Hollyside

Hollyside & Freemount

Back home she did not know where to go or what to do and she was overwhelmed by a total lack of confidence. Then PSY entered her life yet again. He wanted to pick up their relationship once more. For a while they stayed with her in-laws in Haslemere in their beautiful house, planned and built to their own specification surrounded by a lovely garden with well-tended flower beds.

But this was not for long. Because Peter was a conscientious objector he had to find an alternative to being called up. They visited many communities looking for like-minded people but it became clear to Peter that he wasn’t cut out for communal living and that it wasn’t easy to live with pacifists at close quarters.

Then when they were staying at Stroud a change of direction opened up. On hearing that PSY was a teacher there was demand for them to set up a small boarding school where parents could send their children away from the war.

And so Hollyside near Monmouth was found, two cottages joined together. The little school started with six pupils. Conditions were primitive in the extreme. A lean-to shed with one cold tap was the kitchen and the loo was a Elsan outside. Cooking meals required ingenuity but there were no complaints and no plates were left empty. When more pupils came along the school moved to Freemount, a lovely manor house in the Golden Valley . Pat said that life at Freemount could fill a book. As a housemother, housekeeper and teacher Pat gained valuable experience in dealing with children and parents. The school naturally closed at the end of the war. It was also the end of Pat’s marriage. But it was not the end of relationships which she had formed during those years. She enjoyed visits from a few former pupils right up to the end .

While at Freemount two events happened which changed the direction of Pat’s life. The first came about because they needed a homeopathic doctor for the children. They found a lady doctor in Bristol who became a friend. Then, out of the blue, she suggested that Pat might be interested in a workshop in Stroud. This became Pat’s first introduction to Anthroposophy. Ellie Wilke introduced her to Eurythmy but, what was much more interesting to her at the time, Dr Stein gave lectures on Waldorf education. Pat bought as many books as she could carry on education by Rudolf Steiner, recognising that this was a turning point in her life.

The second life-changing event came about because she decided to take a break and attend a conference on the Study of Comparative Religions in Tring, Hertfordshire, possibly organised by Sir George Trevelyan. Here she met her future second husband, Peter Hague, who was attending a different course there. Afterwards he visited her at Freemount several times and finally they married.