“Sex & Drugs & Rock'N'Roll” The life of Ian Dury by Richard Balls Another boy who was treated at Chailey during Ian’s time there was Peter Sedgwick, who had heavy metal braces strapped to both legs and attended the school from 1949 to 1958. In past interviews, Ian talked of tangling with him at Chailey, and although Peter does not remember these fracas, memories of the harsh regime have never left him. With hindsight, he now sees the benefits of the Chailey do-it- yourself way. "Chailey was primarily a place which concentrated on promoting, demonstrating and encouraging independence," says Peter. "In my days, it was a place where wheelchairs were banned. If there were any students who couldn't walk fast, the message was, 'Well start off earlier and you will get there at the same time as everyone else.' It was very practical, down-to-earth guidance. I remember my own first experience with this. Each dormitory had an adjacent bathroom with three baths and half a dozen wash bowls and I wanted a bath and asked the attendant to lift me into the bath and he said, 'No, I'll show you how to get in the bath,' which he did, and he stood by me while I got in the bath. That was from ground level and into a full-sized bath and it was that principal that they applied, which quite honestly gave total independence to people who were there during that era. "It was an establishment which, I think, had a bad side effect in so far as when you were at a young age, you weren't able to turn to your parents or brothers or sisters to confide or to unload emotion, you bottled them up. Certainly my wife accuses me of not showing emotion in life generally and that is probably a drawback of Chailey. You were there for three terms a year, with a one-day parent visit at half term and that was it. You were at the establishment all the time. You could develop friendships to whom you could chat about anything and everything, but it wasn't the same as being able to unload emotions when you were down. "There was a hierarchical structure at Chailey with dominants and submissives. It was hard work to the extent that you had friends and played with your friends as you went to school and you sought to beat the system. A lot of us smoked, but we weren't allowed to, so we were seeking to beat the system by ensuring that you could get hold of these cigarettes and smoke without being caught. When you became a prefect, which I later became for two years, there was less pressure under the hierarchical structure, because you were at the top and you had responsibilities as well for a dormitory and life was easier from that point on."