Heavy snow fell on the evening of April 7, 1966 and didn’t melt overnight as hoped. Wyndham’s first group of foreign travellers were taking the 07.00 from St. Bees to London. Outrigg next morning was out of the question but all went well until the last 100 yards when the car slewed round and went into the door of the Westminster Bank. Leaving my faithful Deputy to square the Bank Manager and get the car fixed, the out of 41 participants who had made it set off when the train arrived, an hour late. The students organised protesting parents to make for other stations and by Seascale, all were aboard. Thank God mobiles had not been invented by then !

Some 9 months later, Wyndham’s first Foreign Exchange students, 4 thirteen year olds, left for Bad Tolz in Bavaria with no adult escort. One of the girls lost her passport overboard in mid-Channel on the return. She apologised pleasantly to the Immigration man at Dover but didn’t bother ringing her mother or the school. She mentioned the matter casually to me sometime later.

Travel from Wyndham evolved over the next 40 years when students and teachers, often with parents and Friends of Wyndham in tow, travelled from Iceland to India and from Massachusetts to Mongolia. Work parties went to Tanzania, hordes of younger ones went on study weeks in Europe, others on Cruises in the Mediterranean and in the Alps many learned to ski. Group or school arranged Exchanges took Wyndham students to six European countries and the USA.

They rode camels around the Sphinx, travelled on the Trans-Siberian and sat on Princess Diana’s seat facing the Taj Mahal. Many others experienced Shakespeare in Stratford, saw Chinese Antiquities in London or smelled and watched the making of Camembert.

901 students and their families sailed to the Isle of Man from Workington on the first of several May Day voyages on a ferry hired by the school - fare £8.00 including a choice of excursions on the Island. Lunch was Bangers and Mash, take it or leave it, and cost £1.00. Coca Cola sponsored a disco on the car deck on the way home.

A memorable trip took 20 children, some with language difficulties, to Paris for a week. They were mesmerised by the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. One doubled back to get another look and was lost for 15 minutes. We rode to the top of the Eiffel Tower and launched paper aeroplanes. The longest took 11 minutes to reach the ground. We had to walk 2 kms. to the restaurant for lunch and dinner over 4 days because the Metro was on strike.

Bakerstead Barn in Miterdale provided Outdoor Activities, ‘A’level revision opportunities, Rungwe training, Work Experience and much fun for many over its 30 years in Wyndham hands and was almost entirely self funding.

We formed a little central secretariat of a Governor, Senior Management member and Accounts Clerk to handle the admin. when the bureaucracy became burdensome. Cost was rarely a limiting factor for the European Trips thanks to the generosity of many Trust Funds with whom Wyndham built up a good relationship over the years.

In term time colleagues were invariably very generous in releasing students to go on trips. Many volunteered to give up their time in the holidays. An abiding judgement by many and certainly by me was just how pleasant, reliable and good company Wyndham students were, allowing of course for the occasional youthful indiscretion.

Wyndham Travel provided cultural enrichment and fun to all who wished to avail themselves of its opportunities. It gave an extra dimension to education at Wyndham! We can only hope that an Academy can come up with something similar !