FOREWORD
This is the story of a Community - a community-school. It is not a history in the usual sense of the word; there are facts but few figures, no statistics and no case-histories: anyone wanting these must look elsewhere for them.
Ethel Davies, after her retirement, had begun to collect material for a history of the Caldecott Community, although she had not intended to write it herself: her death put a stop to this.
I have now attempted to write something about the Community but probably in rather a different way from that envisaged by Ethel Davies.
For an account of the first thirty years I have made use of many of the recollections of the past members who were adults at the time: I am deeply indebted to them.
I have also drawn for information about this early time, on a small pamphlet written by the late Mary Stocks for the Community, after the death of Leila Rendel.
In the second part I have tried to give a picture of the everyday life of the fifty boys and fifty girls and the people who looked after them, from the "inside", as it were. I have drawn for this information on the journals and notes that I kept for thirty-five years as a member of the Community's staff.
I have not included memories of any who were children at the time. I felt that if their impressions and reactions to people and events were to have any value it would be necessary to give each contributor's own particular case-history and some idea of their particular problems, if they had them. I did not think this was feasible.
This account then, is not intended to be an assessment or an evaluation of the Community, it is just its "story".