Colony Holidays and Tubby the Tuba
I’ve just had a hit from someone looking for Colony Holidays… Sooo I’d better write this down fast! I’ve been meaning to do it for a while.
Colony Holiday Etc
A few years back I fished around on the web to find out what had happened to the CCHS, Council of Colony Holidays for Schoolchildren. I wanted my final child to have a crack at it. I found it had morphed into ATE by getting in touch with Chris in his last tenure of office, but to my eternal chagrin, all my kids have now grown up and missed the benefit of a Colony Holiday like I did, something that I went on half-a-dozen times when I was at school. The last child never made it and is now too old….
I’ve just read this article in the Telegraph which describes the organisation and all the real fun and confidence that children get from it. True, my children had their times at our local council’s place, Kilve Court Residential Educational Centres, but when I visited – well it just wasn’t the same.
It lacked the joie and the vivre. The madcap antics and bizarre quests. The nutty tunes, most of which I can remember, and the practical tasks and games.
Tubby the Tuba
I spent many a time up there on bizarre hunts and quizzes. In total I went to;
- Bredenbury Court
- The Abbey (Little Malvern/Malvern Wells) – 4 weeks at that one, the best year of my life.
- Ramsey, Isle of Man (forgotten the name)
- Inverliever Lodge, Argyll
I think I had one other but it’s slipped my mind.
The important thing, I now realise, is the amount of work that Chris Green did. The centres were dotted all over the country, and usually three or four were on the go concurrently – all summer if need be. I think at the peak, maybe seven centres were running at the same time. You could tell this from the catalogue.
Someone once said to me, ”Hey. I bet Chris Green is coming. He always comes to every camp. He makes sure of it.”
I said, “Who’s Chris Green?”
He said, “It’s the guy that runs it. He’s Tubby the Tuba and nobody is supposed to know!!!”
It was at this point I realised that I had indeed seen Tubby the Tuba running over the Malvern Hills to British Camp, hiding (not very well) in bracken and heather around Inverliever Lodge, and yes, even on the Isle of Man. True, he’d be doing his checks, staff and all, but it was the effort that I noticed at that point.
When I say Tubby the Tuba – it really was the same man, dressed almost head to toe in stiffened gold foil, face hidden, arms poking out the side, hands playing the valves at front, making muffled farty noises as he passed on the next clue.
The ramblers and holidaymakers didn’t know what to say… it was just sooo funny. A bit like Gert Frobe in “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” – but covered in a gold tuba costume, of course!
So hats off to Chris Green and Tubby the Tuba. A life well spent!
Nutty Tunes
When I get time, I’ll write some ‘lyrics’ out here and try and get the tune out as an mp3 to give a taste of them. I well remember doing the tongue-twisting ‘Poor Old Man Crossing the Road’, ‘Old Abram Brown’ and others on the platform of New Street Station on the way home with my new found friends. Then, as the journey lengthened, the party would get smaller and the volume quieter until eventually there was only me in Newcastle.
I’d stop singing then.
It gets a bit daft singing “steam engine with a chimney that sends smoke signals to Ceylon” repetitively on the 403 back to Ashington.
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Being ex-CCHS interested to see your post. I guess you know there is a 50 year celebration between ATE and Bredenbury Court on Wednesday Aug 26th 2009. Looking at your list of centres I went to some of the same as a child and monitor in the 70s, there must be many ex colony folks out there … the follow on for 16 year olds after Inverliever Lodge was at Stornoway – Isle of Lewis.
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@Jan
Wow! I didn’t know about the celebration. I’ll see what’s on, but I’m pretty sure I’m booked! Bredenbury was my first. It was an Easter one. I vividly remember the oil-drum raft thingy in the little lake and hundreds of toads that turned up from nowhere for 3 days for a mass mating session – much to everyone’s amusement. They would grab onto sticks or anything, making huge chains trailing toad-spawn in their wake, completely oblivious to their own personal safety.
At Inverliever Lodge we had a big hike in the boiling sunshine across several bogs to Ardfern. I thought this was real expedition stuff! In retrospect, from what you say, that Stornaway course looks like an expedition just to get there! Did you go on that, and if so, how did you travel and how long did it take? !!
My siblings also went on a few. Featherstone Castle and the place just up from Welshpool on the Guilsfield road spring to mind.
Keep well.
Rees
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Hi, I too have treasured memories of colonies. I went to 3 I think in total, Linden Manor, one in Norfolk and then Stornoway, Isle of Lewis where I had my 16th birthday so I guess I just scraped in to the colony before I was too old. Strangely, 4 years later, I moved to the Isle of Lewis and have now lived here for nearly 29 years! The colonies were fantastic, I feel so sad that I’ve lost contact with all the great friends I made on them plus there are all the people who worked so hard to make each one a success for each child. I wish I could thank them! All the best.
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@Joanna
Thanks, and all the best to you too! I visited Linden Manor as it was just over the hill from one that I was at. We all turned up on the doorstep to say hi one day en route to doing some madcap chase or something. And it’s VERY strange that you ended up in the Hebrides, given all the historical outward migration from the place AND that you’d only just been there.
How far did you have to travel to get to the various places i.e. which part of the country were you from? For me (and many others), part of the adventure was the big journey that I did, some of it almost alone, and all of it new and exciting. Aah. Happy days.
It can be seen as sad to be out-of-touch with all the many people we’ve met in our lives. Myself? I hardly contact anyone even though at times I’ve known people very deeply. Others seem to keep in contact for ever even though it’s obvious the friendship is only cursory. Maybe that’s the difference between living the moment or building a history? You must be the former like me, enjoying company when it’s there and oneself when it’s not…
People are just different, that’s all.
And you’re right about the staff. It’s only now, that I’m older, that I can see the things they did and the effort put in. Bravo.
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Hello there,
just stumbled upon your website whilst doing a search for all things colony holiday related and felt it was only right to say hello. I currently volunteer for ATE and was just looking through an old colony songbook, made me curious to see if there was much out there about the holidays. I also only learned ‘Poor Old Man Crossing the Road’ this summer and have not heard the “steam engine with a chimney that sends smoke signals to Ceylon” verse so will be adding that one to my repetoire! Hope this finds you well, all the best.
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@Alex
Grand old tunes to keep you amused. From memory, the poor old man (as we were taught it), went:
Wheelbarrow
Trolley Bus wire-wiper
Fish ‘n Chip Potato Cart
Corporation water car with a tube that sucks water out of holes
Steam Engine with a chimney that sends smoke signals to Ceylon
I’m sure there was another line, but I’ve forgotten! But all tongue-twistingly-tabulous!
Other tunes were things like ‘Old Abram Brown is dead and gone’, ‘In springtime in Austria’, ‘One man went to mow, etc, with his dog, ruff!’
All totally daft, but fun.
Keep well mate.
Rees
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Today a thought popped into my head….I wonder what happened to Colony Holidays…..I googled it…and found this site!
I was one of the monitors all those years ago and did about seven colonies altogether. It was great fun….especially one year based on Star Wars and Darth Vader. My favourite song was ‘An old Austrian went yodelling’……… I think I still have my training folder and the songs!
It is great that others have such good memories too.
Gill
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Ha Ha. It’s not intended to be a reference area for old CCHS folks! Like you, I was wondering..one day..and just decided to put pen to website! I couldn’t find much out there and it seemed that Chris Green’s work needed a bit more appreciation.
I remember an Austrian tune as well but I think it was different to yours – and I went on CCHS hols quite a few years before Star Wars came out, which proves, if anything, the topical creativity going on in the organisers’ minds.
Keep well Gill! Good, and great memories, especially the one at “The Abbey” when Kim ate an annoying wasp “that showed it!“, and then matron had a fit and whisked him off to drink vinegar or something.
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I went on one Colony Holiday- to an all girls one at an all boys boarding school near Guilsfield (Welshpool)in 1969! I remember the wide games in the grounds, the sing-songs ( Whip-poor-will) and a monitor who asked for the Levi labels off jeans to stitch on her own denims!( I couldn’t oblige as I only had ski pants with stirrups which came back into fashion again years later!) I also remember that one of the other girls was the daughter of an actress in Compact an early BBC soap but I can’t remember her name. It was fun but a bit pricey £16 rings a bell!
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Hi Jill
My sister went to the Guilsfield site around about that time. She also went to Rannoch and Featherstone Castle if I recall.
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I went on a number of Colony Holidays. Beeston Hall, Bilton Grange,a place in Dunkirk and a couple of others. I went on my own to most of them, took a friend to the last one, but we were put into different groups (mine stayed up slightly later at hot chocolate time!).
Colony Holidays were the highlight of my year, and I got so much out of each experience.
The songs were fab and the friendships better!
Happy memories…
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Wow! Amazing to find this site. I went on 3 – Ballacloan (the one in Ramsay you mention) in 1980, Beachboro’ 1982 and Pittendreich, Bonnyrigg, Edinburgh in 1983.
So many memories and such a happy carefree time. We had so much freedom – railway carriages on the steam train in the Isle of Man WITHOUT a monitor, midnight feasts, etc.
I have taught my kids many of the songs – which have a habit of sticking in your head years later! ‘This old hammer, killed John Henry’ Old Macdonald with a twist (‘Have you ever seen a cow with a green eyebrow down on the farm). Remember the ‘Austrian went yodelling’…! ‘Snaefell, Tinwell, Ben Macree, 40 ships have sailed the sea’ ‘Smugglers song’ (Five and Twenty ponies) and the infamous ‘When the Pig’s a Failure’ which I’ve shared with a few nursery classes!
‘The Wide Game’ was a brilliant concept which involved a man coming into our dorm – via a window with a ladder! – dressed as a cat in the dead of night, clues leading to a random phone box in the Isle of Man (we had to ring a phone number which led us to an OAP’s terraced house later in the day). The finale was us chasing a man dressed in black (and the man dressed as cat made a re-appearance) and chucking several buckets of icing sugar over them!
It was a sort of long running, week long, adventure game that
I am not sure our parents would have approved of but it was absolutely brilliant! I am sure it would never be allowed today.
The wisdom of having 17 year old boys (monitors) looking after groups of 13 and 14 year old girls unsupervised was perhaps a bit dubious. I fell madly in love for the first time! Very happy memories…
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Wow. Excellent details there Julia that’s helped convey some of the spirit of the setup – “The Wide Game” takes some beating, from your description. As for the “wisdom” comment – I had a similar experience with a young female monitor in our bunch of 13-15 year old boys! Nothing bad happened, it was all just a barrel of madcap, whimsical fun really. I think the supervision was there though, in the near background, and the activities and experiences led to a remarkable group-self-control IMHO, with an inate sense of right and wrong that wasn’t disrupted much from my memories.
My kids also know some of the tunes which I’ll still slip into at odd moments – it’s funny what triggers them into one’s head! Most of what you mention I don’t know, so it looks like the repertoire changed over time.
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Hello to Strangely and all the others who have said such lovely things about their Colony Holidays experiences. This is Chris Green, and yes, I am now 74. However, I have not stopped campaigning for kids’ holidays, and am in the process of a mass lobby of MPs. If any of you would have the time to send your MP your recollections of colonies, and notably what you think they did for you in your growing up / social development / education, it would be very helpful. I have sent every MP a copy of a booklet How Summer Camps Could Change Britain. I do not have the technical expertise to put the text onto this site, but if anyone can tell me how to do it I could do so. Do reply if you have any comments or can help me. Very many thanks for all the kind things you say. Love to all – Chris Green.
Booklet link added to this comment for Chris on 1 March 2010 (SP): http://strangelyperfect.tv/wp-content/uploads/How-Summer-Camps-Could-Change-Britain-2010.pdf
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Hi Chris, and every former Colony-Holiday-er who has contributed to this post!
I offered to display the booklet for Chris on this website, and now, it has a page of it’s own! See here:
The original inline PDF file I’ve now transposed into the webpage with it’s original pictures and some judicious cut/copy/paste from myself to make it look right on screen. The hard bit was getting the carriage returns correct… LOL.
Best of all (for me), apart from the caring intent of the document, is the comment from President Sarkozy near the end!!
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Can’t write to my MP who unfortunately died on Boxing Day and there are no moves towards a bye-election yet! But I’ve loved reading everyone’s reminiscences. I think I did 8 Colonies between 1969 and 1975 and have such good memories. Still have the song books I wrote by hand – and no one has yet mentioned the indoor games. I still mystify people with “scissors crossed”, “the moon has a big round face” and “whoops bunny”. Shooting rabbits also came in use for kids parties!
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Thanks Judith.
You should scan the songbook and get it online!
nurture-varietal
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[...] is a follow-up to Colony Holidays and Tubby the Tuba where I talked about Colony Holidays (the CCHS), Chris Green’s part as Tubby the Tuba, and my [...]
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Can today’s version of Colony Holidays possibly be as free and easy as in my time ( 5 holidays mid-70′s)?
This was their magic, but in today’s regulation happy risk assesment crazy climate..well I have my doubts.
My Colony Holidays were without exception all wonderful experiences. We were close to the monitors, and I never once saw or heard of anything untoward ever happening at any of the camps I attended. Indeed the monitors, though just a few years older than us, often gave a sympathetic ear and invaluable advice to those of us with crushes on either them or other kids. Growing up is confusing and hormones don’t make things any clearer ! Would such close relationships be allowed today ?
Camps I attended were Fetherstone Castle ( twice), Ramsey (IOM), Tal Y Bont ( Wales) and one in Herefordshire, the name of which escapes me.
Songs ( aah the songs !)..not sure of all the titles but a few random lines..
Now Into Plow Shears Beat Thy Swords ..
Dip Dip And Swing Her Back ( a canoe song)..
and my absolute favourite, the old Leadbelly tune, Jean Harlow, which I play and sing to this day..
mama gonna walk, mama talk
jing a langa jing a langa
etc etc
Heartfelt thanks to all those involved in Colony Holidays, you made a difference, believe me.
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I loved Colony Holidays did 5 or 6 including Balacloan (ramsey IOM) twice, The Abbey Malvern, Featherstone Castle, and one in the lake district name escapes me between 1974 and 1979.
Made some great friend had some wonderful times sung some sloppy songs! MMM MMM I wanna linger!!!
All the best Paul Knight from Bedford
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Thanks Paul.
A lot of people have very, very fond memories of the CCHS. For myself, the best was four week summer at The Abbey in Little Malvern when I was 14. I also did Ramsey on the Isle of Man like yourself. My sister did Featherstone Castle (which is still used by ATE).
No-one has said anything bad about them, at all, apart from Chris Green when he described the collapse of CCHS and the politics behind it. For former children, I’ve not heard one bad word.
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I went on a number of Colony Holidays as a kid. The one that stands out most clearly in my head was the one to Featherstone Castle in 1977 when I was 11. It was an amazing time. Themed around a haunted castle, it was a great thrill. I remember being woken up along with the other kids to go easter egg hunting and running away from the ‘eggburgler’. lol My sisters and I were the only black kids but I never for a moment noticed that. It was all about the fun!
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That’s right Stan! It was all about the fun. Well said.
The depths of creativity to which the organisers stooped knew no limits! Eggburgler indeed….
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I went to Colony Holidays between 1968-1973, including the first one held in Stornoway, Rannoch, Talybont, and a couple ‘up north’ somewhere. I then trained as a nurse and went back as matron for a couple of years – remembering with fondness one lovely summer in Wales. My main memory was the amazing kindness of Chris Green, who always seemed to visit, and the way a complete group of strangers could end up best of friends.
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That’s what I noticed too. Tubby the Tuba (a.k.a. Chris Green) turned up to every one I went on! And I always had a heap of friends, mostly in a very, very, short time!
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Hi there
I went on a colony holiday when I was little and I have great memories of the wide game, getting covered in mud from head to toe, making great friends and having the best time!! I still sing ‘Mr Moon, Mr Moon’ and ‘When a Pigs a failure’ to my children and they sing them now – particularly when the moon comes up too early!
I ended up working for a children’s activity holiday company, but I just don’t think anything anything could beat the freedom and madness of Colony!
Boggy!!
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