The highlighted History of Rycotewood

 

Mission and ideals of Rycote school

Since the first world war industry has become more and more standardised and comparison unskilled labour, with the help of machinery, has replaced the former craftsman and his apprentices, who were proud of maintaining the high standard of old traditions, and creating new ones. Standardisation will not have craftsmen to refresh its production. This situation would not arise if people realised that craftmen and factories do not work in opposition to one another. The factory produces, the craftsmans primary function is to create, hand in hand, together.

 

Rycotewood Trust

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Therefore Cecil Michaelis founded a training school, he formed a trust with himself and Mr E Bullock as trustees to administer and direct its affairs. The Trust, registered as Rycotewood Trust, had a guaranteed income for 8 years. The trustees have decided to train boys to be cabinetmakers, as they believed that the lack of young skilled men will prove fatal to the furniture trade.

 

Rycote school first year intake

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The school was in the wing of the late poor law institute built 1830s. The trust rented the premises from Mr Michaelis at a nominal rent with grounds. It took 8 boys each year between 14-16 drawn from Oxfordshire and Durham. Their course lasting 4 years. Free education, housed, clothed, fed with pocket money based on their hard work and time at the college. Any boy who could not become a good craftsman was redirected with consultation of the parents.

 

Layout

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The main buildings are in the shape of a H, two wings three stories high and a two story high building joining them. In the left hand side, top floor had 2 dorms (8 boys in each) with bath and 2 showers between. In their last two years they will each have a bedsit on the first floor. The ground floor will be given over to three workshops. In the two storied buildings there will be an open-air workshop and further bedsits. The dining room will be next to the open air workshop with recreation and reading rooms above it.

 

Typical day

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An extra hour for general education as the boys got older.
A half day on Saturday from 12 o’clock and an evening off on Wednesday.
Four weeks off a year, 1 week at Christmas and Easter and two weeks late summer.
First woodwork tutor Mr A.G Hussey - woodcarver/ cabinetmaker.
Matron - Mrs Harley

 

Cecil Michaelis (1913 - 1997) Founder of Rycotewood

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Cecil Michaelis was born in Cabourg in 1913 and grew up on the family farm in Montebello, South Africa. He was the son of Sir Maximillian Michaelis who had made his fortune in diamond mining. Sir Max had also accumulated a large collection of Dutch Masters and endowed the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town.

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Cecil Michaelis studied art at the Ruskin School, Oxford and then in Paris and was skilled not only in painting and drawing but also in ceramics and sculpture. Much of his time was spent at his villa in the South of France, a creative backdrop to his visions in South Africa and this country.

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It was in 1935 that Cecil Michaelis heard that the old workhouse in Thame was to be pulled down to make room for housing. He felt the building was too good to be destroyed and bought it at auction for £2600. Initially the building was used for housing refugees from the Spanish Civil War but it then became the centre for Rycote School as it was in those days. His vision or a hunch as he called it, was that a balanced education produced the best results and this could be achieved by combining traditional craftsmanship with intellectual skills. Cecil Michaelis also felt that the student profile should be broadly based and recruited four boys from Oxfordshire and four from the Durham mining area. Rycotewood Trust was formed with an endowment of £8000.

 

By 1939 the school was relocated to two houses in Thame 30 upper high street for the duration of the war while the old workhouse was used for billeting troops. After enlisting, Cecil Michaelis was stationed briefly at the old workhouse and, indeed, had to clean it up; something he felt the boys must have enjoyed seeing. He soon rose to the rank of Captain, was in close contact with France Libre and made many donations to the French cause. In 1945 he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.