St Peter’s School West Street

St Peters School (mid right) c1915 viewed from the St Mary’s tower

Former pupil Gerry White recounted his memories of attending St Peters in the 1940’s:

St Peters Roman Catholic School in West Street at Christmas time was in 1944 a joyful place. On the last day of term Mother Aloysius the head teacher addressed the School with a cheery Merry Christmas everybody .The School replied Merry Christmas to you Mother Aloysius. She had provided a religious tract for every pupil They were to be found inside our Catechism Book some depicted scenes of the Nativity, and others were the scene depicting no room at the Inn where the virgin Mary and her husband Joseph plus a donkey could be seen a bright Star shining from the East could be seen in night sky. At that time my classmates were Colin Brown, Michael Guile, Raymond Reid.

Michael Thorpe, David West, Harold Cole, Philip Townsend, John Rose, Peter Smith and Daniel Murphy. The girls were Dorothy Page, Bonita Moncur, Hazel Norris, Rosa Walsh, Wendy Murphy, Patricia Cooper, June Ellis, Maureen Laker and not forgetting Jackie Stanton.

During the afternoon we had no lessons instead we wrote each other little notes which were posted in post box provided by our form teacher Sister Baptist.Then before final bell , the post box was opened and each got a number of friendly notes to take home By the school gate the teaching staff of Sisters Paul Mary Mercy and Baptist with Misses Syrett and Hagarty waved every one off.

Victoria Road School

Junior School (built as The Victoria Upper Council School in 1915)

Victoria Road school has a curious history. Following the Education Act 1870, a school board for New Shoreham was established in 1872, taking over the National Schools and replacing them with a new school in Ham Road in 1875.

In 1913 £4500 was allocated to build a new school on Victoria Road. This was the preferred site to the alternative proposal between Rosslyn Road and Gordon Road. Clearance of many mature trees was required and demolition of the derelict and overgrown Swiss Gardens including removal of the walls to the “Dungeon” passageway between Victoria Road and Old Shoreham.

By 1915 older children from Ham Road School went to the newly built Victoria Upper Council School.

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Ham Road School

Ham Road School ghost montage c1905 / 2000 ©Roger Bateman

The school was built in 1875 as a Board School in Ham Road for an estimated attendance of 240. It was later enlarged in 1896 and 1907. By 1904 attendance was 557, in three departments, to which a junior mixed department was added in 1913. The school was reorganized, in partly new buildings, in 1915, the older children going to Victoria Upper Council school. The Headmaster from 1901 until 1915, Oswald Ball (1871-1954) moved to become headmaster at Victoria Road. Ham Road School ceased to be a school in 1938, when there was an attendance of 551 in junior mixed and infant departments, to be replaced by schools in the newly enlarged Victoria Road Schools.

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Middle Road Secondary School 1936-1992

MR1

– the new school photographs and plans in 1936 with reminiscences of former pupils from the 1940’s to 1990’s

Built in 1936 on a five-acre site in Middle Road, Kingston, where the recreation ground is now but then in land that had largely been used as fruit orchards and nurseries by the Cook’s Jam Factory in Dolphin Road. Initially opened as a boys’ senior elementary school for 360 pupils it included a number of unusual features (for those days) in both design and construction. It was built of reinforced concrete and flat roofs to allow for future extensions to be placed on top of the ground floor building and enabled wider spans for rooms that, with the large Crittall windows also installed gave pupils and teachers a bright and spacious environment.

Looking from Middle Road 1992
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Victoria Road School 1950’s

Following on from the popularity of the 1946 class group photograph from Middle Road School, we now have wonderful images from Victoria Road School in 1949 and and 1953. These were given to us by Jenny Elton who lived up the road in Mill Lane. Can you put a name to any of the children?

1953: Victoria Road School upper playground. Click to expand.

Jenny can remember some of the names and recounts: “First left Brian McIntyre who in later life was the school caretaker. 2nd from right Tom Blundell, now Sir Tom, Professor of Chemistry, Oxford Fellow of the Royal Society etc. Interestingly his younger  brother Roger is also a Sir (Economics). The tallest boy in the back row, Roger Brann was a St. Wilfrid boy and together with Tom were the class brain boxes.

Photo of the 1949 Percussion band at Victoria Road. (Jenny is in the back row 1st left)

You’ll find a detailed article on Victoria Road Infants and Junior Schools here.

Longcroft: a history in postcards

J.B.Balley, ship builder and creator of Swiss Gardens built a grand house for himself in Longcroft field on the corner of Hebe and Southdown roads then later sold both to Edward Goodchild (previously landlord of Brunswick Arms) in the early 1860’s. Thomas Fuller MD 1828-1911 is listed as owner in 1895.

As the main photo shows it became Queens School for girls and appears as such in the directories between 1920 and 1937. The centre bay window column was added after 1898 – the rest of the houses up Southdown Road are out of shot to the right. You can just make out the top of the greenhouse shown on the 1912 map.

Longcroft East side. Queens School 1920-1937 (school moved to Hastings)
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