The Seale-Haynians

Due to the continuing problems of the Covid pandemic the reunion has been postponed again owing to the venue not being able to guarantee availability due to its use as a vaccination centre. The event has been tentatively re-arranged to be held on July 9th 2022.

Welcome to the Seale-Hayne web site
		We hope that you will find this site useful and interesting. For those new to the Seale-Haynians, Seale-Hayne is an Agricultural College of old, and more latterly became a faculty of the University of Plymouth. The University have subsequently closed Seale-Hayne and much of the history and discussion surrounding the closure can be found elsewhere on this site. The Seale-Hayne alumni club is administered by a volunteer committee comprising several dedicated former students and members of staff from both the College and the Students Union. In addition we currently have an honorary President’s post that was previously the Dean of the Faculty, but as the faculty has ceased to be we are pleased that Fred Harper (the last Principal and first Dean) has taken up the post for another term. To this end we endeavour to meet every couple of months and as a result of several specific members hard work, we can now boast the fact that we are internationally renowned (via the web site) and of course the annual magazine. Membership of the Seale-Haynians is based on a ten year standing order subscription for the magazine. If you left Seale-Hayne before 1989 please Click Here for information relating to your life membership. To download the membership form Click Here

News from Ray Bartlett, Chairman, March 2020
		Dear Seale-Haynians The news in late 2018 that Hannahs would need to vacate Seale-Hayne came as a great shock. You will read an article herein about this so there is no point in my repeating, except to express my personal thanks to Hannahs for the welcome they gave us from the very beginning of their tenure in December 2009. In return for Hannahs hospitality we were very pleased to be able to contribute some income during the nine years; not a great deal considering their expenditure, but at least something. That income came from two very large and several medium sized reunions and a steady stream of Seale-Haynians visiting who spent money in the Bistro and accommodation. In addition, we provided £13,800 via a charity appeal towards a project at Hannahs. We paid £1000 for new curtains in the Old Library Heritage Room. In an appeal to Seale-Haynians in 2016, regular monthly donations to Hannahs were doubled in number. To those of you who donate to make these regular donations, I urge you please to continue to do so. Seale-Hayne is now owned by European Land Group, a property developer with premises in the UK and Europe. The proprietor seems very genial and has kindly allowed us to keep our artefacts on the book shelves in the Old Library Heritage Room; moreover, he and his premises manager, have been very helpful by allowing us to hold our cream tea gathering at our Centenary Reunion on July 11th this year. European Land Group is marketing Seale-Hayne as a Business Campus with the intention of letting as many rooms and buildings as possible for small businesses. Around 50 companies and art studios are leasing so far. European Land Group have a considerable task of refurbishing and renovation; this has started. The new owner has a reputation of respecting historic buildings and is already demonstrating this with our beloved alma mater. After several months of marking-time before meeting the new owner, we have recommenced our archiving and research for the heritage room; there are years of work ahead for our small team who except for holidays, meet there every week. The task your committee and co-opted members have been and are still pursuing is the gathering of alumni names and details to register on the S-H’ians database. Many we come across are former “lost souls” as we call them, i.e. members who forgot to inform us of their new address when moving house. Many others, mostly those attending Seale-Hayne post the 1989 merger with Plymouth University, say they were unaware there was an alumni club. Some contact us via the S-H website www.seale-hayne.com. During Hannahs time a steady flow of alumni visited, leaving their name and contact details on Hannahs visitor’s books; this has been our main source of tracing alumni. Almost without exception the ‘remarks’ written express words to the effect “so lovely to be back; some of the happiest years of my life spent here; would like to be kept in touch” Tom Jenkins (1956-’59) undertook the task of gathering all the names from those visitor’s books for Igg (Ian Goodwin) our Membership Secretary. As a consequence, our registered membership is actually increasing. Many of you reading this may not be recorded on our database register and may know of others who are not. Accordingly, I urge you please to contact us via this website. It costs nothing to join –membership of the club is free. The only fee is for the annual The Seale-Haynian magazine, for the princely sum of £6:00 a year. Igg, in addition to his post as secretary, edits the annual The Seale-Haynian magazine. He presents an excellent publication but depends upon contributions from you, the alumni. Please contact him with anything you would like published, whether reminiscences or current. Our big event this year will be the reunion on Saturday 11th July to mark the centenary of the opening of Seale-Hayne Agricultural College. We sincerely hope that many of you will attend. Cynics I have met, (not Seale-Haynians) have often asked why do you commemorate something that has long since closed; that’s all in the past! My answer has been, well, if you have to ask that question, there is no possible chance you will understand my explanation. We all owe a tremendous amount to Seale-Hayne. Remarks in visitor’s books and on our website from alumni/are are mentioned above. We made friends who have remained so for the rest of our lives. Moreover, the agricultural Industry owes much to Seale-Hayne; it was an agricultural college with a reputation second to none. Alumni travelled to many parts of the world, especially underdeveloped countries, contributing their developing expertise to agriculture. That our college was closed was an utter disgrace but those responsible cannot destroy the legacy. Any of you involved with journalism, even if just writing to your parish magazine and where appropriate, please refer to Seale-Hayne and the significant contribution it made to agriculture both here and many parts of the world. Raymond Bartlett, Chairman, the Seale-Haynains

Seale-Hayne sale
		The sale of Seale-Hayne was completed on Monday 12th August 2019, with the “European Land Group” being the successful purchaser. European Land have a keen interest in historic buildings and heritage and appear to be happy for The Seale-Haynians to maintain and develop the Old Library Heritage Room along with using the small room in Lower Lambert to store artefacts. It is very early days yet, but we understand that the plan is for the campus to continue as a commercial centre, with the quadrangle rooms used for office space and/or educational use and other buildings to be refurbished for further renting. More specific plans will of course emerge in due course. Although the constitution of The Seale-Haynians Club makes no provision for a formal link with another body, we will do our utmost to assist the new owners to prosper at our beloved alma mater. R. Bartlett, Chairman

Seale-Hayne Neurasthenic Hospital – First World War
		At the beginning of the last century Seale-Hayne was the only purpose built agricultural college in the UK. It was ready to open in 1914 but the start of the First World War caused the opening to be postponed. The building was offered by the Governors to the War Office to help in the ‘National War Effort’ and at first it became a centre for training ‘Land Girls’. Then from April 1918 until July 1919, Seale-Hayne was chosen for its idyllic setting to become a specialist hospital to treat soldiers returning from the horrors of the war who were suffering from what was then called “Shell Shock”. Some novel and pioneering treatment was administered by Sir Arthur Hurst, some of which is recorded in an extraordinary Pathé Bros film which features Netley Hospital and Seale-Hayne and which can be found on ‘YouTube’. With the Centenary of the War fast approaching and as part of the commemoration events being planned by the present owners of the college, the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust, the Seale-Haynians (alumni) club are researching Sir Arthur Hurst’s extraordinary and pioneering treatment of soldiers at the college. Within this work we are concentrating on the lives of those who suffered from Shell-Shock and the subsequent affect this had on those men and their families. This will eventually form part of the archive at Seale-Hayne and we hope will achieve some national media coverage for the events at Hannahs. The Seale-Haynians and Hannahs are keen to hear from any descendants or any contacts of any WW1 servicemen, patients or medical staff who may have been at Seale-Hayne Neurasthenic Military Hospital during this period. If you think that you may have a story related to the Seale-Hayne hospital or if you know of someone who might, then please get in touch here or write to Ray Bartlett, Seale-Hayne, Newton Abbot, Devon. TQ12 6NQ.

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