August 2011 issue of the parish magazine, Your Berkhamsted

Local landmarkscontinuedfrompreviouspageThis senseofgroundingperhapsarises froma variety ofsources. Aswell asinvolvementin the widercommunity(localcouncillors even sit on the governingbody), the school uses its extensiveresources in actively supporting stateeducation through its sponsorship of theWren Academy in Finchley. The future’sbright then, not just for Berkhamsted butfor Wren too.It’s a future built on the heritage ofBerkhamsted’s rich past. The pupilswho’ve come and gone in the last 500years did not leave without etchingsomething of themselves into the fabric ofthe school, literally in some cases. Hereand there timeless graffiti has been cutinto stonework or carved on the ancientdesks still occasionally to be found inforgotten nooks and crannies.Finishing up in the old hall, it was clearthat here was a relic of times gone by. Thewindows are a shade too high for childrento see out of. The room, lofty and large,might be described as foreboding. This isnot an intimate, modern classroom andnor does it pretend to be. Amid theportraits of past masters and the valuablecollectionof ancientbooksthere is anair ofsomethingdifferentcomparedto other,freshercorners ofthe school.This is theroom withthe ‘littlegreenbaizedoor’ immortalized by Graham Greene.For Greene, this came to symbolize thegulf between the security of family lifefound on one side of the door and theanxieties he associated with the widerworld that lay on the other.In Greene’s case his difficulties partlystemmed from the fact that his father washeadmaster at the time. In wanderingthrough the door and away from the hall, Icouldn’t help speculating that he mighthave been happier in the modernincarnation of the school.Today the world is not allowed to becomea source of anxiety but instead is invitedin and asked to make itself at home.In a place with such a long history, therewill always be room for the ghosts of thepast. It’s just that amid the enlightenedviews that permeate the school there arefewer dark corners for them to hide in.yB12