Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019 Page 15
Revealed: Top private schools
‘awash with Class A drugs’
ONE day back in 2013, Barry King set
himself quite a challenge – to
create the world’s biggest match-
stick model.
Six very fiddly years, 750,
matches, 40 litres of glue, around
£6,000 and one relationship later,
his replica of Salisbury Cathedral is
really taking shape.
He has finished the west front,
including details such as the niches
containing statues of priests
and worthies connected with
the 13th century cathedral.
He has also painstakingly
recreated the central gable
with its four lancet windows
and two quatrefoil windows.
The maintenance man, 49,
estimates he will complete his
task sometime in 2028, by
when he will have used six
million matchsticks.
That would make him a Guin-ness world record holder –
taking him past David Reynolds
of Southampton, who finished
his replica of a North Sea oil
rig in 2009 after 15 years and
4.75million matchsticks.
Mr King, from Amesbury,
Wiltshire, said: ‘I started in ear-
nest six years ago and progress
was good to start with.
‘But when I got into a rela-
tionship I found I wasn’t ableto devote a lot of time to it.
Since the relationship ended, I
can now spend my weekends
and a few hours every evening
on it.’
He uses tweezers and a craft
knife to whittle the matchsticks
to the right size and shape
them as he replicates the
cathedral’s intricate details.
The actual cathedral took
slightly longer to build, itsmain body being completed in
38 years from 1220 to 1258 – 23
years longer than Mr King
hopes his model will take.
The model, which will meas-
ure 15ft by 9ft when complete,
is on show at the Salisbury
Guildhall later this month in a
charity fundraiser.
‘It’s always been something I
want to be known for doing,’
Mr King said.Sticking to the task: Model statues
and, above, the real ones in stoneBy David WilkesInspiring: The real cathedralAnd lo! Barry did a
mighty cathedral build:
Mr King and his matchstick
model of the Salisbury buildingA MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
Single again... man who’s spent 6 years building his own
Salisbury Cathedral and only needs another 9 to finish!
DRUG use is rife among
teenagers at private schools
and many are starting aged
just 12, according to an
investigation.
It found that taking Class A
substances had become
‘normal’ even among pupils at
elite boarding schools.
A series of interviews with
dozens of youngsters revealed
that children as young as 12 were
being introduced to drugs by older
pupils acting as dealers.
The most popular drugs were
MDMA, ketamine, cocaine, magic
mushrooms, cannabis and LSD,
reported the society magazineTatler. Many youngsters are also
on Xanax and the so-called study
drugs Ritalin and Adderall.
Part of the problem was that the
pupils came from well-off families
and had the money for drugs.
The teenagers, whose identities
were protected by the magazine,
said psychotic episodes and
addictions had led some families
to pay up to £70,000 for rehab.
A 17-year-old at a ‘well-known
liberal boarding school’ told
Tatler: ‘In the last year, I haven’t
been on a night out or even to a
friend’s house where there hasn’tbeen a person taking drugs. Every
single time I go out someone will
have drugs or will have taken
drugs, or someone will be offering
them. It just happens.’
He said he started taking MDMA
when he was 14 and
moved on to ketamine
soon after.
‘It’s very hard to resist
if everyone’s taken the
same drug and you
haven’t,’ the pupil
added. ‘You can’t have
the same night if you
haven’t taken it.’
Emily, a 17-year-old at
a co-ed boarding school,
said up to 90 per cent ofher friends were on drugs. Chloe,
a 19-year-old former pupil of a
prestigious London all-girls
day school, said a friend would
take MDMA before his least
favourite lesson ‘so it would be
more fun’.
Another 17-year-old
said she knew friends
who took cocaine every
day, even at school.
One teenager added:
‘It’s just so normal for
us to be doing drugs.
We all do them.’
The magazine said:
‘Meet Tatler’s Gen-Z,
Class A students. Teen-
age drug use is nothingnew, what is striking – indeed radi-
cally different to times past – is
just how run-of-the-mill, how ordi-
nary, it is for this group of
adolescents.’
Many of the teenagers said drugs
were now much easier to get hold
of, whether on the dark web or
social media.
‘There’s no faffing around with
fake IDs and, if you’re using the
dark web, you never even have to
meet a dealer,’ Tatler said.
‘Some, hungry for drugs, sell
their clothes over Facebook or on
the shopping app Depop.’
The investigation is in Septem-
ber’s Tatler, available on digital
download and on sale today.By Eleanor Harding
Education EditorV