certainly brings back some memories. I studied at Shoreditch ’76-’79, still teaching…

  • Just found the site via an email from John Williams…
    Very interesting info re. filming an absolute find. Now off to look at the 360 views.
    Keep the good work up.
    Steve Knight ’76 Year

  • Fantastic place where I probably had the best 3 years of my life.Spread the word on Facebook etc as I’m sure a lot of people will get a lot of joy from touring the site.

  • Hi Tom

    Thanks for spending the time to put together a very special archive of photographs of the Runnymede campus. Fond memory’s flood back.. I’m very pleased to note that there has been such a good response by alumni.

    Regards

    Tom Stephenson

    1987-92

  • I remember some life changing experiences while at ditch . . 76 yr . . such a fantastic place and looking back a tremendous priveledge to be there. Even looking through the guest book triggers memories I had thought I’d lost. Lived on Reed 200 with some of the football boys, went on tour to Bensburg and remember how feircely competetive it all was to get into first team. Now coming in for retirement after 34 years of working at the same school in Maidenhead, currently working with Mark Goodman another ditch old boy of 79 year I believe. Thanks to Gary Nichols for this link.

  • Hi,

    I bumped into Les at a conference yesterday and he emailed the link to this. Great stuff and clearly a labour of love!

    I was at Runnymede between ’93 and ’97 (Marshall for 3 years and College for 1) and a group of us had a impromptu reunion ten years later, managing to sneak in a look around as they gradually ripped out all the internals of all the workshops…rather poignant. I’ve got some pics I took that day if you are interested.

    I’ll circulate on FB now. I know there will be a few people who will be keen to see this.

    Thanks,

    Russell

  • Fantastic site guys, just sad that the images are of Runnymede in its “carcass-like” state, not its glory days. Seeing the union, mews and workshops all barricaded up brings a tear to my eye – what a waste!!!

    All brings back the memories though. Would be great to have a separate section where old runnymede residents could upload their own photos of the campus in its prime and link then to exactly where the image was taken on the map/aerial view. I’m sure I have lots.

    Brunel Design is/was never the same after the move. It could and should have been the next Bauhaus.

    Keep up the good work!

  • Hi Tom,

    Great work on the site, you’ve done a really good job

    From reading your comments its good to see that the campus and Brunel University life had the same meaningful and postive impact on you as they did on me and my friends – and I dare say a lot of other people who attended too

  • Awesome site, bringing back happy memories of my four years there (1991-1995) and all the good times with good friends. Thanks for putting this site together. PC

  • Wow, brings back lots of excellent memories from my 3 years at the ‘Ditch’ 1962-65. The Dining Hall hadn’t been completed when I was first there and meals were served in the Main Building.

  • Wow! I was at Shoreditch from ’73 to ’77. The wonderful photography on this site has made me very nostalgic! Thank you.

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