This story begins with what could be viewed as ‘a note of sadness’, but as it evolves it will show that there are times when sadness can become the catalyst for something very positive and unexpected.

George and I married in 1958. In 1966 we were delighted when our son Michael was born. However, it soon became apparent that he had cerebral palsy, and that he would be severely disabled. When I undertook Teacher training in 1956, I had always wanted to work with disadvantaged children, and it was he who bought me into the world of ‘special education’.

When the time came for him to go to school we moved to the outskirts of Bristol, as I had become aware of a ‘Special School’ that was offering a teaching post. I successfully applied for the post, and Michael attended the school, but in a different department. Coming from Main School Education, the Head Teacher suggested I go on a course which was being run by Veronica Sherborne.

After attending her course I was absolutely inspired by her work and began using her ideas. George and I talked a lot about the work, and then one day, totally out of the blue, he told me that he was going to apply for ‘a post as an Instructor at a nearby Adult Training Centre’ (current terminology at the time). The outcome of that he attended a course, after which he began using Veronica’s ideas with the folks with whom he worked .

Living as we did in the outskirts of Bristol, we were able to meet quite frequently with Veronica.

As time passed and she was no longer able to lead courses herself, she asked George and I, along with others who also valued her work, to lead courses for her, both in the UK and abroad. There was always ritual attached to this! Every evening before the course we would get a phone call asking for details concerning how many participants we were expecting and the nature of the group and its make up in terms of numbers etc., and she wanted to make sure that we were happy about doing it. The evening following the course would come another call asking how it all went.

Following Veronica’s death in 1990, George and I felt we wanted to make some contribution towards keeping her work ‘alive’ both nationally and internationally.

We contacted Sarah, her daughter, and agreed with her that we would keep Veronica’s movement papers/books/articles at our home, until suitable arrangements could be made for a permanent place for them.

Among those items were two ‘little blue books’. Although we were not aware of it at the time, those two little books were to play a massive, pivotal part in the future of Veronica’s work. They contained the addresses of every one of her movement contacts, one for the UK and one for her international contacts. Although we had never met them personally, there were names and addresses of other folks who had worked closely with Veronica, who we knew by name, through her frequent references to them during our conversations.

When our son Michael left us at a very early age, he had the princely sum of £48 in his bank account. George and I thought long and hard about what to do with it. It wasn’t very much, but we wanted to do something ‘useful’ with it. We finally decided to use it to make initial contact with those ‘significant’ names that we had heard so often during our conversations with Veronica and whose contact addresses were in the UK address book. They were Steve Cullingford-Agnew, Janet Sparkes, Bill Richards, and Carolyn (Childs), soon to be followed by Elizabeth Marsden.

So that was how it all began!

We decided to contact those people, to see if they were interested in meeting up. We had a very positive response and those of us who could met up at Birmingham University soon afterwards. (Veronica had contacts there). At that meeting it was decided that in May 1991 we would hold a Veronica Memorial Day, to which we would invite every person noted in those two ‘little blue books’. We had a wonderful response, with many who were unable to attend, sending written tributes to Veronica and her work.

At that gathering, Janet Sparkes put forward the suggestion of setting up a ‘Foundation’ to prevent Veronica’s work becoming lost or fragmented in the future. This was readily accepted, with the Founder Group, being made up of those of us who had worked closely with Veronica.

We decided that our Foundation needed a recognisable name so, with permission from Veronica’s daughter, we became The Sherborne Foundation UK. However, shortly afterwards, it was decided that ‘Association’ would be more appropriate so it was changed to The Sherborne Association UK (SAUK). In February 1992 we held an inaugural meeting to which we invited all known Sherborne ‘users’.

The committee was made up of the initial ‘founder group’ with George as its first chairman, and those who attended we invited to become members of ‘The Sherborne Association UK’. His first job was to apply for us to be accepted as a charity. We felt that was a very important step to take. From that time SAUK had gone from strength to strength, and continues to do so at the present time.

Veronica had done a lot of traveling, having been invited to present her work in several other countries, including Scandinavia, Australia and Canada. Sadly, I have no knowledge of the continuation or not of her work in the latter two countries.

However, both George and I often ran courses in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belgium and latterly in Estonia and Japan. Belgium has also played a large part, and still does, taking the work into Holland, Italy, Greece and around the Mediterranean. Many of these countries have now set up their own Sherborne organisations.

Again, to avoid the danger of fragmentation, a further international organisation, the ‘International Sherborne Co-Operation’ has been set up which has two representatives from each of the participating countries. Also, as part of the training programme, Level 3 (to use its original name) has to have at least two members from other participating countries.

Who would have believed that from those early beginnings many years ago, and those two little blue books, would have grown this exciting, international organisation that we have today.

Long may it continue!

As Veronica used to say… “My movement experiences must be done to be fully understood”. Her daughter once remarked ‘Mum was a ‘do-er’” ….. and I leave the final words to George…..

‘Keep it simple!’