Flood update and calling all furniture makers

The OBA mini-museum
adjacent to the school library

As has already been said on this blog, the president's flood appeal was very successful with about £2600 being raised. The aim is for this to go to making some minor improvements to a neglected part of the school and leaving a permanent reminder of the flood - things which wouldn't be covered by insurance payouts.

Somewhere on or near the library a place will be found for a brass plaque to indicate the level reached by the water. The rest of the money will be spent improving the entrance to the library - the small room giving access to the yard, library, quad and current careers room. The aim is to provide display cases and seating allowing this to become a comfortable meeting area for students, and a place where the Old Bostonian Association can exhibit artefacts and photographs and, we hope, increase awareness in the school of our existence, how we can benefit the school and what we do with and for our members.

The President, Peter Sharman, thought it would be particularly nice if we could find an appropriately skilled Boston Grammar School former student to make some high quality furniture for this project. So, if you are a cabinet maker, or know any other old boy who may be able to step up to the plate, please contact Peter Sharman at president@bostonian.org.uk.

On the OBA dinner weekend (21 March) I was pleased to be able to examine the progress in cleaning up the school following the flood. The OBA mini-museum seems pretty much back to normal, with the display cases having been re-varnished and looking like new. It seems that most of the major work in the library is complete. While books need to be returned to the bottom shelves of their cases and tables cleared of the repair company's boxes, the parquet floor, which had lifted, has had each block refinished and replaced. Apparently only one small parquet block from the floor went missing and it has been replaced with a new one. Even the long-neglected entrance, described earlier in this article, is looking pristine. The floor there too has been refinished and partly carpeted. Everything is looking great. Apparently the assembly hall was not seriously affected but the 1970s gym will probably need to have its floor replaced. Even the old science block in the yard has apparently had a much-needed lick of paint.

I had heard that the flood deposited a large amount of shingle on the sports field but the full story was much more interesting. Apparently the force of water had lifted a drain cover, which had long been covered in grass and entirely forgotten, causing the shingle to explode forth. The existence of the drain cover was only discovered when the shingle was moved away. I suggested that it may have been the Bar Ditch, an ancient waterway which runs under the school, but apparently this is not thought likely.