The senior boy’s dormitory, dorm 1, from the inside.

This gives you some idea of the goods, furniture etc., abandoned on the school premises when it was closed down and the property sold on, and of course, before the so called ''travelers'' had time to do their dirty deeds and wreck the place. We do truly live in a wasteful society. The items would not be worth a fortune when closure took effect, but one would think that it had some value.
The alcove you see in the corner was the area where I had my bed during my last time at Linton Camp. At the other side of the adjoining wall was Miss Wilkes’s apartment. In the early afternoon, sometime after lunch, it was deemed that as we were all cream crackerd, we had to lie down on our beds for 30 minutes. It was officially named the "Rest" period. One could read, sleep (fat chance that one), or just lie quietly and contemplate the ceiling. What you must not be involved in is talk, chatter, giggling, or any other activity that involved spending energy. The end of the "Rest" period was reached when the school bell sounded by, most probably, me. It’s a pity but I cannot recall the number of bell rings that were needed.
As the shower block was some way away from the dormitory, and nightly showers were compulsory, after being showered, one would only get half dressed, to travel the distance between the ablutions and the dorm. However, during cold spells, one would run as fast as our little legs would go, to duck into the heated dorm, then we would quickly change into our pajamas, and neatly fold our used clothing, if it were not due to be laundered, onto small little tidy piles, and place on the top of our lockers. Any items that needed replacing would be sorted for collection and washing.
The beds were of the iron type, with a small ''iron bed head''. Rather small they were, but then so were we, and the sheets were changed frequently, and I can still smell the fresh clean new sheets even now. Some boys, and girls, had a wee problem and would often wee the bed. Never punished or chastised, they would gather up the offending sheets and when dressed carried them to the laundry room, and place in a basket ready for collection, or washing on the premises. I think the medical term for this was Eneretic.
These chaps always had rubber under sheet (eneretic sheet) for the bed, and it was a heavy piece of kit, how one could sleep on it comfortably I do not know. One of the popular and good looking girls was ridiculed when she was spotted early one morning trundling off to the laundry with her sheets tucked under her arm, I will not tell you who it was, cos she maybe would be embarrassed.
I recall periods when an inspection would be made of your bed and sleeping area, also of your section of the clothing wardrobe, bit like what Norman Hartnell did in "Carry on Sergeant"! I think this may have been at the weekend, and performed by a high ranking member of staff, probably the head. This would of course kill a bit more time, and keep us occupied, cleaning up and such. We made our own beds after use, and we were taught to perfect the ''hospital corner'', a clever way of tucking in the bedcovers, neatly and smartly.
In winter time, the dorms were not icy, but they were not particularly warm either, I do not know if this was intentional, to make Men of us, or if the old wooden buildings, Canadian Cedar, were just not up to the job. I do know that when I had a cold, I had to bury my head under the sheets to breath any warm air that had been heated up by my little body, otherwise, nose out, and I would inevitably cough heavily due to the irritant cold air, and I do recall ''steam'', or condensation being expelled when breathing out, we had radiators, but they were never hot enough when the winter had set in. Don’t get me going about the winters. 3mm snow and the M4 glide to a stop. You should have seen the snow in 1962!