DERRICK Holt remembers the 100-year-old Scout hall at New Marston, Oxford, as a classroom and as the wartime headquarters of air raid wardens.

Born in James Street, East Oxford, he moved with his family to Ferry Road, in 1927, the same year that New Marston Church of England School opened in Marston Road.

He writes: “Because there was insufficient room at the school to cope with all the children, the infants were housed in the Scout hall to be taught by Miss Carter.

“All I can remember about this time was being the drummer in Miss Carter's band – that must have been something of a racket – and of watching her duplicating documents on a tray of jelly-like substance.

“My mother wondered why I got so dirty while at school but I’m sure that, even at that early date, the floor was in need of some TLC.

“From the Scout hall, we moved to the main school, where the headmistress was Margaret Chandler. I can’t say that I enjoyed my period there but did do well at art.

“One event that caused some excitement was the arrival of an airship which hovered over the area – the R100 in 1930.

“The years rolled on and, while at secondary school, I attended evening classes at the Art School in Church Street, St Ebbe’s, in the hope that I would eventually find employment in something connected with art, but the start of the Second World War put paid to that idea.

“We were all expected to do something to help the war effort, so my father and I joined the air raid wardens’ service, my father as a warden and me a messenger.

“The local air raid post was the Scout hall, where we all gathered when the sirens sounded – not that we had anything to do because, as we know, Oxford was spared from German bombing.

“The wardens passed the time playing cards until the all-clear sounded. It always intrigued me the way the money piled up beside my father. I asked him why he always won and his reply was: ‘It's just a case of remembering who has what cards’.”

Mr Holt, of Fortnam Close, Headington, wrote in in response to the 10th Oxford troop’s appeal for memories of the hall, which opened at the corner of Marston Road and William Street in 1913 (Memory Lane, March 11).

He recalls that the Scout committee chairman was the Rev Charles Mortimer and the vice-chairman Arthur Rolls, a seedsman from Market Street, Oxford.

He also recalls that the Scout hall had a rifle range, on the north side of the building, although he cannot remember it being used.

More of Mr Holt’s memories of the Scout hall soon.