Hut life
Modern-day students at Keele University seem to enjoy a luxurious array of well-equipped and comfortable accommodation choices. By comparison, student accommodation in the early days might appear more rudimentary, but Keele’s Pioneers loved their "huts".
How did the campus look when the University opened in 1950? After years of neglect the estate was in a poor state and occupation by military forces from 1940 to 1948 had an even more damaging impact. Little permanence existed beyond Keele Hall and the Clock House. A sprawl of 80 temporary buildings and 60 dilapidated huts (with wooden walls and asbestos compound roofs) clung together for warmth on the barren wind-swept scrubland which formed a transit camp for military personnel and postwar refugees. These huts provided accommodation for Keele students and even some of the staff late into the 1960s. The pride and glory were the two large semi-circular Nissen-style huts which housed the original Students’ Union and Chapel until the early 1960s.
"The huts were certainly warm and well-appointed. When any Oxbridge students came to visit, they immediately remarked on how warm and comfortable we were by contrast to their chilly and apparently Spartan existence. We had Dunlopillo mattresses. And the main drawer in the desk where one would expect to find pencils and suchlike was fitted with a mirror. We understood that the desk was thus classed as a dressing table and avoided purchase tax. Coming to Keele straight from Army life, it was interesting to find in hut life something of the barrack-room camaraderie and learning of tolerance, although the relative privacy of individual rooms and a maximum of seven occupants per hut was luxury. One student whose name I have forgotten built a small properly-mortared brick wall as a divider and bedside facility in his room."
Martin Tunnicliffe (1956)
"There was no lack of heating in 1963 - quite the reverse! And it was a privilege to live in the huts. I was in hut 11. It was comfortable, warm, fun, friendly, the cleaners were great, the cooking facilities - well, facility (!) - was adequate. One toilet shared, one bathroom shared, only the end room shared and that was usually between freshers. It was an infinitely preferable experience to Harrowby House, which is where I spent my foundation year. And it was possible to move the furniture round the room, which we did, very creatively, to make private areas - not visible from the door, to create a bed space separate from a living space. We all had record players, three of us in hut 11 played the guitar. Life was not quiet. You could get in and out - of the front door and the windows of the rooms at any time of night. It was the best time."
"I, Len Woodford and Mike Fox were all in the same hut in the very first semester in 1950. I think No 11 is adjacent to the Warden Rayne family home. Other occupants were two considerably older men also sharing a room, as we all had to. One, who had dropped at Arnhem as a conscientious objector medic, eventually became an Oxford academic. Peter C Robinson, who left at end of first year, shared the large end room in the hut with Mike Fox and another. The furniture provided for us was new and of a very high standard. However, the large chest of drawers in each room did not contain a mirror in the top opening lid. This was explained eventually when every room had the missing mirror fitted. Apparently, this was not an oversight rectified but a sensible economy. The cost of late fitting was easily covered and money saved by the ruse of not having to pay purchase tax on the whole item if it had a mirror."
"For Hawthorners, meals were provided in the Refectory at Keele Hall except on Sundays when bread, butter, eggs and sometimes beans were given out. Sunday evening meals were cooked in the kitchen and were at times fairly exotic and sumptuous. Julian Hooper once cooked a whole pig’s head in the gas oven and dropped it when taking it out of the oven, producing a skating rink of fat all over the floor. Many people cooked pork or lamb chops after which they repaired to the lounge to listen to a serial called the “Red Planet” and a popular dance music programme on the radio (Jack Jackson’s Roundup). All meals except for Sunday evening were provided by the Keele Hall Refectory run by a lady called Miss Rolfe and were self-service. Because everyone had to attend Foundation Year lectures at 9 a.m., not all Hawthorners managed breakfast because of the long walk to the refectory and the walk back to the Chemistry block for the first lecture."
Read more about John Groom (1956)
"The huts - each was an active little community. I shared one with a guy of a completely different background and personality of my own - quite an education. I remember James Egan being lured from his shower outside the hut on one occasion, naked but for a towel, and then locked out - he ran round the building incoherent with rage, thundering on the windows and door, until we had mercy and let him back in. Not all hut memories are good. I remember the thick red mud in spring - glutinous and virtually impossible to get off shoes and boots. I recall the tin-roofed Nissan Hut union building - always smoky and lino- floored, as I recall, with a bar. T’was said of the festive evenings: "Does no one seem to know just what keeps the ceiling up, and the rotting wooden floor from falling through? It's the thick tobacco clouds that are tingeing it light blue, and the liquor fumes a-hanging round the door."
Read more about Tony Powell (1959)
"1950: start of autumn term delayed and all huts occupied with two to a room (three in the larger - maybe). Central heating was limited (the boilers were somehow in KIEL, was the widespread belief) so Valor paraffin stoves were issued in a real winter cold spell. Health & Safety!"
Read more about Bill Lighton (1954)
"For me, the huts were downright luxurious and I loved living in them. I was in Hut 3 in 1954/55 where my room-mate was Cliff Jones, my first single room was in Hut 8 (next door to Brian - I thought of him as the Bearded Philosopher) and then to the Hawthorns - one of the four ‘new’ real houses for my final year. That was absolute luxury."
"One thing we weren't allowed was electric fires of the sort that were common way back then - a tight coil of wire like a large version of an incandescent light-bulb filament but wound around a ceramic core. In use, it glowed red and had a polished reflector behind it. But one of our year figured that the filament itself, unwound and strung between the roof beams which were open across the room, would not get red-hot but would still give out the same total heat energy, and nobody would recognise what it was. So he tried it, and it worked, until he walked into the low end of it, got a nasty shock and a sinuous burn mark across his forehead which was difficult to explain to the medical staff! "
"The heated bedrooms impressed me at Keele, never having had such a thing at home. Children were supposed to benefit from sleeping in cold rooms, I suppose. Also the ban on electric fires, extra blankets and so on at Keele was overcome by Kumbi Akiwume, who was allowed a two bar fire and an extra blanket since she came from Africa. The hot baths at any time of day or night was a real luxury for me too, since our hot water system at home never supplied hot water first thing in the morning. It appeared after the fire had been lit for a few hours, sometime in the middle of the day. There was some lovely snow while we were at Keele, and very little traffic on campus to mar it. Photo: Late 1950s style - Pals in the room of Ticker Hayhurst (1960)"
"I have happy memories of the huts where I lived during my first two years at UCNS (1958-60) before moving to Unit B. As a fresher I shared a room with Dave Haslam in the first room along the corridor, and somehow we were also in the same hut in the end room (much larger) during second year. That must have been the year we set a world record (held for one day) for the largest number of people in a telephone box."
Read more about Colin James (1962)
"Incidentally, I don't think anyone else has commented on the special relationship we had with our hut cleaner. She was so proud of "her boys" and looked after us splendidly. When we left, she gave us all little presents. I still have the glass pint tankard she gave me nearly fifty-two years ago. Photo: This photo of the Nissen huts with cars of the day was taken by Ron Decker (1954), an American exchange student to Keele from Swarthmore, 1953-1954"
"One of the best memories of my four years at Keele was our delightful cleaner named Annie, who lived (I think in Silverdale) and looked after us like her own family. Her unforgettable mantra was "now boys – wash up after a meal and not before." During the holidays, and when I was in Germany Annie tended my little cactus named "Sputnik Two and a Half". During the summer, when perhaps our rooms were used by visitors Annie ensured that nothing (especially the beer mats) was disturbed and when we returned the room was exactly as we had left it. Let's hear it for Annie. John Pearson (1958)"
"My first feeling on entering Keele was one of freedom and opportunity. The second thing I greatly appreciated was that the accommodation was so very comfortable. Talk of ‘pioneers’ and ‘huts’ give the impression of rugged discomfort. Far from it!"
Read more about Brian Vale (1960)
"Hut life was a very communal, and the “old-hands” helped the new guys integrate into the system, including entertaining wide circles of friends from other huts, and more particularly the Women’s residence over long coffee mornings and/or afternoons. There was a curfew on women in the men’s residence after some early hour like 6 pm, and this was amazingly adhered to most of the time. "
Read more about Alan Jones (1961)
"Keele was the place to be at that time, except for occasional mud baths after torrential rains. Even the Nissen-hut Union was a comforting resource. The huts were well-heated, the food was acceptable, and even the Hawthorns (where I spent a year) was little short of luxurious. The campus seemed idyllic to me, and I'm sure the walk (or even the run) from the 'thorns to breakfast kept many of us in good shape."
"Living at Keele in the late 50s was the lap of luxury: never-before-experienced warmth and central heating; hot baths at any time of the day or night. Huge English (later also Continental) breakfasts and ample meals provided free twice a day in the refectories (except Sundays when we were compensated by heaps of tins of baked beans, tomatoes, ham etc.), and all lectures and on-campus activities within walking distance. The associations of the word 'Pioneer' with rugged hardship, sturdy individualism and self-sacrifice are quite inappropriate to the cushy reality."
Read more about Brian Vale (1960)
"Life in the huts was great for us in those days. One lived almost as a family and the mix of years helped us newcomers to quickly settle in. I started out in Hut 8 where I shared the end room with a chap called Fred. There were two other freshers in one of the other rooms. It was really amazing how & what we cooked up - baked beans, potatoes & veg which we collected from the Hall, get there early or you are just left the spuds. I started an interest in photography & once a month or so took over the bathroom to use it as a dark room. At one point you got to know who your friends were."
Read more about Alf Kendall (1962)
"Coming straight from school, I was not certain what to expect from life at Keele. When in the first week my bike was put on to the heating pipes that ran across the front of the huts some 8 to 10 feet above the ground I realised that trickery and mischief were going to be part of everyday life. On one occasion I returned from a football match to find that the rugby lads had been to Leicester and left me a souvenir – a 6x3 foot notice board under my blankets. It read “Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys”."
Read more about Neville Flavell (1956)
"The hut now used as the post room was in the 1960s the Men's General Block. There was a large room at one end which we could hire for parties, and also at the other end a couple of guest bedrooms, in one of which I spent a night in December 1960 when I visited Keele for an interview."
Only two of the original army huts still survive - brick ones with chimneys. The Post Room now occupies one and is located between the Chancellor’s Building and the Science Learning Centre. These particular huts were not used for accommodation but for storage and workshops - and they have a protection order on them. They are usually called the Bungalows nowadays.
Shedex adventures
"In 1958-59, Hut 10 ('Shedex') held eight students including five freshers, Keith Yeomans, Alan Berry, Tony “Tub” Gibson, Brian “Mato” Withington and Jeremy Steele. Alan was especially keen on music and notably Mozart, Tub on cooking (he ran a pub in the Lake District with his mother), Mato was interested in philosophy and anything, Keith had a three-wheeler car, and Jeremy was Australian and had lived in Italy. When we enrolled in 1958 it was compulsory to wear gowns to lectures. Everyone had to own a gown, and my own gown cost, if I remember rightly, £5. In those days this was a substantial sum, about a week's wages. In our year there had been an intake of 200 students. We reasoned that that amounted to quite a bit of potential demand, and that not all students would necessarily want to own a brand-new gown. We also suspected that graduating students might not be anxious to hold onto their undergraduate gowns. So we pooled our meagre resources, and placed a notice on the dining tables, to the effect that Hut 10 would buy old gowns. Well, the sellers duly turned up after breakfast having read the slips of paper on the tables, and for a few shillings each we bought what gowns we could. Some were quite good, while others were battered and torn. And at that stage, all broke, we departed to begin the long vac, and to our vacation employment and holidays and the like. I was sick with anxiety at the amount of money I had invested in the useless gowns, and the others perhaps felt the same.
"When the 1959 year was about to begin, the Hut 10 entrepreneurs turned up on fresher’s enrolment day, a day ahead of our now second-year contemporaries. We prepared a notice for the breakfast tables in the manner now familiar to us, and while some went down to distribute them, the remainder carried on getting the gown stock ready. We had hung the better gowns on coat hangers from the exposed joists in the rooms on Hut 10. And having done this, we thought why not try to do something with the remaining torn gowns and those with paint on them, and the like. So with cotton and thread and a minimum of stitches we closed gaping holes, and with boot polish or similar we re-blacked some of the paint smears and other blemishes, and finally all the gowns — there might have been 25 of them — were all on display, at prices from around ten shillings for the worst ones to three pounds for the best. Before we had finished this preparatory work the first customers arrived, and eagerly took possession of the gowns. So much so that almost before we knew it, every last gown had been sold, even the most audaciously restored ones. And with nothing left to do, and incredulous at the fistfuls of notes in our possession, we took ourselves off to the RAF Hut to join our fellows to tell them the result, before they had finished breakfast themselves, such was the spectacular success of this business venture. This feat was never remotely approached in my subsequent professional career."
Jeremy Steele (1962)
Photo above: Yeomans, Gibson, Steele
"On one occasion Keith Yeomans had been somewhere for the evening and had decided to retire to recuperate. Aware of his deep sleep since he did not wake when we entered his room, we first put a doormat on top of him. When he neither stirred nor woke up we progressively added a bathmat, a holdall, a chair, a Nigerian cap, a toy kangaroo, rubbish bin, lamp, cap, car wheel, fire extinguisher, guitar, and jammed something underneath the mattress, and added who knows what else . With still no result we finally we gave up, took a flash photograph, and left him to it. Several hours later there was an understandably irate roar of rage from his room."
Jeremy Steele (1962)
Photo right: "Yeomans sleeps through it... "
We acknowledge the work of students Jess Lukat (2010) and Sam Shephard (2010), who compiled parts of this feature as part of their History studies at Keele.