News

Videos of The Perse from the 1950s

30 March 2009

An incredible collection of eight videos made in 1956/7 by Perse pupil, Eric Mival, is now available on The Perse School Facebook page, showing a year in the life of the school.

Filmed by Eric when he was a Sixth-former at the Perse, the film runs through most of the main activities of the year, beginning with the setting of the Perse and its sites in Free School Lane and Gonville Place, the opening assembly of the year and the entrance exam.

There are then scenes of the Prep and the boarding houses. Sport follows, opening with a view up the drive to the playing fields minus the school buildings (which did not go up until 1960). Rugby, cross country running, hockey, athletics at Fenner's, fives, tennis, cricket and swimming sports are seen in that order.

The film then moves to CCF and Scouts, including preparations for the National Soap Box Derby. Several clubs are featured; cycling, the Rifle Club and the Union Society. Drama follows; the Perse Players and the Mummery. Only two lessons are shown, other than the Mummery (English): Chemistry and Art.

Finally we reach the end of the year, with a chapel service in St John's College, Speech Day, and a scene of boys leaving (and in some cases burning their caps).

This is an extraordinary record of the School fifty years ago, both quaintly dated and in some respects surprisingly unchanged.

Click here to watch the videos