The Seale-Haynians | Seale-Hayne College

Centenary Reunion of Seale-Hayne Agricultural College – CANCELLED
	In view of the Government’s advice and everything to do with this wretched Lurgi, regretfully we must postpone our Centenary reunion until next year. I wondered about postponing till September this year but there’s no guarantee the Lurgi will have subsided enough by then for the Government to advise a relaxation of precautions. R. Bartlett, Chairman

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 Ltd, (ELLtd.) 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 Daniel Rodin, have been very helpful by allowing us to hold our cream tea gathering at our Centenary Reunion on July 11th this year. European Land Ltd 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. ELLtd. 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

Hannahs at Seale-Hayne
	Sadly, we were notified late in December 2018 that Hannahs have decided with regret that they need to relinquish their ownership of Seale-Hayne. We were aware that since purchase in 2009, Hannahs has been struggling financially to realise their dreams at our college, and even after a fairly drastic revamp of their corporate structure over the last 18-months, they unfortunately find that they simply cannot make Seale-Hayne an economically viable arm of their business. Bronwen Hewitt had a dream of it being a place where Hannahs ‘guests’ and the general public would mix and mingle in a stunning, caring and relaxed environment to the greater benefit of both groups. They managed to attract many tenants in the form of aligned businesses and also provide a home for several inspiring craft and artisan studios and artists, and the concept worked to some degree. But the cost of just running and maintaining Seale-Hayne was simply too great, and that was before the huge challenge of improving some of its archaic systems such as the heating, plumbing and electrics. Hannahs, quite rightly, have decided to relieve themselves of the financial strain and worry of keeping Seale-Hayne going, to enable them to concentrate on their core business of care at their Ivybridge base. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Hannahs for the generosity shown to our club over the last 8-years and for allowing us a continued presence at Seale-Hayne as well as actively and enthusiastically supporting our activities! We are sure that all Seale-Haynians will be sorry to see Hannahs leave our college and would like to wish them every success in the future. It has been a hugely enjoyable partnership and we are sorry to see Hannahs leave. We will of course, keep in touch with Hannahs and would encourage all Seale-Haynians to do the same. It is an inspiring charity doing remarkable work, but like all charities it is in constant need of donations. Please visit the Hannahs website and consider helping financially, as so much more is possible when funds are available! Your committee, combined with the Seale-Hayne Future Group, will obviously keep an eye on developments and we keep our fingers crossed that the right people / business takes Seale-Hayne on eventually. Our main concern is the collection of artefacts and archive material that we have accumulated (thanks to the generosity of Hannahs) in the ‘Old Library’. We have formulated a plan in the event that we are asked to vacate the room, although we don’t expect anything to happen quickly. All Hannahs’ tenants have been assured that their tenancies will be honoured at least until renewal and likewise, we are informed that the Old Library is available to us until further notice.

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, Hannahs at Seale-Hayne, Newton Abbot, Devon. TQ12 6NQ.