Page 1021 - Reading Mercury

profits would be used for the benefit of the school. The trust came into being in 1967,
with a strong board of trustees and governors, whose numbers have been increased
when it seemed desirable.
The next step was to bring the accommodation and equipment fully up to date. In
1968 an appeal for funds addressed to past and present parents met with a generous
response. A fine new block of three classrooms has been erected and central heating
installed throughout the main building as well as the most modern fire precautions.
The science laboratory has been re-equipped and a new reference library added. This
serves also as an extension to the existing dining hall making it possible for the whole
school to dine together.
Holme Grange is certainly flourishing with a constant flow of pupils to public
schools.
It sits in 21 acres of grounds including three playing fields and a lake as well as a
large variety of trees and shrubs. The aim of the school is to provide the atmosphere
of a happy and active country home with the discipline of school life.
Traditionalist
Mr. Graves is traditionalist when it comes to discipline. But there is no corporal
punishment at Holme Grange. Neither is there any namby-pamby approach. The
ebullient Mr. Graves needs no artificial aids when it comes to discipline. This kindly
man insists on respect at all levels, and gets it. A few well chosen words can make the
most recalcitrant boy visibly wilt. But the “Mr. Chips” image is also there, for this
Oxford graduate and former chief assistant to the Editor of the Times Literary
Supplement has spent all his life in education in one way or another. He loves it and is
a thoroughly dedicated schoolmaster.
He is 67 and can fairly be said to be of the “old school.” He has little patience for
“comprehensive anything” anything
Fixed Ideas
He has fixed ideas about how children should be taught because it works. Mr.
Graves is always on the move throughout his school and keeps his fingers on
everything. He even admits that his sophisticated and expensive central heating plant
which has an engine room” like a destroyer, and cost thousands, is one of his pet
hobbies.
He has no plans for his retirement, or if he as he didn’t want to talk about them. He
will have more time for his wife and family. His wife teaches music at the school and
his son is also a master. He has two other sons and a daughter.

st
Thur 1 April
TOWN HALL CLOCK
The clock was an afterthought of the builders of the town hall. The clock was built
in 1866 by Tucker of London and is a quarter ting-tang turret clock. There are three
bells the largest of which sounds out the hours and the other two strike the quarters.
Two of the pendulums have to make a detour in the roof with the aid of a network of
pulleys. There is a plaque stating that the clock was restored, new dials added and
automatic illumination installed by Cllr. George Thorne Phillips, Mayor of
Wokingham in 1894 and 1896.
The Town Hall clock winder in the 1970s was Percy Nash, Jeweller, Market Place
who winds the clock up every week. He has looked after the clock since 1957 when it
was last cleaned.

Thur 22nd April

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