The Seale-Haynians

Centenary Reunion
With Covid restrictions now lifted, your committee has re-booked the English Riviera Centre in Torquay for the Seale-Hayne “Centenary Reunion” which will be held on the evening of Saturday October 15^th this year. Click Here for details

The Agricultural Reunion II – Road Trip!
		For any alumni who were at Seale-Hayne between the years 1985 and 1991 a few of us are gathering for a reunion at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. Rooms are available on site for Friday 27^th and Saturday 28^th May 2022. Bookings are being taken until 6^th May 2022. The format is a barbecue on the Friday night and a dinner on the Saturday. For further details Click Here or by contacting the team organising the event at . If you are interested it would be great to see you there!

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, 2021
		Dear Seale-Haynians Since my letter at this time last year, despite restrictions of the ‘Dreaded Lurgy’ – a term borrowed from the Goon show, older members will recall, we have restarted our archive research, but have had to postpone our AGM. Last year I mentioned how sorry we were to see Hannahs leave but we must move on to the next phase. Seale-Hayne is now owned by European Land Group, (ELG) a property developer with premises in the UK and Europe. Seale-Hayne is being marketed as a “Business Campus”, all available rooms are being let to small businesses. I believe there are now more than 50 of them renting at College. The former Refectory has been sub-divided and three companies are in situ, including a gymnasium. The former Ian Moore Students Union building is likewise being sub-divided to accommodate a Montessori school. Hayter-Hames was fully let in Hannahs days and this continues. Unfortunately, the Science Block deteriorated dreadfully in Hannahs days and is now nothing more than a shell, but the good news is ELG are re-roofing it to start again. Both the former Zoology building and the New Library are fully let. Perhaps appropriately, the former Chapel is rented by a company providing ashes scattering ceremonies. I allow myself a few moments of mourning for the former days of these buildings but then am very thankful they are being renovated. ELG have a considerable task to restore the fabric of our beloved alma mater. The new owner has a reputation of respecting historic buildings and is already demonstrating this. Much interior redecorating has been completed in the quadrangle but the real task is outside. Repainting of South Block started last year and has progressed throughout this summer. It is a joy to see it slowly returning to its former appearance but painting outside will cease during the winter months. The proprietor is very genial and accommodating and has kindly allowed us to keep our artefacts on the book shelves in the Old Library Heritage Room. After several ‘lock-down months’ our small team restarted archive work in late May to re-sort the shelves and withdraw duplicate books. Several boxes of foolscap documents from 1919 to 1943 were discovered when Hannahs left and these have been set in ring binders and are being categorised. Some fascinating information is emerging. But there are still years of work ahead. The Old Library Heritage room is kept locked, but the premises manager Daniel Rodin has kindly offered to open it for viewing by visiting Seale Haynians during weekdays if they contact him when they arrive. A contact telephone number is on the door to the reception room in the archway. But be patient if there is a wait, he may e engaged elsewhere. There is a visitor’s book outside the Library door and 17 visiting alumni names are recorded during the last 12 months. All express their joy at revisiting. The six benches in the quad, three of them originally sponsored by the “Old Seale-Haynians” had become very grey and overgrown with lichen and the owner was delighted when I offered we could restore them. They have now all been sanded and wood preservative applied. They look so much better and we have received many compliments. Our centenary reunion planned for October 2021 was postponed once again due to doubts about the lingering pandemic. It is now going ahead on October 15^th 2022. Mark this date in your diary please. More details here. The Seale-Haynians Club membership is free of charge and numbers are still increasing. We gather names from the visitor’s book (mentioned above), alumni/ae contacting us via our website and various other word-of-mouth contacts, increasingly too, from Facebook. But The Seale-Haynian magazine subscriptions (optional) are fewer because members forget to renew when their ten-year Standing Order payment expires. Many do renew but constant reminding becomes a bit tedious for our editor, Igg (Ian Goodwin). It costs only £6:00 a year and Igg puts together a very interesting publication. Our committee is very active but we lack representation from the 1990’s. Ideally members need to be living in the near Southwest because of the need to attend meetings. That said, many alumni/ae live in the Southwest. We hold around three main committee meetings a year, an AGM and a Christmas short meeting followed by a meal at the Halfway Inn. Please contact us via this website if you would like to become a committee member. I would like to take this opportunity to draw to your attention the section on this website of “Merchandise”. There you will see advertised a book written and edited by our President, Prof Fred Harper, entitled Outstanding Seale-Haynians. The book records the achievements of a number of alumni/ae since the college opened in 1920. As one review stated “This book provides compelling reading for all those with an interest in Seale-Hayne and the history of the agricultural and related industries”. It can be ordered via our website and costs £12 only including post and packaging. Finally, I always mention that we all owe a tremendous amount to Seale-Hayne. Remarks in the referred to visitor’s book and on our website from alumni/ae state “they were some of the happiest days of our lives”. One remark simply stated “Home”. 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 the legacy cannot be destroyed. 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. We, The Seale-Haynians Club Committee are planning a very memorable Centenary Celebration for October 15^th. We hope to see many of you then. With very best wishes, Raymond Bartlett, Chairman, the Seale-Haynains

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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