THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

SCHOOLDAYS IN FINDON FROM 1900

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

The pupils of the Findon School on School Hill exchanged correspondence in 1902 with Boer youngsters being held in concentration camps by the British in South Africa.  The organiser of this was Miss J. H. Owen, who after six years as an assistant teacher in our village went on to teach the camp children.

By 1903-4. the average attendance at the schooll, including infants was 82.

In November 1903 a lady (name unknown) was ordered to pay compensation after a boy claimed she had beaten him with a stick in Findon.   I cannot help but wonder what she thought he had done to deserve the treatment!

In 1911 Elizabeth Bull retired from the school after 45 years service and her place was taken by Oliver Thomas.   The average attendance was by now 12O.    She had began teaching in Findon in 1866, first from her home and from 1872, a purpose-built school designed by the architect Richard Herbert Carpenter (he was the one who designed Lancing College). 

Oliver Thomas was to be Findon's head teacher for the next thirty years.   Mrs Thomas was the infants' teacher. Gladys Lambourne of Findon (who was born in 1929) says she was one of Oliver Thomas' pupils in his later life.   She thinks he married the sister of his first wife who died when young.    Gladys remembers the second Mrs Thomas and says...

 "I knew her as an elderly widow and a lovely lady.   She allowed me to take my son along in his pram, while I did some weekly house cleaning for her (1954).   My reward was half a crown, which was mine to spend as I pleased and not added to my housekeeping".

The school had grown so much by 1912 that a third classroom had to be added.   The increase in child population and the raising of the school leaving age to 12, caused the addition of the new classroom on the east side of the building.   Few changes occured during the ensuing fifty years.

By 1913 the Findon school was enlarged to cater for l6O children.  

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Oliver Thomas was called away to the army and a Elizabeth Smith took his place.   Oliver had been a strict disciplinarian and used the cane but others called him fair.

Elizabeth Smith was a strict teacher and not liked by the pupils who called her "Granny Smith". 

There was still no running water at the school and water was carried in buckets from the well at the Gun Inn. 

Children walked to school from as far as Cobden, Buddington and Sheepcombe.

The Findon Sheep Fair was a school holiday and there were two fairs in those days too, one in July and the other in September!

Fortunately, Oliver Thomas returned after the conflict.  There were three classrooms — the “Big Room” and the room behind which was divided by a curtain for standards 1 and 2.  There were two teachers, Miss Slade and Miss Eager and the attendance was about 120 children.

At this time the toilets were situated across the end of the playground in a stone building consisting of three lavatories for the boys, three for the girls and one for the teachers.  With no mains water there was only a seat with a bucket.  There were three playgrounds with a gravel surface.   The end playground was for the “Big Boys” where a “Giant Stride stood.  This was like a maypole, but much bigger with a concrete base.

Every morning the first bell rang at 8.55 a.m. and again at 9 a.m.  The children assembled in all weather conditions, wet or dry, outside.  The exception were the infants who went immeditely to the cloakroom where Mrs Thomas was ready and waiting to remove their hats and coats and hang them on a numbered peg.  The remainder of the children were marched into the “Big Room” where the register was called before they gathered for prayers and were ushered off to their lessons for the day. 

On the last day of the Summer Term at the school at the beginning of the twentieth century, Albert Short provided the school with two horse drawn farm wagons containing straw bales to act as seating.  The two farm labourers in charge of the wagons were Jack Long and Kensey Tugwell.  The sound of horses’ hooves clip-clopping on School Hill was heard at around 2 o’clock in the afternoon.  Children waited eagerly to clamber aboard the wagons to be off.  The horses clattered down the length of the High Street and over to Bost Hill. 

At the foot of the gradient, the children who were over nine years of age, were asked to alight.  This was to make life easier for Albert Short’s horses to take the steep incline.  Upon reaching their destination which was High Salvington Windmill, a tour was conducted of the mill.  Following the educational exercise, games and a grand tea were provided in the grounds of the windmill, and were thoroughly enjoyed by all.  Then the tired children climbed aboard the carts and the horses delivered them back down to the village to their parents.

At this time, there were as many as forty children at the Findon school from Nepcote only, illustrating that Nepcote was more populated than now.

In 1918, fuel supplies were rapidly drying up at the school and the managers came very near to closing the school when coal for the classroom fireplaces ran out.

Miss Flora Foster was a teacher at the school in the 1920s before leaving to run a bible mission.   No, she did not go to darkest Africa.... but to a more civilised part of the world (some might say), 3,000 miles away.....to Toronto in Canada.    Here she traversed the snowy landscape around the city in a vehicle a little alien to Findon.....in a sleigh.  

She appeared to have dearly loved the local Findon countryside and I wonder why she went to such a snowbound wintry country without thinking it through ....

She wrote nostalgically back home in 1923  .....

The Reverend Herbert Edward Usher Bull became vicar of Findon in 1923 until 1938.  Each morning the Reverend Usher Bull conducted the first lesson to the top class with a scripture lesson.  Sometimes this lesson was taken by the curate Percy Leonard, who was a very good sporting man.  Every Good Friday the whole school was marched to the church and then he would lead a paper chase in the afternoon for the “big boys” for a mile or two on the downland at Cissbury Ring.

Up until the 1930s there was always a school holiday on Sheep Fair Day.  In those days all the roads leading to the Fair were blocked with large flocks of sheep being driven on foot.  The flocks came from all around Sussex but were not allowed in their pens until after midnight on the day of the sale.  The shepherds, with their dogs, brought them nearer each day to the fields round the village.  Village boys assisted in driving the sheep for miles when sold and would receive a few pennies from the shepherds for their efforts. 

In 1935 there we approximately ninety pupils at the school on School Hill.

The average attendance at the school on School Hill was 115 in 1938. 

Oliver Thomas the headmaster of the school on School Hill died in 1941 and was buried in the churchyard at St.  John the Baptist Church.  Miss Alexander succeeded Oliver as Head at the school and Mrs Powell followed her during the Second World War.

Up to 1963 the Old School House was used for meetings and as a consulting room by the village doctor. 

In 1964 the school swimming pool (with the aid of a grant from the County Council) was dug out by the parents.

The growing size of the school population and the progressive enrichment of the curriculum have led to a series of alterations and additions over the years, the most memorable being the school swimming pool opened in 1965.

It may not be known but Findon Place had a near miss at becoming a school.  The Steyne School founded by Mary Louise Bennett in 1888 soon became the first co-ed of Worthing.  In 1925 the girls transferred to Homefield House in Lynhurst Road and the boys to Broadwater Hall.  In 1929 the Warren became the girls school and the boys moved to Homefield, closing in 1939.  Following unsuccessful plans to occupy Findon Place, the school finally closed for good in 1966. 

Mr. H. J. Racklyeft was Headmaster from 1967.

In 1968 the clock was overhauled and the chime restarted.

The old school house on School Hill was demolished in 1970.  New buildings were added to the school with an open plan classroom, new kitchen and administrative offices. 

In 1971 Jim Crabtree (born and bred in nearby Worthing) took over as Head.  He had previously taught in Yorkshire, Cheshire, Yapton and Bury St. Edmunds before coming to Findon.   He worked towards makilng the school part of the village community and established a traditional crowning of a May Queen, followed by maypole dancing on Old Pond Green.

The school playing fields were doubled in size with the acquisition of adjacent land in 1974.

The school roll reached a peak in 1975 when it topped 104.

In 1977 the Findon School still had around a hundred pupils, the older children of the parish going to school in Angmering.

In July 1983 the 59 pupils had celebrations to mark the school's 150th anniversary.  The children dressed in Victorian smocks, cloth caps and knee length trousers and wrote on slates of the 19th century during the celebratory week.

In 1986, Jim Crabtree at the age of 63 retired from the school.    The number of pupils had dropped to 51.  His place was taken by Shirza Jago aged 32.   She was a teacher at the Willows Infant School in Lancing and had been a teacher for eleven years.

Continue if you would like to read about a Visit to Findon School.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.