All images and text copyright © to Goldings Old Boys reunion members

Page Compiled Jan 2011

The gardeners have had a record year of productivity, some thirty tons of
potatoes having been harvested in addition to large quantities of other vegetables.
against a south wall they planted a hundred and twenty tomato plants, and they
gathered 12 cwt. of fruit.

Front Page Continued

Worthwhile Work
The Wheelwrights' Department, to which is attached our
Maintenance Staff, made the handsome pavilion in which
our trades were exhibited on Founder's Day at Barkingside.
They were also responsible for all the internal and external painting
of the four staff cottages.
The Tinsmiths have perhaps made the best show at the Exhibitions
where the trades have been represented during the year. Their work
is very varied and beautifully turned out

These well-known lines sum up the philosophy of life placed before the boys in our large Technical School at Hertford.
Some branches of the Homes are places of nurture for the young, others are quiet havens for the invalid and the sick: Goldings
is a branch of the Homes where older boys, fast maturing into manhood, are taught the supreme joy of creative labour. When
they are admitted to the school they are simply like those other half a million children who annually (as official reports tell us)
leave our Elementary Schools, with a smattering of the three " R's," and with no real equipment for the battle of life in a
commercial and competitive age. At Goldings every boy, however poor a scholar he may have been at school, is given the
opportunity of learning a trade, and a visit to the School Workshops will convince the sceptical that the most unlikely material
is capable of being moulded into a splendid craftsman.
For the boys are touched at the psychological moment. Every boy of fourteen has some ambition; each one aches to achieve.
His physical development produces a restlessness, a desire to do something. How eagerly, therefore, he begins his new work,
burning with the enthusiasm of the creative instinct! How joyously comes to him the knowledge that his clumsy hands can
mould and fashion a piece of wood into delicate form, or bid the fiat uninspiring bend of leather change into a pair of boots !
Life for him has new significance; an artistry of work, which his once lethargic, but now awakened senses
ardently desire, is no longer unattainable.
And his work becomes, not a curse, but a gift far richer than any human
benediction.
This, then, is the aim of the William Baker Technical School. There is
no preliminary examination. Provided a boy has normal physical strength
(our Workshops are inspected by a Government Factory Doctor)
every chance is given him of leaving the School thoroughly equipped as
a skilled artizan, capable of earning a living wage. To each boy Is given
the selection of the particular trade he wants to learn. let us, in
imagination, make a tour through these " open doors " of opportunity.
Through the first door we pass and discover a well-lighted Printing shop.
Some twenty boys are it the machines, while another twenty boys are
in the Composing Room above. These are propagandists. Their work
travels all through the land, announcing various activities on behalf
of the Homes, and the legend, Printed by the boys of Dr. Barnardo's
Press, Goldings is an effective advertisement of their successful
training.

Through another door, sixty boys are found at work
repairing boots and shoes and making the new boots and
shoes required by this and other Homes. As the feet of
the children of the largest family in the world walk merrily
to school, or trip happily at play, their patter is a
continuous song of praise to the skill of the Goldings boys
who have shod them so well.

Boot-making and Shoe Repairs

Passing down the iron stair¬case, we enter another door into

the Power House. Here are ten boys learning to manage
the big oil engines which generate the electric current for lighting
and power. In the little shop behind, they are working with drill
and lathe, turning out tools and machine parts for the
other shops.

Through the next door, we find ourselves amongst a group of
twenty boys making pans and other household utensils.

Crossing the yard, we enter a door, wide and tall,
disclosing the forty boys who are learning carpentry.

Outside, in the garden, are some five acres under cultivation,, and
though utility is the order of the day, beauty is not overlooked.
We walk along gravelled paths overhung by vines, clematis and roses.
We perceive, however, that these are but a beautiful screen
and that the real work of the gardens is to be seen in row after row
o£ healthy looking vegetables planted, cared for, and soon to be
harvested to feed the 300 hungry boys in the Dining Hall

Thus our tour finishes. We shall have a peep at the Dining Hall, and we shall look with admiration at the well aired Dormitories.
We must visit the beautiful School Chapel, and in its silent simplicity, breathe a prayer for this large family of boys. But, as we
leave Goldings, we shall remember most vividly the boys at work, and will realise that they are being called into the Divine
sequence : " My Father worketh even until now, and I work."
That so much is accomplished, that habits of labour are so thoroughly learnt, need for their explanation the fact that the whole boy
is catered for at Goldings. It is not all work, as our success at football, cricket and boxing can testify. Nor is the intellectual side of
the boy's need overlooked. Frequent lantern lectures are given during the winter months on Travel, Nature Study and Missionary
Work. A weekly Discussion Class for the elder boys is conducted by the Governor and the Chaplain.
In the Chapel services, Sunday by Sunday, the boys have found constant inspiration, and during the year fifty boys were presented
to the Bishop for Confirmation.
Our purpose is to give to every boy who comes to the William Baker Technical School a chance to make good, to start out in life
without a handicap, and we believe many are learning to voice the prayer :

I do hope you enjoyed your look at Goldings 1926, but if you note the cabinet makers hadn’t yet made the pews as there are
chairs were the Pews would later be, and most likely those chairs would go down to the Gym for our film show later.
At one time there were three Carpenters Shops, one in the Stable Block for Cabinet Makers, Fret Saws Shop was later to be our
Table Tennis Room , with the last one which was built around 1935 just above the Gym. The other two then were taken over
for other use, so the last remained for both Cabinet Makers and Carpenters till closed in 1967, and later Mr Tempest returned
Part Time for Hertfordshire County Council Highways Department!