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St. Elphin's Ready for Royal Visitor.....

Published in The Derbyshire Times (incorporating Chesterfield Herald and Derbyshire Courier) Friday, November 29, 1963


Our top picture shows the rustic brick and fluted cedar-wood facades of the new Stopford Assembly Hall merge gently with the grey Victorian stonework of the buildings which have served St. Elphin's School since it moved from Warrington to Darley Dale amost 60 years ago. Miss P. M. Robinson, Headmistress, looks on approvingly in the second picture as Roberta March-Penney, 16-year-old Head Girl rehearses the curtsey which will come at the end of her address of thanks to Princess Margaret. Also looking on are (left) Penelope Thornton, who is to present a bouquet to the Princess, and Barbara Riley, who will hand the school's gift of Crown Derby china to the Royal visitor. And extreme left is the high-backed antique Victorian Derbyshire chair which the Princess will occupy during the official opening proceedings.

Princess Margaret to open school's new Assembly Hall

Princess Margaret today opens the £40,000 new Stopford Assembly Hall at St. Elphin's Public School for Girls, Darley Dale – and a fair-haired, blue-eyed girl who hopes one day to be a barrister will spend this morning giving the final rehearsal polish to her first public "brief".

To Roberta March-Penney, Head Girl and a Kennedy Scholar at 16, will go the honour of presenting the official address of thanks and leading the school's 360 girls in three cheers for the Royal visitor.

The Lord-Lieutenant of the County (Sir Ian Walker-Okeover), the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and the Rt. Rev C. R. Claxton, Bishop of Blackburn and Chairman of the school governors, will be among the top V.I.P.s in the packed hall on the greatest, most glittering day in St. Elphin's long history – a history which can be traced back to 1677.

90-Second Speech
Press and television cameras will be focussed on the girl in the sober grey school uniform as she makes her 90-seconds speech and curtsies to the Princess. But a smiling Roberta, nine passes at G.C.E. "O" level when she was only 15, and a potential law student for either Oxford or Cambridge said on Wednesday: "Nervous? No, I don't think so – I am too busy rehearsing to worry about nerves."

Excitement mounted at St. Elphin's in mid-week as the day the girls have been talking about for months drew near enough be counted in hours. And Miss P. M. Robinson, the Headmisress, confessed to the near 11th-hour tremors she had last week-end when both Roberta and Barbara Riley, the Deputy Head Girl, were confined to the school "san". Roberta had an influenzal cold. Seventenn [sic]-year-old Barbara, who is to present the school's commemorative gift of a pair of Crown Derby Dolphin trays to the Princess, had slight ear trouble.

There will be an undercurrent of informality beneath the inevitable formality of a Royal occasion. Princess Margaret has expressed a wish to meet and talk with some of the senior girls. And to make this possible, Roberta, Barbara and the nine school prefects will serve tea to the Princess, the guests, the governors and staff of the school in the Common Room after the official opening of the new hall. Among the prefects looking forward to this distinction are Joan Woodiwiss, whose home is at Matlock Bath, and Valerie Field, from Blackwell.

Day to Remember
For the Friends of St. Elphin's no less than the governors, the staff and the girls, this will be a day to remember – a day when achievement basks in the spotlight of acclamation after 12 long years of almost-hidden endeavour.

Parents of present and former pupils, the Society of Friends of St. Elphin's, was formed in 1951 at the suggestion of the then Headmistress, Miss E. Stopford. Miss Stopford constantly urged the need for an assembly hall in a school which had to hire a marquee for its speech days – and the name of the new hall is a tribute to her work at St. Elphin's.

From the start, the main aim of the Friends was to raise sufficient money to build a hall, although the Society has the subsidiary purpose of helping the school in other ways. By 1960, the amount raised touch £6,000 – and it was then realized that the cost of the proposed hall would be considerably higher than had been anticipated nine years earlier.

Drive for Funds
The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire's elder daughter, Lady Emma, was educated at St. Elphin's; their younger daughter, six-year-old Lady Sophia, will be sitting with the other Kindergarden pupils at today's opening ceremony. And it was the Duke who touched off a spectacular last lap of the assembly hall appeal when he launched a new drive for funds, on behalf of the Friends, from Chatsworth in 1960.

In three years, a small committee of the Society, under the Chairmanship of Mr. W. H. Linnell, of Darley Dale, and with Mr. J. S. Thornton of Matlock, as Treasurer, and the Rev. W. Speakman, Vicar of Bolsover, as Secretary, has boosted the £6,000 to £40,000 through cash and covenanted subscriptions.

£40,000 Project
They have covered not only the £36,000 actual building cost of the hall, but also a new kitchen and other accommodation which has increased the final cost to £40,000. Single storey, in rustic brick with fluted cedarwood facades, spacious and airy, the hall has seating accommodation for over 600, and provides St. Elphin's with a large stage, complete with modern lighting equipment, for its drama and music activities. It is to be used not only as an assembly hall, but also as a dining hall.

There will be outward recognition in today's ceremonies of the massive contribution made by the Friends – as the Princess arrives in the entrance hall of the school, she will be presented with a bouquet by Penelope Thornton, 16-year-old daughter of Mr. J. S. Thornton and Upper Fifth pupil at the school and Mr. Linnel.l Mr. Thornton and the Rev. Speakman are among those to be presented to the Princess by the Bishop of Blackburn as Chairman of the Governors.

Mr. Linnell told The Derbyshire Times: "For the Friends of St. Elphin's, today will be the culmination of 12 years' effort – the crowning glory of all our work."

Princess Margaret is expected to arrive at St. Elphin's about 3.30p.m. after visiting Derby and Ashbourne this morning. She is to lunch with the Lord Lieutenant at Okeover Hall, and the Royal party's motorcade will travel from the Ashbourne area to Darley Dale via Longcliffe, the Via Gellia, Cromford, Matlock Bath and Matlock.

A service of dedication in the Stopford Hall will be conducted by the Bishop of Derby (the Rt. Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Allen), and the Princess will later unveil a commemorative plaque in the foyer. Nearby is the plaque commemorating the laying of the foundation stone of the hall by the Duchess of Devonshire 13 months ago.

No fewer than 400 of the chairs which will accommodte guests, governors, staff, parents and pupils in the hall during the opening ceremony have been presented by parents. Miss Robinson, the Headmistress, has made her contribution by donating the handsome, high-backed Derbyshire antique chair which Princess Margaret will occupy. Miss Robinson told our reporter: "I had a long search for a chair which I thought would be really suitable – and eventually I found it, quite near by, at Baslow."


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