were quite liberal when compared to British private schools of the time. For example, 11th-grade students were (reluctantly) allowed to smoke in certain areas if they had written permission from their parents. On the other hand, boys were required to have a "businessman's haircut", and that girls "dress neatly, are polite, well-mannered and ladylike", (they were also asked to "remember to wear soft slippers on the Third Floor.") There was no uniform, but there was the expectation for "all students to rise when any adult enters a room". All students were boarders (no 'day students'), and were provided with wholesome meals: breakfast at 8:00 am, lunch at 1:15 pm, and dinner at 6:30 pm. Two staff would supervise the student eating hall, while the rest of the staff dined in the famous 'Banner Hall' of the castle (the ceiling being emblazed with the coats of arms of dignitaries who had visited the castle throughout its history). It was expected that student enrollment in the school would grow substantially in the year following its opening—as had happened at the 'sister' school, Herringswell Manor in Suffolk—but this did not happen, and the school closed within a few years of its opening. A website commemorating this unique but short-lived educational facility was set up in 2001, with original documents and photos collected from teacher and student alumni being displayed. Speech and Drama School (1982) In September 1981, it was advertised that the Taymouth Castle Residential School of Speech and Drama was starting classes in January 1982. Auditions were being held for three courses, which were a One-year Stage course, a Two-year Diploma and Stage course and a One-year course in puppetry. At this time, nothing further is known about those courses, but the castle is known to have been closed and empty since around that time. The golf course continued to be operated separately, but this too is currently closed, whilst alterations are being made to the course. Restoration plans (1982 – date) Despite its many changes of use and its requisitioning by the government, through the war years and beyond, legal ownership of the castle was still retained by the MacTaggart family, who had first turned the castle into a hotel in 1922. However, they had been unable to make any real commercial use of the castle since the boarding school for children of American servicemen closed in 1979. Throughout the 1990s,