FIRE AT THE OLD SCHOOL BUILDING

ON 29th JULY 2002

Our Treasurer, COLIN MIELL, is a keen photographer and railway enthusiast.

Amongst his vast collection of photos, he has come across these photographic slides that he took in August 2002, shortly after the fire that caused much damage, and resulted in the loss of the original Memorial Plaque  to the fallen.

The fire was on 29th July 2002, and was attended by 20 pump appliances.

For those who are keen photographers, the technical information is that these slides were taken on one of Colin’s beloved Minolta SRT 303B cameras, with a Minolta Rokkor lens.  The images shown have been scanned from the original Kodachromes and are slightly resized down. 

Colin recalls that the fire started in the old Caretaker’s flat on the top floor, where it is accessed from the corridor outside the Ealonian Room.  The flat was undergoing renovations.o

Colin has aslo come across some photos of a school trip to Blankenberg in 1957.

These are shown below

COLIN WRITES:

Three absolutely vintage B&W snaps, taken on the Old School trip to Blankenberge, sometime in 1959 - my very first trip 'abroad'.

The old tram is in Ghent, the 'modern' one is on the 'Vicinal' Coastal Tramway in Blankenberge, and probably an almost brand new piece of kit at the time.

Then there is the Hotel du Littoral, where we stayed - currently shown as temporarily closed.   I wonder why !!!

Known these days simply as the Coastal Tram, it still runs all the way from Knokke in the east to De Panne in the west, via Zeebrugge, Blankenberge and Oostend.