Without Keir, we would not have this school we love. But do you know who he was?
Keir first visited the school early in 1975, when it was in its infancy, and soon enrolled his two youngest daughters. He immediately involved himself in the school’s early development, soon joining the Council and becoming its Chair, a post he carried for many years.
He came from a background in Sound Engineering and was leading the development in sound technology at Television South (TVS) when he discovered our school. He now had to juggle this work with the round trip of almost 60 miles to school every day, sometimes returning in the evening for a Council Meeting.
As architect and builder he was completely self-taught. Out of sheer enthusiasm, and love for the challenge, he designed and built a house for his family – having bought a plot of land on a steep hillside in Bursledon, Southampton.
Keir to the rescue! The school began in Folly Farm Cottage but soon grew to occupy Dell Cottage and Dell House too, – then adding temporary buildings of various shapes and sizes. When, in 1986, our temporary permission to stay on this site ran out, our future looked momentarily bleak! It was Keir who got us the Planning Permission to build a solid school to replace the many huts, and it was Keir who offered to build a whole school complex. He would take early retirement from TVS – and, what’s still more remarkable – he would live on his pension and ask nothing for his personal needs from the school. This promise he kept over the next 30 years and more.
What we have today – from Kindergartens to Hall, was built, and largely designed, by Keir. On a traditional building site, there would be a team at work, but self-building meant that Keir was the team. He designed the buildings, produced the working drawings, did the quantity surveying and ordering of materials, and he employed the tradesmen. Over and above that he worked alongside them from 8 to 5 – one day knee-deep in concrete, the next hammering lead in the roof gulleys. In the evenings he kept the accounts. In addition he claimed large sums of VAT back from HM Revenue & Customs on this ‘DIY House builders Scheme’.
Keir achieved the building of the school in 3 well-planned phases: Phase 1: (what are now) classes 4 – 7 and the 2-storey building; Phase 2: the 3 Kindergartens and classes 1-3; Phase 3: our multi-purpose Hall – named after him: Keir Hall.
Our multipurpose hall was his last and biggest single project and he put his heart and soul into it. To build a hall which works for performance and games is a huge achievement and took determination, imagination and ingenuity; but to make it a thing of great elegance, beauty and charm was a much greater achievement.
His greatest gift is that Keir Hall brings the school together as a community, and invites the local community in.
Keir has designed Phase 4 – a spacious Upper School, with Lab, Music and Art Rooms, which he pushed, singlehandedly, through on two Appeals – but funds for this could not be raised. However, we do have an important part of it – the Polyblank Laboratory – the building of which, just in time, secured our Planning Permission for the whole. What is complete, is the beautiful model he made for this which stands in the Foyer of Keir Hall to inspire us to raise the funds to get it built!
He died in July 2024, leaving this huge legacy.
Christine Polyblank, January 2025
