The Mystery at Caterham School…

It was 1886 and something was afoot at Caterham School… 

The school had been devastated by the mysterious disappearance of one of the boarders. Poor Basil Hallward (Charlie S), such a talented artist and sensitive young man, had last been seen painting in the art room, finishing a portrait of an unidentified man. Several boys had seen him on his way back from shooting practice and had thought it odd that he was choosing to paint at night with no lights on, although one had pointed out that the full moon meant he was able to see. 

Everyone in the school was horrified by the disappearance. Even the servants were distressed, with one of the young maids rushing head down from the room whenever anyone entered. 
The Headmaster, Reverend Rudd, explained that Caterham School was a brilliant institution with a committed staff who cared about their pupils and their subjects, although things had been slightly out of kilter of late. Mr Rochester (Mr Law), the cantankerous, aristocratic Languages teacher from Scotland who also put on lots of theatre performances with pupils, had repeatedly complained of costumes and props going missing for his upcoming show, a play newly devised based on the recent novel Great Expectations (typically, he had cast his wife in the best part, Miss Havisham (Mrs Davis), and typically, she had got a little too much into character). 

The eccentric but brilliant science teacher, Dr. Blundell (Dr Bromley), had been performing some late-night experiments in his lab with the aid of select pupils and servants, although the number willing to help him had dwindled. He was very good friends with History teacher Mr. Smith (Mr Parker), who kept banging on about the importance of Empire and taking the boys out for shooting practice. The two of them loathed the newly appointed English teacher, Miss Garrett Fawcett (Miss Maurici), and her new-fangled and frankly dangerous ideas about women being given responsibility and even the vote. To be fair, she was a bit odd: she was obsessed with the novels of Mrs Radcliffe. She was very good friends with Mrs Danvers (Miss Hurton), the intense and intimidating Boarding Housemistress, who oversaw the servants and ran Basil’s Boarding House. She had recently hung a giant portrait of Polidori at the top of the staircase – one pupil swore he had seen her genuflect in front of it and then rub her neck. 

The library, previously overseen by the flamboyant American Mrs Hayden (Ms Wildsmith), had been labelled out of bounds since some pupils were caught reading “illicit novels” and a little too much about “the occult,” resulting in a rather disturbing séance led by the (now-former) librarian. Some of the pupils claimed that the rappings they had heard were from the missing Basil, as it had communicated things only, he would have known, although he had actually gone missing the day after. 

Perhaps most surprising of all, an unsigned letter had been sent out a couple of days before the mysterious disappearance of Basil, to the titanic investigators of the age, begging for help. They were travelling there to meet and find out what had happened to the unfortunate Basil… 

The Detectives, Lower and Upper Sixth A Level English pupils masquerading as Gothic detectives, proved up to the challenge, uncovering a terrible murder and much Gothic contextual knowledge in the process. 

Huge thanks to all the staff who took part but especially to Florence S who stepped in at the last minute as the great mystery guest. And bravo to our insightful investigators.