Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Christmas Deliveries: If you placed an order on or before midday on Wednesday 18th December for Christmas delivery it was despatched before the Royal Mail or Parcel Force deadline and therefore should be received in time for Christmas. Orders placed after midday on Wednesday 18th December will be delivered in the New Year.

Please Note: Our offices and factory are now closed until Thursday 2nd January when we will be pleased to deal with any queries that have arisen during the holiday period.

During the holiday our Gift Cards may still be ordered for any last minute orders and will be sent automatically by email direct to your recipient - see here: Gift Cards

Seal, Church Of St Peter And St Paul c.1955
Photo ref: S712027
Made in Britain logo

A Selection of Memories from Seal

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our website to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was, prompted by the photographs in our archive. Here are some from Seal

Sparked a Memory for you?

If this has sparked a memory, why not share it here?

My mum went to this school she was definitely there 1958-1959 I found her autograph book with lots of names in it even Nurse Spice. My mums name was Ann Bailey, sadly she died 14/03/2001 at the age of 56. I’m moving and I was going through my mums stuff that I had been in the loft with some photos of Oak Bank. Does anyone remember my mum? She was there quite a lot she had bronchiactisis with half a lung on one side. Tall slim teenager. Would love to know if anyone was there at the same time.
Strange to read all the memories of Oakbank in the 50s which are so similar to mine! I remember being taken there by my mum and gran in August 1954, excited at the 40-mile bus journey but then downcast at realising I would not be on the journey back. Then there was the handover in a big lobby to the headmistress Miss Hardy and my great distress at being taken upstairs - God knows what it was like for my mum and gran. I ...see more
Oak Bank Open-Air School was the first of its kind in England and opened in 1954 by C. Mitcheson, although the school may date back to the 1930's. I was an inmate in the mid 1950's aged 8. Mrs Hardy was principal and Nurse Spice dominated the dormitories. Three of us 'ran-away'; headed through the woods and onto the main road where those searching for us picked us up in a car. Where we were going I ...see more
My stepfather, Mr John Few, was at Oak Bank between 1942 and 1947. He was a teenager whose father was the head gardener billeted at the lodge alongside the golf course. John and his older brother Eric worked at the school. John's jobs included lighting fires and boilers in the hall, nursing quarters, classrooms, and dining room. (6 rooms). Mrs Mitchel was the matron. Her daughter was Molly. They were said to have ...see more