My memories of Betty Rayment, music and the Caldecott Community.....David Dear
My memories of my time at the Community and of music are, I am afraid, a little hazy. As I now approach my 73rd year these are distant memories, just snatches of memory and moments. The two most important people in my early life were my mother and Betty Rayment. It was the latter who asked me at the age of seven years whether I would like to learn to play the piano. I asked her a few years ago why she asked me in particular, and not others in the same class, and she told that it was because my eyes used to light up when she played music. This of course was the single most important moment in my school life, this was to transform the rest of my life. Looking back it is obvious that I found the early years at the Community, wrenched away from my mother (her decision), very difficult if not traumatic. So this simple question asked of me by Betty Rayment was the moment of reprieve that allowed me to build my future. Although I loved reading, the arts and humanities, I struggled with numbers and sciences, so much so that I failed the 11+ and ended up at Ashford North Secondary Modern. Despite being in the top set or class, I never came to terms with maths or sciences and I was useless at practical subjects. A uselessness which continues to this day, being completely cack-handed. DIY is alien to me!
Sadly, I do not remember much detail from those days. Betty took me from being a beginner to beyond Grade 7 at the age of 14 years. She also taught me to play the violin. I remember practising in her music room near the Chapel and Junior School, and when bored with the scales or the pieces I was learning I would take books from her music shelves and try to sight-read the music. An ability that has stayed with me and helped me a lot in more recent years. When I reached secondary age I used to go to Ashford library get music out from there to sight-read. I do not, sadly, remember the actual lessons, but nevertheless she must have been an exceptional teacher. I also remember that I used to play the small organ in the Chapel, and I think I might even have played it for some of the Sunday services, but I am not sure. Staring at the Salvadore Dali image at the front of the Chapel I do remember!
Most Sunday evenings, I think it was on Sundays, were spent in the magnificent library, where Betty would play to us famous pieces of the orchestral repertoire on the gramophone, probably introducing the pieces to us beforehand and discussing afterwards. My awareness of the orchestral repertoire by the time I left the school was considerable owing to her Sunday evenings. She also used to take us to music evenings and talks in Folkestone at the Lees Cliff Hotel, I think. The only names I remember were Maurizio Kagel, very baffling, and Alexander Goehr. Not music I have a great deal of sympathy for, but how astonishing for us to be so involved with music at all levels and styles at such a young age?
I am sure we must have had concerts when we played solos etc., but I am afraid I have no memory of them. I do remember that I was leader of the school orchestra at secondary school on the violin. I also remember that in my final year at Ashford North, my 4th year (year 10 by the modern system), because the music teacher became a deputy head, I took over playing the piano in school assemblies which took place every day. This meant playing a piece as pupils entered the hall and when they left the hall, as well as a hymn at some point. Excellent practise for sight-reading and getting used to playing in front of people, about 300 pupils I think!
Despite the fact that there was some very good teaching in Ashford North Secondary Modern - the English teacher was very good I seem to remember - it offered no prospects for the future. It was a school for young farmers, there was even a school farm, and they only just introduced CSE’s the year I left. Betty could see that my musical talent would enable me to overcome the handicap of failing the 11+, with the right encouragement. She had studied at Huddersfield School of Music herself, and she looked into the prospect of me being able study music there. At the time in this country, there were two places you could study music full-time and complete GCE O Levels and A Levels. Huddersfield and Colchester. Betty persuaded my mother that Huddersfield would be an excellent place to go, and so it was decided to apply there after four years at secondary school. This was in the days before ROSLA, when you could leave school at 15 years. I have a very strong memory of standing at the bus stop on the main road to Ashford in deep snow on a cold sunny day, waiting for the bus to start my journey to Huddersfield for an interview. I remember arriving in Huddersfield, with snow turning black from the soot of coal fires, all the buildings black from the years of soot, a cold, damp and grey sky with smoke rising from chimneys everywhere. A bit of a shock after the countryside of Kent. The outcome of the interview was that I was offered a place at the School of Music, where I would study music full time as well studying for O levels and A Levels on condition that my mother also moved to Huddersfield, giving up her career in London. So, at the relatively tender age of 14 - my birthday was always in the summer holidays - I left Caldecott, Ashford and Miss Betty Rayment to start a new and transformative chapter in my life in Huddersfield, which would eventually lead to University in Liverpool and a life teaching both in secondary school and as a private teacher. I still retain links to the University as an accompanist for performance students, but I have to confess I never returned to the Caldecott Community.
My debt to Betty is immeasurable, she profoundly changed me, my life and the course of my life. I can only humbly thank her for all that she gave to me and for changing my life forever.
Liverpool February 2023